Leave Bruce Springsteen Alone (and Open Thread)

 

"Death to my Hometown" - Bruce Springsteen

There is something about Bruce that makes conservatives desperately crave his approval or to be able to co-opt him in some form or fashion.  There were ham-handed attempts by the Reagan people to invoke "the hope" in Bruce's music as an example of morning in America -- Bruce had a wonderful, succinct response, musing 

"The President was mentioning my name the other day, and I kinda got to wondering what his favorite album musta been. I don't think it was the Nebraska album. I don't think he's been listening to this one."

before launching into a particularly fierce version of Johnny 99.  That bow-tied fuck George Will tried the same treatment, in what is to this day one of the most infuriating columns that I have ever read.  (Eric Alterman suggests that Will's column was inspired by a show that I was at in the old Capital Center in Landover, MD in 1984, which also featured a blistering Johnny 99, in which Bruce changed the words "put me in that execution line" to the more blunt (and bluesy sounding) "put me in that killing line.")   One reads the Will column with amazement that anyone anywhere could be so wrong about anything.

And today Will's spiritual heir (sadly Will is actually still around, but his relevance died at least a decade ago), prissy fussbudget David Brooks got into the act, describing the experience of following Springsteen around to shows in Spain and France, basking in his peculiarly American glow.  No word on whether "Moral Hazard" accompanied him on these outings.  (It's the sort of thing that makes me want to grab the baseball bat out of the car and hop the Metro two stops down to Cleveland Park and administer a serious knee-capping.  Hey, it is the unofficial state sport of New Jersey.)  

But topping all of the nauseating right wing fanboy attempts to claim the Boss as their own, has been the Atlantic's pity party for Springsteen enthusiast Chris Christie, whom Bruce has had the temerity (some might say wisdom) to ignore.  It started with a lengthy Jeffrey Goldberg piece that I submit is a masterpiece of some kind -- I just can't figure out what.  Then, in a special kind of horrifying synergy, Clive Crook got into the act, giving a hearty amen to Goldberg and Christie and demanding that Springsteen do his duty and buy Christie a beer.  (I'd recommend a Miller 64.)  It's a short piece, but it packs a remarkable amount of wrong into so few syllables.  (I also strongly recommend reading the comments to Crook's piece, which are truly high-sterical.)  

All I can say to these right wing clowns is that they need to accept that Springsteen doesn't like or share their politics or world views and he probably wouldn't be all that keen on them as people.  Tough shit. Go follow Lee Greenwood or Toby Keith around, assholes.    

Update:  We seem to be having a problem with comments again.  I am trying to notify Typepad.  Those of you with the twitter machines seemed to get good results last time, so feel free to weigh in. 

Further Update:  Never mind -- it seems to have cured itself.  Comment away. 

Comments

[low-tech cyclist]

Even before I clicked the link to Will's column, I thought, "this has to be the one about "Born in the U.S.A." from back in the '80s, the one that proves Will never heard any of the actual lyrics, just the title."

And indeed it was. That column was memorably bad, to say the least.

And we could only wish Will's relevance had died. They guy's not just a pundit; he's a brand name. People listen to him, just assuming he's imparting wisdom, because he's cultivated his own brand so well.

And unfortunately, he's routinely as wrong as he was in his Springsteen column. My personal favorite is a whole series of his columns over the years equating the scientific consensus for global warming with the flirtation back in the 1970s of a handful of scientists with the possibility of global cooling.

If you take ignorance, dress it up in a bow tie and reasonable demeanor, give it a WaPo or NYT column and put it on the Sunday talk shows, everybody thinks it's wisdom instead of shit.

[Joe S]

Funny thing when I was in D.C. last. I saw both Stephen Moore (Club for Growth economist) and George Will. It was like a Marvel super-villain team up. One other time, I saw James Inhofe (who looked as mean as usual). I don't know if liberals feel uncomfortable or what, but I usually only see conservatives proudly strutting around the town.

[oddjob]

Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) offers advice on how Obama can damage Romney's chances in Ohio.

[kathy a.]

such a whiner, christie is. and his friends are even worse. waaa waaaa waaaaaa.

OK, so -- montana is fighting back against the idea that corporate money rules, actual people drool. and it's bipartisan, too.

[Sir Charles]

Let's see if they fixed themselves.

[low-tech cyclist]

Joe - maybe I wander the wrong parts of DC, but I've never spotted anyone famous on the street, conservative or liberal.

oddjob - I'm not so sure Obama has an inner populist, but one can hope.

kathy - I don't think it's original with him, but I liked Schweitzer's line about how he'll believe corporations are really people when Texas executes one.

SC - apparently we're live again.

[Joe S]

LTC, the area I'm in is close to Union Station. I saw George Will when I was stranded in Reagan Airport. I keep hoping to see Ezra Klein on the street, but I think with the way he's been writing lately, Fred Hyatt, Charles Lane, and the neocons at the Post must have beat him up on the bus and taken his lunch money-- which is why he won't come out into the street.

[Sir Charles]

Joe,

I saw Frank Lautenberg at Starbuck's the other day. I am pretty certain I was the only person in the place who had any idea who he was.

So sorry to hear of your DC people viewing. Maybe you should come in January for Obama's second inaugural. Last time I saw both Halle Berry and Marisa Tomei within about five minutes of one another, plus scads of other celebrity types. Hopefully it won't be anywhere near as cold as the last one.

On the other hand, my typical sightings are people like Alice Rivlin, Andrea Mitchell, and Chris Matthews. I used to see Tim Russert all of the time and would have to exercise all of my restraint not to call him pumpkin head.

I met Charles Lane at a party on the Hill about thirty years ago during a particularly heaving drinking phase in my life (it was called law school). If I had known how he would turn out I would have hit him.

l-t c,

The Schweitzer line was fabulous.

[Sir Charles]

That was "heavy" not "heaving" -- I did my best to avoid that, even while meeting Charles Lane.

[low-tech cyclist]

I'm amused by the all the conservative celebs trying to suck up to Springsteen and getting rebuffed.

I think various issues of authenticity are swirling around this business. Bruce is obviously the real deal, even after nearly four decades of celebrity. Guys like George Will and David Brooks, despite their standing in the Village, know that they're not real in the way Bruce is. As much as they try to not think of themselves as pampered elites, they can't help but be aware of it at some level. They'd like to connect with a Springsteen and have some of his authenticity rub off on them simply by virtue of his putting up with them for a few minutes.

If they can't get that, they'd settle for Bruce spending a few minutes with Chris Christie, who's their idea of someone who's both conservative and with blue-collar cred.

One of the things that makes the Villagers in general give undeserving cred to the GOP is the fact that the white working class went over to the GOP a few decades back, and is now firmly in the GOP's pocket. Just the way the Villagers know they're not real, they know that WWC types beat Ivy League professors in that department every which way. (Black and Hispanic working class voters don't count, of course. Just white. No, this isn't racism, it's, um, er, let us get back to you, ok?)

So if the WWC largely votes Republican, then the GOP is more authentic than the Democrats, and that makes the pampered elites of the GOP, like Will and Brooks, feel more authentic by proxy.

But then there's Springsteen, who's been about as authentic a troubadour of the WWC as you could hope to find. And Springsteen wants nothing to do with Will, or Brooks, or Chris Christie, or anyone else to whom the WWC is just a mix of political trophy and pawn in their game.

Bruce, oddly enough, gives a flying fuck about how things are actually working out for the working class, white and otherwise. And he can see pretty clearly that the Republicans haven't exactly been kind to the working class, and has basically managed to win over the WWC by other means: by hippie-bashing, by welfare-deadbeat-bashing, by 'toughness' on national security, by gun issues, and other culture-war issues that go beyond the Christianist right in their appeal.

It has to annoy the hell out of conservative Villagers and pols who are fans of Bruce's music, that he's out there giving the lie to their proxy WWC cred. They may like Bruce, but if he doesn't like them, they don't get any cred from that; in fact, it hints that their proxy blue-collar cred may be on thin ice rather than solid ground, and could disappear in an election cycle if the Dems ever shook off their fealty to their own set of rich donors, and formed an agenda that would help working-class voters in direct and straightforward ways.

[Joe S]

Man, Springsteen really knows how to have an over-the-top song produced. This is the sonic equivalent of a turducken barbeque sandwich with barbeque sauce and hot sauce and sawhouse white gravy; topped with fried onions and coleslaw and jalapeno peppers and hot links sausages and two kinds of pickles; and then topped by three kinds of bread. It's the musical equivalent of one of those man against food episodes. The only thing I could possibly add is a cowbell.

[nancy]

Will gave the game away when he wrote "there's not a smidgen of androgyny in Springsteen..." Androgyny. One-word hippie-bashing with a good dash of homophobia.

Also. He used the word 'smidgen' and the name Springsteen in the same sentence. Pretty funny.

Joe, that description should earn you a backstage pass or two. With a beer.

[big bad wolf]

Joe, let's call a truce. you stop banging on springsteen and i'll stop saying that, of the 7800 songs on the itunes/ipod that my wife, daughter, and i share the only ones that make me get up and skip ahead on shuffle are adam ant, soundgarden, and that pedantic little chipmunk in the decemberists. :)