"Outlaw" Blues

In 1993, in accepting the Academy Award for Best Song for “The Streets of Philadelphia”, Bruce Springsteen said, “…I guess it’s all downhill from here.” It proved to be prophetic. He has not done anything near as well since.

Although his live shows are as compelling as they ever were, albeit shorter in length, his song output, especially in his writing, has not kept up the standard he set. Though the output has remained constantly prolific; any true fan would be lying if he said that any song in the last fifteen years has matched the first fifteen.

Before the nasty mails arrive, let it be known I am not only a big fan of Springsteen the artist; I am also a peer of Bruce the man. We are only six months apart in age, grew up in the same time and place on the Jersey Shore and have many common friends and acquaintances. I was in the audiences during his formative years. He was a guitar hero we saw develop on the stages up and down the East Coast. For many fans like myself, the Born to Run LP was the Springsteen we knew. I then worked for Bruce’s label, and for a time, up to Tunnel of Love, I was sure our personal lives were running in parallel, as I also married and divorced a woman from the Portland, Oregon area.

As slow as it has been, the decline of Springsteen’s work has been apparent. Yet, his many guest appearances with other artists, his forays into folk history and his political stance have always kept him in the fan’s good graces. No matter how much he accumulated wealth and fame, Bruce always seemed to remain a good guy. However, in the last three months, Springsteen has instituted three decisions that may show that he has, finally, jumped the shark.

The phrase refers to a scene in a three-part episode of the American TV series, Happy Days, that broadcast on September 20, 1977. In the third of the three parts of the "Hollywood" episode, Fonzie (Henry Winkler), wearing swim trunks and his trademark leather jacket, jumps over a penned-in shark while water skiing. The infamous scene was seen by many as betraying Happy Days' original 1950s setting (as well as reversing its earlier character-developments) by cashing in on the 1970s fads of Evel Knievel and Jaws. Producer Garry Marshall later admitted that he knew the show had lost something as the crew prepared to shoot the scene. The phrase has been used more recently outside the realm of popular culture, representing anything that has reached its peak and has declined in quality.




The first sign of Bruce donning the skies was when he announced that he would do the halftime show of the Super Bowl. I was able to justify that decision by noting that Bruce and the E Street Band are a great live act, and would be able to excite a live crowd of 80,000 and a national TV audience of millions more, much like Prince or McCartney had in past events. No doubt the younger Springsteen would never have booked the event, but we all mellow, as we get older, right?

If the water skis went on for the Super Bowl date then the leather jacket was donned for the next move. Last Tuesday, Wal-Mart released "Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band's Greatest Hits." The disc features only one song, 2007's "Radio Nowhere," that wasn't already on 2003's "The Essential Bruce Springsteen." The package will be sold exclusively at Wal-Mart stores in the United States. Al Norman is the founder of Sprawl Busters. He has helped grassroots citizen's groups stop big box stores for the past 15 years. This is what he wrote of the Wal-Mart deal, “The Boss has signed on with the Retail Boss, much to the chagrin of his many fans, which saw Springsteen as the voice of the disenfranchised. Now he's just another Walton commodity. Born in the U.S.A. meets China-Mart.”

Tony Sachs, in the Huffington Post, wrote, “Did Bruce Springsteen invest his record royalties with Bernie Madoff? Did he forget that his kids are rapidly approaching college age? Because I can't think of any other reason why The Boss would sell a new greatest hits CD exclusively through Wal-Mart, which hasn't exactly been the champion of employees' rights over the last few decades. Not only that, Bruce is basically telling the few remaining brick-and-mortar record stores just what he thinks of them. This move is so un-Springsteen-like that I'm almost tempted to believe that nobody's told him about it yet.”

I can think of only one reason why Springsteen would make this deal. It is because his core fans still buy CD’s, and there is, unfortunately, only one viable outlet to get his product. This is a fact that any realist knows. The music business has changed and Bruce’s fans are older. They can now have access to his music while doing the necessary shopping for the family.

As you can see, I have been able to justify the first and rationalize the second, and still keep my basic faith in Springsteen intact. Sure, he writes songs for his movie star buddies and hobnobs with Bono, Hanks, and Obama. Why not, he’s earned it.

I read that the hobnobbing on the campaign trail and the outcome of the Presidential elections in the US had “energized” Bruce to write and record a new LP of tunes. I was hoping that he would be able to transcend the usual malaise of successful rock stars, which is after you get it all-the money, the fame and the happy home life-what do you write about? What outrage or event will fire you up? I hoped that the political change in the USA might be the catalyst for him.

Like John Wayne in "The Shootist", the gunslinger is no longer the fastest draw. On his new album, “Working On A Dream”, Bruce Springsteen, the author of the following epics, “Badlands”, “Thunder Road”, “Ramrod”, and minor favorites like the “Girls in Summer Clothes”, has had to give us, for the opening cut, “Outlaw Pete”. While some people posting on the fan site Backstreets.com have given favorable reviews, others have been less charitable. Several posters compared the melody of the new Springsteen song "Outlaw Pete" with 1979 disco-rock anthem by KISS, "I Was Made for Lovin' You." Check it out and see what they mean.


If he had declared Outlaw Pete a homage to his (or his kids’) favorite rock band, it would have been much easier to swallow. After all, he did write “Hungry Heart” for The Ramones. I hope this song is only a slip. That “Outlaw Pete” is just a pimple on an extraordinary catalog of songs. I’ll have to hear the rest of the album to make that decision.

Meanwhile, I’m just waiting to read the announcement of the deal for Bruce and the E Street Band to play a six-month run at a casino in Atlantic City.