Posted on 11/20/2015 9:13:38 AM PST by darkness78
That’s the first thing I tell people who ask me how I can reconcile my ongoing (knock wood) employment at National Review with my Bruce Springsteen partisanship — as many did after the Obama campaign carted out the Boss in Ohio last week to shill for four more years of Hope Things Change.
Now, I’m not the first portly conservative from Jersey who has been called on to square his politics with his taste in music. In a lengthy profile on the subject, The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg asked Governor Chris Christie, whose love for the Boss borders on the monomaniacal, how he maintained such enthusiasm for a man who treats the governor with active indifference and the governor’s politics with blasting contempt. Christie’s response was subtle and manifold and all too familiar to me, but it boiled down to: “I compartmentalize.†And indeed, there’s a lot to that. Folks on the Right understand better than anybody that the contours of a man’s aesthetic imagination are not reducible to or derivable from his fiscal-policy preferences. And if political conservatives consumed only popular culture made by other political conservatives, Pat Boone would still be flying off the shelves of Walmarts all across the heartland.
(Excerpt) Read more at nationalreview.com ...
Bad link
Bananarama > Brucie
Christie’s love of the Springsteen might be partly for show. Springsteen is an icon in Jersey.
“Bananarama > Brucie”
Succinct. Concise. True.
Excellent.
Springsteen—the name sounds Dutch.
Springsteen never really did much for me, and I “compartmentalize” pretty well when it comes to music. I’ll listen to all sorts of weirdos if the music is good, but I just don’t think his music is that good.
However, I’ll give him credit because he wrote “Blinded by the Light”, which is a hell of a song, and I do like “Dancing in the Dark” and “Pink Cadillac”, those are pretty good rockers. Also, he will occasionally randomly stop and play with buskers on the street, so that’s pretty cool I guess.
Most of the people I knew hated Springsteen when I lived in New Jersey. I thought he had two good albums - Darkness On The Edge Of Town and Born To Run. I was 17 when he released The River and even though I was somewhat liberal at the time, I thought it was the most whiny garbage I ever heard.
“Then I got Mary pregnant and man that was all she wrote.
For my nineteenth birthday I got a union card and a wedding coat.”
Poor, little man. Daddy had to get him a union construction gig because he was too stupid to buy a rubber.
“Springstine” [old joke], Foo Fighters, Linkin Park all lefty icons whose politics suck but the melodies do not. Queen, despite the butt stains...even Arlo Guthrie...c’mon, Alice’s Restaurant? Song and movie?
Jethro Tull? Yup...
I listen to their “art” not their politics.
Agreed — I liked his early stuff. However, I am not a big fan of the rough scratchy voice singer who can't hold a tune genre. However, one of my all time favorites is Hungry Heart.
One of the absolute worst all time Christmas songs is his rendition of Santa Claus is Coming to Town. It is absolutely horrible and should be played 24/7 at all prisons as a deterrent. It might be considered cruel and unusual punishment, though.
Since I heard about his politics years ago I change radio channels whenever one of Springsteen’s songs come on. It helps that I considered him way overrated before that. Same with Sir Paul (as a solo or with Wings). In the faked words of Sir Winston Churchill as quoted in the National Lampoon, “They’re a$$holes, Sir ... they’re simply a$$holes”.
I was a big Springsteen early on (70’s and 80’s) but I thought he peaked with “The River” and everything after that was commercial crap and the same riffs over and over. It was also about the time of “The River” that he started preaching left wing politics at his concerts, which was a real turn off.
“57 channels and there’s nothing on...”
Seemed like a lot of channels at the time.
Sorry, but Bruce always sings like he’s trying to pass a bowling ball.
I always thought “Dancing in the Dark” sounded like Bruce tried to see how high he could stack lyrical clichés before they’d tip over.
“I always thought “Dancing in the Dark†sounded like Bruce tried to see how high he could stack lyrical clichés before they’d tip over.”
You’re right, because that’s exactly what it was. He was told by the label that they wanted him to do something with a commercial “mainstream” sound. It pissed him off, so he put as little effort as possible into it.
everything before Born in the USA where he is shown pissing on the American flag. But I did give away his whole collection, F this libtard.
I don’t even know the lyrics besides the chorus maybe. I just like the music to that one, it’s got a good hook and you can dance to it :)
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