During the early stages of the documentary SPRINGSTEEN & I (dir Baillie Walsh, 117 minutes, 2013) – a film where fans from across the world describe how their lives have been affected by the music of Bruce Springsteen – several are asked to describe his songs in three words.
‘Passion‘ followed by ‘positive‘ are the two most used in conveying how he and his work have impacted on them – and as one would expect in a film largely made up of fans submitting their personal insights, passion and positivity run right through the piece.
From the child who comments in a delicate young voice on the amount of effort Bruce puts into singing the songs, to the middle-aged man who breaks down in tears when describing how Springsteen lyrics have spoken to him at good and bad times in his life, the film is a heartfelt account of how Springsteen records and live performances connect with the faithful.
This unabashed love letter to ‘The Boss‘ may not be significantly different to how fans of say Adele or Bob Dylan would react when asked about their favourite artist – although for all its quirks a couple of contributions do stray dangerously close to unhealthy obsession.
But for the most part it is an enjoyable perspective from which to view one of the few truly great artists of our time, as interspersed with fan philosophy is some tremendous concert footage of Springsteen and the E Street Band doing what they do better than anyone else.
Keeping the film to under two hours prevents the messianic element in observations on Springsteen from becoming too repetitive, allowing the undeniable energy, joy and engagement of his live shows to shine through.
Among the best fan-orientated stories are from a young woman who takes an ‘I’ll be your Courtney Cox‘ sign to a London show hoping she might reprise the role played by the American actress in the ‘Dancing In The Dark‘ video (Bruce naturally obliges) – while at a performance in the US a young man wounded by love holds a placard stating ‘Bruce – I’ve been dumped.’
Springsteen responds by bringing the fan on stage to share a hug, where he offers consolation by saying he has been dumped plenty of times, once just before a big record company advance came through – so sometimes things can work out for the best (inspiration perhaps for his early career classic ‘Rosalita‘).
Most bizarre of all is when an Elvis Presley impersonator is invited from the audience in Philadelphia and with typical good nature Bruce and the E-Streeters allow him a two minute Elvis medley (hard to imagine Townshend or Jagger permitting such a thing).
In contrast a Danish fan describes leaving a stadium show in Copenhagen with a sense Bruce had played ‘just for me‘ – a comment that rekindled memories of the first time I saw Springsteen play in 1981 and a feeling of being completely transfixed when drummer Max Weinberg struck up ‘Candy’s Room.’
The only critical distance to be found in ‘Springsteen and I‘ comes from a man who complains his wife has ‘rammed the music down my throat‘ but has managed to see some nice European capitals in seeing eight shows.
Reappearing near the end he is asked what he would say if he ever met Bruce Springsteen. Without hesitation he replies: ‘Shorten your concerts – three and a half hours is too long for those people who are there for someone else. You can’t help thinking will the picnic last or about missing the last train back.’
It has always been my contention that great rock concerts (and nobody plays finer than Springsteen) make people forget about such things, but perhaps I have missed the point all these years. In which case I hope the sandwiches lasted and the transport was duly boarded.
As for me, just watching this Springsteen DVD put doing the dishes and washing the car completely out of my mind.
SPRINGSTEEN & I is available on Blu-ray and DVD.
Hello – hope you enjoyed another exclusive production from SAMTIMONIOUS.com
In order to create the best experience for when you drop by to read a page or two, those with the power to ordain such things (me, actually), have decided to remove all external advertising from the site – in other words articles will no longer be subject to intrusive pop-up ads. BUT – and ain’t there always one – should you wish to make a donation toward the on-costs of the most entertaining and original blog-site around, please press on the – ‘DONATE’ – button below. It will be greatly appreciated.
Stay safe everyone and thanks for dropping by – best wishes Neil
SAMTIMONIOUS.com – films, football and fabulous music at The Dominion of Opinion
NEIL SAMBROOK is the author of MONTY’S DOUBLE – an acclaimed thriller now available as an Amazon Kindle Book.
