Broooooce

Does the world really need a blog posting from me about Bruce Springsteen ? The pretty obvious answer to that rhetorical question has to be no ! But since the box set Essential Bruce Springsteen has dropped off the shelf to be played, I'll venture a few thoughts. Springsteen's probably the closest to a mainstream megastar in my collection and over the years there have been a few things I've been less comfortable with, such as the stadium rock era and all that "The Boss" stuff. I do however think that he has always been a genuine and thoughtful artist in amongst the crowd pleasing epics and even most of those are a lot of fun. His heart is in the right place and there is an intelligence and sense of place to his lyrics that honour the ordinary. Another thing that has drawn me to him particularly is that we are virtually the same age ( he's eleven days older than me ) and a feature of his writng is that he has always moved forward and written songs that are applicable to the time of life in which he found himself. And I've been able to relate to that too as I've gone along. As to this collection, it's a triple cd set, the first two being selections from all albums from Greetings From Asbury Park to The Rising and the third a bonus album of unissued rarities. The selections are sensible, although The River gets short changed a little. With this age thing, I can appreciate that Springsteen may not have that much more left in his locker, certainly as far as filling stadiums goes. Last year's Seeger Sessions showed a certain scaling down. But on past evidence, he may well still surprise with something valid and meaningful.