Dr Springsteen, or: how I stopped worrying and learned to love The Boss

cosmolinguist has been a fan of Bruce Springsteen and his music for about as long he can remember. I, on the other hand, had basically no knowledge of his existence for most of my life. Like, I'd heard "Born in the USA" and was dimly aware that it wasn't actually a jingoistic song, but I didn't know who wrote it. I heard "Dancing In The Dark" sampled in a mashup mixtape. That's about it.

My first couple of Springsteen experiences were... fine. We went to see Blinded by the Light at the cinema, and it was a perfectly cromulent movie but didn't turn me into a fan of The Boss. For E's birthday, I bought him the DVD of The Legendary 1979 No Nukes Concerts, and we watched it together. I appreciated the music but I found the vocals kind of mumbling. I felt the same when we watched Springsteen perform "Land of Hope and Dreams", solo during the Covid lockdowns, at the Lincoln Memorial following the Biden Inauguration in 2021. Good performer, decent tunes, no idea what they're about. I learned a bunch of trivia from E, like how he was born on Bi Visibility Day, and frequently kissed black E Street Band saxophonist Clarence "The Big Man" Clemons on stage, partly because they openly loved each other in a very wholesome way for straight guys, but also partly to piss off racists and homophobes.

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It wouldn't have mattered to me if I hadn't fallen in love with Springsteen before the gig - it was E's present, not mine - but I'm glad I could not only provide him with the experience but also share it with him. Oh yeah, I haven't even talked about the gig yet, have I? I'll save that for another post, it's getting late!

I guess the next stop is to re-watch "Blinded By The Light" and the No Nukes concert...