Click Here to Listen to “Radio Nowhere” from “Magic”
Doug Howe has already spread the good news of the new Bruce Springsteen album in this space, joining a chorus of hand-clapping reviewers since “Magic” debuted this fall. (A.O. Scott at the New York Times outdid them all, with a fabulous piece that combined reviewery, reportage, and fan-boy worship.) But here at Burn or Burn, we wanted to make sure your iPods, computers, cars, ring tones, and any other preferred listening mechanisms were fully equipped with the Boss, because he’s having a rock n’ roll revival all his own, and if you love music, you don’t want to miss any of it.
“Magic” is Springsteen’s fourth album in five years, an output that, beginning with “The Rising” in 2002, has been as remarkable in its quality as in its diversity. “The Rising” was an E Street Band record built from a solid core of American rock; “Devils and Dust” was an acoustic, atmospheric solo album; last year saw “The Seeger Sessions,” which, along with the live follow-up “Live in Dublin,” revealed Springsteen’s twangy, hootenanny heart: he might hail from Jersey, but his influences stretch into the protest ballads of the West.
“Magic” puts Springsteen back in his role as bandleader, and many fans will find it a welcome return. Not me—much as I admire this album. I prefer Springsteen apart from the E Street Band, and it’s not just because I’m a mopey fellow who likes his singer-songwriters sullen and, when in concert, alone on stage with their guitar. (I adore Wilco, but the most memorable moments of seeing them live involve Jeff Tweedy working his way through tortured lyrics, whether his own or those of Dylan and Guthrie.) Springsteen explores vastly different territory when apart from his E Street mates, dipping into the legacy of Pete Seeger and the stylistic and thematic tradition carved and re-carved by—those names again!—Woody Guthrie and Bob Dylan. For my money, Springsteen is at his best when he does folk, not least because he walks so well the pathways of folk spirituality.
American folk is a tradition all its own, and it’s definitely a spiritual tradition. It’d be a mistake to take it for Christianity proper, but American folk always involves sin, always a cross, and always a groping for redemption. Actually, maybe that is Christianity proper—more proper, anyway, than the scrubbed, shining-teeth-but-toothless Christianity that occupies America’s center stage at present.
In Springtseen’s folksy recordings, he fully situates himself in this tradition. “Live in Dublin” features a series of old-timey spirituals that could serve as Sunday morning worship music, provided you could find the right church (maybe some Pentecostal clapboard number in Oklahoma). Springsteen pulls of a combination of raucous rock and sweaty, foot-stomping revival music. It’s almost like he’s leading a bunch of true believers in worship, or better yet, singing straight into the heavens. Check out his rendition of “This Little Light of Mine,” and just try to remain in your seat.
This is spiritual music and protest music—it’s the music of the people, offering themselves up to God and to each other, and declaring–demanding, then pleading–that the world must be a better place. That’s the American folk tradition.
Pieces of that tradition have always been in Bruce Springsteen. He’s always had more than a bit of the protest rocker about him, though the rebellious stab of “Born in the U.S.A.” is lost on many. Which is hard to believe, given the direct-attack approach of the lyrics:
I got in a little hometown jam
And so they put a rifle in my hands
Sent me off to a foreign land
To go and kill the yellow man
“Magic” is no less direct, with the track “Last to Die” taking John Kerry’s famous post-Vietnam question and turning it into an anthem:
We took the highway till the road went black
We’d marked Truth Or Consequences on our map
A voice drifted up from the radio
And I thought of a voice from long ago
Who’ll be the last to die for a mistake?
That’s a Bruce Springsteen lyric, through and through, no less than his more palatable lines about the boardwalk in Jersey.
“Magic” mostly drifts from the folksy spirituality of Springsteen’s most recent non-E Street work. But I like it a ton anyway. The album retains a protesting soul and is filled with allusions to faith (“I want a million different voices speaking in tongues,” he belts in the opener), and it can also take you on a whole other set of journeys. You can listen to the lyrics of “Last to Die” and get pissed off. You can roll down your windows and drive fast to “Gypsy Biker” or “Radio Nowhere.” “Livin’ in the Future” and “I’ll Work for Your Love” are backyard BBQ music if ever there was any. And “Terry’s Song,” the closing ballad, takes us closer to my favorite Springsteen, that raspy singer whose lyrics make you want to light a candle, write a long letter, or lie down and make sense of it all. “Magic” is an American album for this American moment by this wonderfully American musician.
posted November 3, 2007 at 5:49 am
Actually, it’s, “Sent me off to a foreign land“, not “Vietnam“, regardless of what half the lyrics sites out there say.
posted November 3, 2007 at 11:22 am
There is no doubt that Springsteen has upheld in his music the causes of the Average Man, the Every Man, vs. corporatism (Badlands) the corrupt govt and the powers that be.
That fact that the GOP hijacked the song Born in the USA in the 1980s even while they supported the rich and elite against the poor and working man speaks volumes of America.
I have not heard the new album. I am skeptical of Beliefnet’s capability to adequately critique Springsteen’s works due to its own biases.
posted November 3, 2007 at 3:38 pm
Just a cranky comment on the “Burn or Burn” tag: Speaking as a decidedly non-fundamentalist Christian, I am sick unto death of the assumption — no matter how unintentional or in this case how rhetorically clever — that my response as a Christian to something I don’t like is to burn it or ban it or otherwise pronounce some sort of fundie jihad against it. My response to music I don’t care for is — duh — to [i]not listen to it anymore.[/i]
posted November 5, 2007 at 12:12 pm
I like the way Springsteen is moving and maturing in his life and music. This new album is quite good and is a sure reflection of Springsteens unique voice and prespective. I recommend it as a whole, and not one song or another. It is truly an Album, a collection that expresses a whole.
posted November 5, 2007 at 4:16 pm
I’m inclined to agree with jestrfyl’s sentiment. What made this album work so well for me personally was listening to it as a response to some of his more youthful cynicism. Playing this against Darkness on the Edge of Town or, more particularly, The River shows the growth not of Bruce the Musician (since I think he was fabulous even in that earlier era) but of Bruce the Narrator or perhaps just Bruce the Human. His rock-and-roll rebellion has found more appropriate targets (e.g. the unemployed, dismissed Vietnam vets, 9-11 survivors, Afghanistan soldiers, etc.) than his father and his hometown. Listening to “Long Walk Home,” it’s hard for me not to think that this is the son of “The River’s” narrator (or the son of “My Hometown’s” or of “Born in the USA’s,” take your pick), a young man in the 21st century who prizes his town the way his father couldn’t…In short, the magic of Magic is that Bruce may have finally made peace with his youth while still maintaining his rock-and-roll soul.
posted November 5, 2007 at 6:05 pm
Bob–Thanks for the edit. Duly noted.
Tawonda–I hear you. “Burn or Burn” is a decidedly tongue-in-cheek title.
posted November 6, 2007 at 8:19 pm
I loved enjoyed your review of “Magic”, although I seem to like it alot more than you. With each listening the album sounds lyrically and musically better and better. My predictioin is that it will be remembered, as the years go by, as one of Bruce and The E Street Band’s best efforts. It just simply groes on you.
Alot of what you talked about and alluded to was Bruce’s religious beliefs, without actually mentioning the word religion. As soon as I listened to the album the first time I noticed words and phrases in many songs, some that you mentioned. Even the naming of a street “Blessed Avenue” in “Girls In Their Summer Clothes”. I’ve been aware of Bruce’s feelings about organized churches for a long time, and mine are basically the same. He has a very deep belief in a Supreme Being, God if you may, such as I do. I also have a problem as Bruce does in the hypocrisy of the ways of many churches. I was brought up as a Roman Catholic, but I feel very leary of my money going into the collection basket, not knowing where it is going, and what it is being used for. Especially with all of the many cases of child abuse by Priests. I’d rather put my money directly into the hands of a person who I’m sure needs it and will use it wisely. That has nothing to do with my or Bruce’s belief in God.
You didn’t talk about this, but I’d like to bring it up. Are you aware of Clear Channel Radio’s stand on not permitting any of its stations to play “Magic”? Supposedly it’s due to the implied political phrases mainly in such songs as “Gypsy Biker” and “Devil’s Arcade”. Now, I’m sorry, but whether you lean to the left or to the right, that is a direct hit against Bruce’s First Amendment rights. The man is a poet who sings his poetry. But, first of all, our First Amendment of The Constitution is supposed to be what seperates our great country from most of the rest of the world. We are permitted to speak against our government and its decisions. Or, are we getting close to losing that right? Think about it! Thanks.
posted November 8, 2007 at 2:27 am
Regarding what Clear Channel will or won’t play:
First Amendment free speech rights have historically applied to what the government will or won’t allow–and the Free Speech Clause has typically been interpreted to say the the government can’t prohibit speech based on its content.
I’m not surprised if Clear Channel is essentially banning certain songs (including those by Bruce) based on content. Under the historical tests for violations of Free Speech rights, they can do so because they aren’t the government.
The interesting question in my mind is how we ought to apply the Free Speech rights test when a small number of private companies (including Clear Channel and a few other large players) own the vast majority of the “public square” of radio.
posted September 21, 2010 at 9:04 pm
I propose not to hold back until you get enough money to order all you need! You should get the loans or bank loan and feel comfortable