Bruce Springsteen, "No Surrender"
Ah, what the hell? Past five days, it seems, I've managed to post something about fandom and growing old and being in bands and things like that, accompanied by appropriate videos, etc.; so I might as well round it all up with Bruce Springsteen remembering a promise a lot of us made when we were kids with guitars: that we wouldn't compromise, wouldn't surrender, wouldn't grow up.
Of course we all did, or most of us. But The Boss is reminding us not only that we didn't have to, but that it's never too late to embrace some form of that youthful romance. Maybe not quite as viscerally, but we don't have to totally give up on those dreams.
Maybe that would be the best note to go out on. That it's only nostalgia if you have the romantic dreams in your rearview. If they're in the windshield, it's hope.
Heck, give me enough time, I can probably talk myself into buying that one.
Comments
Or, you know, if they're riding in the front seat next to you. Nice thought!
There are three songs I really like on Born To Run ("No Surrender", "Downbound Train" and "Bobby Jean"), not counting the Nebraska-fied version of the title track he's often played live over the years (the '80s Big Drums And Synthesizer version isn't one I can take, but as a solo acoustic number, it's just harrowing).
I don't think it's the album as much as it's me. Sometimes I hear "Glory Days" and it actually brings me a wry smile (especially the last line), even more so as I get older. But like most people of a certain demographic, I heard Born In The USA and its, what, seven top ten singles (I can't even remember anymore and I'm too lazy to look it up) way too many times in the mid-'80s.
Or it might be a little bit not me: I mean, there's a good bit of that record that's leftovers from Nebraska and Darkness On The Edge Of Town, and maybe there were good reasons those cuts didn't make it onto those records. Born In The USA followed a series of masterpieces representing The Boss' best run of material (Born To Run (1975), Darkness On The Edge Of Town (1978), The River (1980) and Nebraska (1982)) and was followed by Tunnel Of Love (1987) which (and I'm not alone in thinking this) remains Springsteen's most underrated and oft-overlooked album. If it's a merely good record--and that's how I'd describe it, though I know lots of people love it--then it stands dwarfed amidst titans, y'know what I mean?
But of all the tracks on it, yeah, "Glory Days" and "Dancing In The Dark" are two I could probably go without hearing again this lifetime.
Thanks.