Bruce Springsteen Turns 75

Bruce Springsteen turns 75 today. It is always jolting to hear of someone one associates with being young having lived now for three quarters of a century, first Paul McCartney, then Mick Jagger, and now Bruce Springsteen. I remember how he looked, long hair flowing, on the cover of Born to Run, and how he sang of being young in tracks like “4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy),” which he recorded when he was just 24. It reminds me of what Charles Krauthammer wrote on the occasion of the death of his brother, Marcel, unable to imagine him aged and, then, gone: “Whenever I look at that picture, I know what we were thinking at the moment it was taken: It will forever be thus. Ever brothers. Ever young. Ever summer.”

Springsteen certainly won’t be remembered for his vocals. And many friends of mine, once fans, have tired of Springsteen over his outspoken political views. He will be remembered, though, for his anthems about ordinary Americans in the second half of the 20th century (a staunch egalitarian, he used to hate being called “the Boss”), as well as his unending affection for his home state of New Jersey. (New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy has declared September 23rd “Springsteen Day.”) And he has always been a rocker—in his 70s, just as in his 20s. It is perhaps for that reason that many of his fans thought he was being so true to himself when, for his second marriage, he wed Patti Scialfa, a longtime member of the E Street Band, instead of another model or European beauty queen. For me, though, like with John Prine, I appreciate Springsteen foremost as a lyricist. He has that rare talent among songwriters of being able to tell a story while also leaving one with the most quotable of lines, a lyricist of both the narrative and the aphorism.

Think “Thunder Road,” in the minds of perhaps most listeners, his enduring masterpiece:

“The screen door slams, Mary’s dress sways

Like a vision she dances across the porch as the radio plays