learned real good right now,
Poor man wanna be rich,
rich man wanna be king..."
Bruce Springsteen's new LP, "High Hopes" was released this week and Springsteen, Inc. pulled out all the stops to promote the release. From spoofing himself on Jimmy Fallon to an hour long interview on National Public Radio and, in between, there was the usual collection of trade interviews in newspaper and magazines.
In the interviews, Bruce asserted that the reason for the release of High Hopes was because that "This is music I always felt needed to be released..." Like a good politician, Springsteen stays on point in interviews and with a fervancy repeats this mantra. It's almost like he's trying to convince himself.
Springsteen has deliberately tried to be the chronicler of his time. In the NPR interview he said, "When I was very, very young, I decided that I was gonna catalogue my times because that's what other people who I admired did."
I can attest to this as I always felt that Bruce was living the same personal life as mine. We both married women from Portland, Oregon and subtracting the fact that he married a TV/movie star and had wheelbarrows full of cash and I had two sons, the feelings of emptiness and sadness that we had and he expressed in "Tunnel of Love" were alike.
Since "The Rising", when Springsteen so accurately captured the sadness, shock and heroism of the NY/NJ area after 9/11, Springsteen has taken his message to new levels. However, unlike one of his heroes, Bob Dylan, he has taken a different way.
No matter what he says, Bob Dylan is the spokesperson for a couple of generations. Dylan delivers his messages in legends, double meanings and with the best writing since Shakespeare (IMHO). Dylan allows the listener to form his own interpretation. Springsteen, for the last decade, has been delivering his messages like a preacher at a tent rally.
In the NPR interview, Bruce hints at what may be causing his preaching. He said, "...my thing was very, very new. The characters in my songs were really my father's life. I mean, it's not my life."
"...when we go to Europe and there's a new group of 16-year-old kids who I know are seeing the band for the first time..." he says during the hour. He now faces the fact that songs about Magic Rat and union cards have no connection to the new generation.
I suspect that Springsteen is at a crisis in his life. I believe that because at a certain age it begins to happen to everyone. You're in pretty good shape and health. You still can pull off the three hour show, night after night and months out from home and family. You still think like the guy you were in your early twenties. Your kids are up and grown and the freedom you had as a young man is back without family commitments. You listen to all the new music and are pretty hip about knowing what's going on. Your PR and merchandising says your still the Boss. Same as it ever was.
The new generation doesn't know about the income gap or that once there was a middle class. It doesn't know about government intrusion. In fact, Springsteen's generation may be the last generation to know what true privacy is. They don't know about privacy because of social media. They don't know that the world used to work another way.
Springsteen senses that his songs need to resonate to new fans, and that means he needs to reach out. To do so he needs to overcome two things. One is age. How does a man in his 60s, set in his ways, know what's important to a modern young man or woman?
The second thing to overcome is money. While Springsteen can relate to the hard times that his parents and his generation went through and wrote songs so universal that they touched millions of souls around the world. While times are now harder for parents of the lower classes, he is part of the 1% that he always has railed against.
No matter how much he acts like one of the guys, wealth like his isolates you from the rest of the population more and more each year. No matter how he wants to chronicle the world around him, he never again will need to sleep under the boardwalk because he had no place else. He never will have to sit at the kitchen table and have to decide between a new hot water heater or the kid's braces. He never will sweat about what happens if his job is shipped outside the country because he doesn't have a cent saved and is trying to keep his head above the financial tsunami that swirls around his family.
To prove the point of Springsteen, Inc.s isolation from reality, I give the NPR hour where Springsteen says,"So the Internet now is something that I'm becoming very interested in and trying to find ways of just, you know, getting more music out there. I mean, I'm not gonna be, you know I'm not gonna be tweeting... I think I have someone that tweets for me, you know." (emphasis mine) I think Springsteen needs to learn how social media works.
Glenn Radecki in his great blog, Stay Hard, Stay Hungry, Stay Alive explains how much the Springsteen gang is unaware. As Glenn writes, "Last week, Backstreets (the go to source for Springsteen news - ed.) breaks the news that Bruce Springsteen is finally ready to sell official live recordings of his concerts, and he’s planning on doing so on his upcoming tour. Jon Landau, Bruce’s longtime manager, is quoted: 'We’re trying to keep the surprises coming…I think we are'.”
It sounds great but you need to go to Gregg's blog to read the plan for yourself. It will show an isolated artist who has been trying to stay in touch, but only gets his information from people who are as clueless as he is.
Springsteen actually said this, "...guys... got hurt by the decrease in record sales from Internet piracy. And I remain being one of those guys that believes you should get paid for your work so I'm old-fashioned in that."
Old fashioned? That shows he is prehistoric when it comes to the Internet, digital music and his audience. Springsteen now makes the bulk of his estate from touring and wants to charge you $40 for the "privilege" of owning a low fi MP3 stick? He should be offering his shows as a momento to the audience attending and as a teaser for audiences to come on FLAC and You Tube gladly.
What is he thinking? His shows are already available on the Internet, either for free or at a minimal charge. $40 for an Mp3? Bruce, that's not only gouging but silly. Once someone has one digital copy, everybody, theoretically, has a digital copy. That's the way of the world. Before you denounce internet piracy, you better begin by looking in the mirror
Finally, while I agree with Springsteen that an artist should get paid for his work, in today's world, it's up to the artist to find that revenue stream. Springsteen, through his talent and hard work has found his stream in touring. Which leads me to these final thoughts.
Should a successful artist give back to the fan? Is he obligated to? Obviously, with the exhorbatant charge for his downloads, my guess is that Springsteen, Inc. doesn't think the artist has to.
In giving back I'm not talking about doing charity gigs to raise money for some cause. Remember, it's called music playing, not working and you reap not only good will but a nice tax break, as well.
I'm saying that Bruce Springsteen can and should release music to his fans as often as he can. Once a month a song or after a great show in, say, Rome. For free...in thanks for what the fans have done for him.
"I been around the world and all across the seven seas
Been paid a kings ransom for doin what comes naturally..."
Where did that ransom come from, Bruce? It's time to step up and do the right thing.
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