Thursday, March 4, 2010

Who's The Boss



My friend Eric shared this with me and I thought it was worth sharing with you. From the blog site "Portrait Of The Artist as a Young JAP," here is "an impassioned plea to whoever's reading this to get off your high horse and start liking Bruce Springsteen." This is hilarious and often brilliant, written by the college age daughter of a friend of a friend...of a friend.




WHO'S THE BOSS
It is 3:00 in the afternoon. I am (ostensibly) supposed to be working on the treatment for my play, which was due three days ago. I am (ostensibly) supposed to be out of my pajamas by now. I am (ostensibly) supposed to be cleaning up the mess I made from making beef tacos for lunch (which were abominable and made me seriously question my newfound culinary abilities).

But I am not doing any of these things, because there is a more pressing issue at hand, a concern that keeps me up at night and causes me to break out into a cold sweat panic, a fear that takes up permanent residence in the back of my brain and refuses to let go, like those photos of one-eyed puppies in public service ads against animal cruelty.

I am deeply concerned for the long-term preservation of Bruce Springsteen’s status as one of the greatest American rock musicians of all time. And I am taking this opportunity (i.e. a blog read solely by my mother and her childhood friends from Long Island) to speak out publicly against those who pose a danger to his legacy.

Anyone who has known me for an extended period of time knows the following three facts about me: 1) I am a raging bitch who employs sarcasm and a semi-large vocabulary to belittle and emasculate those around me, 2) I have a borderline sexual relationship with food, and 3) I think that Bruce Springsteen is pretty much the greatest American rock musician of all time. I think he’s sexier than Jim Morrison, and a better lyricist than Dylan; I think that he is more soulful than Neil Young, more intellectual than Paul Simon, and I think that he is a more electrifying live performer than GaGa and Miley COMBINED (and anyone who knows me well knows that 4), I am OBSESSED with GaGa and Miley). Basically, my litmus test for American rock music is as follows: if you are a musician, and you are not black, you will never be better than Bruce Springsteen.

I could write a book about the reasons why I love Bruce Springsteen, but I probably won’t (because I am lazier and less talented than any of the artists previously mentioned). There’s also a shitload of people who feel the same way that I do about Bruce; the guy is pushing sixty-two, but his albums still do phenomenally well on the charts and his concerts routinely sell out. He even smushed his groin into the camera during last year’s Super Bowl halftime show, so the network execs who hired him were obviously catering to his enormous following (a following consisting of people who presumably get excited over seeing the Boss’s scrotum collide with their TV sets. People like me, for example). If Bruce decided to release a record of Wesley Willis covers, a substantial contingent of people would faithfully snap up millions of copies, and they would even post YouTube clips of “Suck a Cheetah’s Dick” from Bruce’s live show in Saskatchewan.

But here’s the thing about Bruce’s fan base: it may be huge, and it may be rabidly loyal, but it is old. Like, Steely Dan fan old, and every time I go to a Springsteen show, the crowd doesn’t seem to be getting any younger. If you survey the audience at a Springsteen concert, you’ll see soccer moms and paunchy cops and ex- high school quarterbacks who are now working at insurance companies; there will be nary a hipster or frat boy or classic rock nerd in sight. In my experience, if you are a semi-serious music fan between the ages of 18-25, it has become de rigeur to be weirdly ambivalent about Bruce Springsteen. In fact, I would even go so far to say that members of this demographic actively dislike Bruce Springsteen, and needless to say, I am troubled by this disturbing trend.

Over the course of my twenty-one years, I have met a grand total of three people, my age or younger, who have professed to liking Bruce Springsteen. The first person was a Chuck Klosterman lookalike from Long Island, who I met on my Birthright trip to Israel; he also told me in the same breath that he was a big fan of the Alkaline Trio. The second was a fratty kid from Oberlin who argued that The Wild, The Innocent and the E Street Shuffle was a vastly underrated album. Although I wasn’t remotely attracted to this person, after he said that I remember thinking that I should probably marry the guy, as nobody else in the world was going to be able to understand me as well as he could.

These two people (I will address the third and final Springsteen fan later) are exceptions to the rule. They are courageous voices of dissent, harshly suppressed in an environment that is hostile to Boss fans born between the releases of Tunnel of Love and Human Touch. The iron fist of Bruce-hatred has come down on members of my generation, and it has struck even the best and the brightest of us. Even my boyfriend hates the Boss, and this is a person who has listened to John Mayer’s trio approximately 48 times on his iTunes.

This widespread anti-Bruce sentiment amongst people of my generation is also apparently the case in Ireland. I was recently at a bar where the dance floor literally cleared after the DJ put on “Dancing in the Dark,” and a few weeks ago I went to a house party, where I had the same conversation with my host that I have with literally every single one of my friends when the topic of Springsteen comes up. The template for this conversation is as follows:

DUDE: So, what kind of music do you like?

ME: Oh, a little bit of everything…blues, jazz, funk, SPRINGSTEEN…(pause)… you know, my tastes are super eclectic.

DUDE: Um, why do you like Springsteen?

ME: So, you don’t like Springsteen?

DUDE: No.

(Pause)

ME: (Muttering bitterly) Well, you should.

This person will then enumerate the list of reasons why he dislikes Bruce Springsteen, usually employing 4 out of 6 of the following arguments:

1) He’s old.

2) He sucks.

3) He sucks because he’s old.

4) He’s old because he sucks.

5) He sings about being a member of the working class even though he’s made millions and millions of dollars over the past thirty years

6) “Born in the USA” sucks.

Now, I am not going to deconstruct these arguments here by pointing out their flaws and logical lapses, because Bruce’s music can do that for me (although “Born in the USA” does suck). I’m not going to try to explain why kids my age hate Bruce Springsteen so much (I think “a widespread generational embrace of postmodern irony accompanied by a universal rejection of all that is honest and genuine and joyous and sincere” pretty much says it all). And I’m not going to say that having these conversations (over and over and over again with people who don’t know what the fuck they’re talking about) makes me angry, because it doesn’t. It just makes me sad. Profoundly, unspeakably sad.

It makes me sad that these people will never listen to the opening chords of “Jungleland,” that their hearts won’t surge into their throats and their guts won’t twist in their stomachs during Clarence Clemons’ sax solo. It makes me sad that my friends will never pump their fists to the triumphant crescendo of “Rosalita,” or wave their hands with the little pretties in “Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out,” or get ready to go out on a Friday while Bruce espouses the endless possibilities of the evening in “Night.” It makes me sad that future generations of restless suburban kids who want more out of life than day trips to the city on the LIRR won’t listen to “Badlands” and won’t be able to put a name to the desire for speed, for movement, the itch in their joints and the hum in the engines of their cars that’s begging them to run or drive or fly as fast as they can to anyplace that’s bigger than them, anyplace that has enough room to spare for all their wanting.

The feeling of restlessness that Bruce speaks to in his songs, that will be around forever. But Bruce won’t be. Dude is 61. He can’t go smashing his balls into cameramen forever. And if this trend continues – if his music is listened to by progressively fewer and fewer members of younger generations – his fan base won’t be around for much longer, either. He won’t reach the level of Zeppelin or the Beatles or the Dead, artists who are popular amongst kids who were born decades after the pinnacle of their popularity. In twenty years, he will be a dinosaur, duly respected in record books and rock criticism but virtually ignored by people born between 1995 onwards (the Ghost of Tom Joad-Working on a Dream demographic). He will be known as the guy who sucked because he was old, and who was old because he sucked.

There is a small glimmer of hope for the continuation of the Boss’s legacy, however, and that hope comes in the form of the next generation, a member of which is the third person I have ever met who was a Springsteen fan. This girl was ten years old, and her name was Amanda. She was on my bus when I worked as a counselor at a day camp two years ago, and she had the entirety of the album “Magic” on her iPod. When I wasn’t cleaning up puke or flirting with my co- bus counselor or arguing with kids about the merits of buckling their seatbelts, I would go over to her seat and listen to “Radio Nowhere” with her on her iPod, and we would talk about Bruce.

She told me that she had already been to two concerts, and that her parents played Bruce around the house all the time. She told me that she liked to watch the 2000 DVD of his show from Madison Square Garden, and she danced with her dad when Bruce kicked off his set with “Prove it All Night.” I told her that I used to do the exact same thing with my dad – in middle school, I would usually be grounded on Saturday nights, so I’d sit with my dad in the living room, and he’d get drunk while we watched the MSG show and danced to “My Love Will Not Let You Down.” “Is there anybody alive out there?!?!?!?!”, Bruce would scream on the TV, and we’d imitate the crowd roaring back. Then my mother would yell at us to turn it down, an my father would begrudgingly comply, only to turn the volume up on Nils Lofgren’s solo in “Youngstown.”

I told Amanda that my dad was also the reason why I loved Springsteen in the first place, and as I was sharing all my happy Boss-related memories, I remembered this quote from “City Slickers” that Daniel Stern’s character – an otherwise miserable, misanthropic fuck like myself – says about his dad, and his dad’s relationship to baseball. He says something like, “as I got older, my dad and I could talk about fewer and fewer things – but we could always talk about baseball.” Save for a few particularly obnoxious periods in my adolescence, I’ve always been able to talk to my dad about everything, but I’ve always really been able to talk to him about Bruce. And it occurred to me that Amanda, to some extent, recognized that she had that with her dad, too, and when she got older, that bond would keep her relationship with Bruce strong as well, even against the protestations of her anti-Bruce peers. I had faith that her fandom would stay strong in a Bruce-loathing world that was hostile to sincerity and rewarding of artifice, and I still hold out a tiny bit of hope that eventually, my compatriots will see the error of their ways and follow suit.

So to whoever’s reading this, if I haven’t told you enough already, I’m begging you now: download “The Wild, the Innocent and the E Street Shuffle” (you can do it illegally, I don’t give a shit – Bruce is many things, but an impoverished victim of the file-sharing network he is not). Get “Darkness on the Edge of Town” while you’re at it (but you can skip over “Candy’s Room”), and “Born to Run,” and “Greetings from Asbury Park.” Watch a couple of his live performances on YouTube, then look me in the eye and tell me he’s not balla, that he doesn’t make you feel exhilarated and overwhelmed and hot-blooded and alive. Because the next time Bruce asks me “Is there anybody alive out there?” I don’t want to be lying on behalf of my generation when I shout back, “Yes.”

35 comments:

jon said...

though we're far and few between, i assure you (anonymous blog-post author) there are more of us out there

sincerely,
a fellow 20 year old who wouldn't have made it through freshman/sophomore year of college without all of born to run, the transition between incident and rosalita, racing in the street, and side two of tunnel of love

but since when am i supposed to skip candy's room?

steve simels said...

That is the single best piece of rock criticism I've ever read, and I'm not kidding about this.

But as jon said, what's the deal with the "Candy's Room" dig?

Anyway, thanks for posting that. I will be forwarding it to all and sundry....

Kurt said...

I'm in the same camp as Jon. Skip Candy's Room? No way.

Sal Nunziato said...

Amazing Steve, right?

And, I think anyone who comments is going to ask, "What's up with 'Candy's Room?"

Mr. Sifter said...

We're out there, trust me. Okay, I'm 28, but close enough to your demographic of choice.

I didn't really become a real fan until I heard the Rising at age 20, but I haven't looked back since. And...I don't know how you do it. I'm not sure I could date a girl who didn't at least sorta, kinda like Springsteen. It just wouldn't work in the end.

FD13NYC said...

Yeah yeah, we all like Bruce from one extent to another. Long winded story by a young girl who's obsessed with GaGa and Cyrus, she really knows her music, eeeesh!

As always, anticipating a good weekend mix for tomorrow. And puh-lease, no Bruce.

Sal Nunziato said...

Sorry, FDNYC13, but this time you really missed the point.

FD13NYC said...

And what point might that be? The fact that people under 22 years old can't get into Bruce Springsteen? Some of them can't even tie their own shoes because their too busy facebooking and twittering on blackberries and iphones perpetually attached to their hands.

She also writes about a girl who watched him on video with her drunken father, I mean, c'mon.

Sorry I'm being negative here but I believe there are more important things in life than whether or not kids born 20 years ago could get into Springsteen.

If I'm missing some mystical hidden point, forgive me. And Sal, it's FD13NYC. Lighten up, we're just talkin' here

Sal Nunziato said...

"And Sal, it's FD13NYC. Lighten up, we're just talkin' here"

Hahaha. Ok. I'LL lighten up.

allen vella said...

Lovely. That said, I can only say I am happy to have lived with Bruce from the first album..I got it..I love it..those who don't, ??...I'm sure they have their own Bruce, or Gaga, or Ellington. At least I hope so..and you're right Sal..skip Candys Room? the drum track by itself outshine any of the crap that passes for contemporary music these days!

Thunderroad79 said...

This is such a fantastic piece of writing. Not only do I share your sentiments 100%, but I believe most Bruce fans would as well. I am 30 and even in my generation finding fellow fans (the real fans that appreciate the content and not just the star)is difficult. In the cause of keeping Bruce alive, I promise I will make my children be Bruce fans - yes even if I have to brainwash - it's a worthy cause. Check out my blog dedicated to the lyrics of Springsteen: lostlivesontheline.blogspot.com

Caryn said...

This is just not true - any more.

Six years ago, you would get kids who would say things about BITUSA and the over-production, and that they only liked WIESS and Nebraska.

But for WOAD, things started to change. You saw kids in line who were there because they wanted to be there. They might be with Dad but they asked to be taken. You would see kids wearing Against Me shirts who showed up because the band mentioned him and because Bruce's son is a fan and Bruce had mentioned them.

The hipsters all hate Bruce because there is no irony. But irony is on its way out and the next generation of kids is finding their way to Bruce. I've never seen as many groups of 20 somethings in the pit or on the floor as I did on this tour. And I spent a LOT of time talking to these kids.

Troy said...

Great read today, Sal. Thanks for posting. I'm a huge Bruce fan and I got a real kick out of reading it.

And to Caryn, I hope you are right. I hope irony is on the way out, and I hope the kids discover and dig Bruce's music, both new & old.

Long live Candy's Room!

Anonymous said...

Great entry! I feel for you, although maybe outside of the US people are less judgemental to Bruce? Most people I tell in the UK, they love it that I love Bruce!

When I first started listening to Bruce when I was 15, I know that insecure part of me did it because I wanted to be different to my peers. I wanted to discover another world.

But now I'm 21, and times have changed in that short space of time...I agree with Caryn. Bruce has hit the current mainstream now, and is actually surprisingly appreciated by much of the younger generation. This is clear in his headlining Hard Rock Calling AND Glastonbury in the UK (massive massive things for a 60-something rocker from the US) and the amount of coverage he gets here. And the success of his new records! There are even BITUSA t-shirts in H&M! (http://twitpic.com/yyk31)

I'm happy to share my journey with Bruce with everyone else... and people of our generation are finally finding Bruce too which is amazing.

Whenever someone tells me they don't know him/like his music, I just respond with, "well, you're missing out." And then, hopefully, another journey begins...

Gene Oberto said...

"And doing so you can recreate yourself and you can also come up with something that is not only original and creative and artistic, but also maybe even decent, or moral if I can use words like that, or something that's like basically good."

- Lester Bangs

Unknown said...

The writing was excellent - style, content - everything. I'm not sure I get the point that FD13NYC is trying to make. We should dismiss her writing and everything she so passionately conveyed because she's 22 and most 22 year-olds can't tie their shoes? What does that have to do with this article or the author?
Or maybe she should have left out the part about watching a video with her drunk father because it made FD13NYC uncomfortable? And she likes Miley and Lady GaGa? All of that amazing writing about Springsteen, and he didn't get any of it, instead he just got those (sideline) points out of it? I don't think he's really sorry about his negativity. :)

Please, correct me if I'm wrong here - but I think Sal posted this article because he wanted to share his appreciation of an incredibly great intuitive writer. This was SO good. Thanks for posting it Sal!

FD13NYC said...

Hey Marcia, I think I get the story. Believe me, I got it. The little girl thinks Bruce Springsteen is God and she'll grow up to be the next Susan Sontag. Jeeez

Sal Nunziato said...

I still say you missed the point, FD-- And NOW you're being offensive.

Unknown said...

Touche FD13NYC. Apologies- I guess I misjudged your keen sense of humor. It's interesting that someone as obviously well-read as yourself would know of Susan Sontag, yet has never come into contact with Dale Carnegie's most popular work. :)

FD13NYC said...

What is the point! What is it that I'm not getting. I read the thing 3 times. I didn't know I was that fog brained. Somebody please splain.

Anonymous said...

I think its a different story over here in Europe. Just look at the crowd here.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXvk24EFByc

The festivals he did last summer propably helpe a bit too.. he shoul do more of them. I think it`s goo for him to step out of his "fan-zone"

But, I also meet a lot of people who are not clued in. Bruce can be bit of an acquired taste, becouse there is a certain "get it" factor.. So, what can you tell em? Just be in a good place and listen, if it doent do much for you, well fine.. if it does then great..

btw a great DVD-bootleg from "The River-show" at MSG with good sound an mukticamera is available for downloaing at: http://jungleland.dnsalias.com/torrents-browse.php?cat=26&page=0

Such a fantastic performance.

And skipping Candys?
"Cause in the darkness there'll be hidden worlds that shine"

No way.

Sal Nunziato said...

Well FD, as long as you axed--

You not liking Bruce shouldn't get in the way of how great the piece is. It was funny and brilliant and sarcastic and mean and passionate and hardly "long-winded." But that's just MY opinion.

You also attacked the writer for "obsessing over Miley and Gaga," as if that obsession instantly cries out, "I know nothing about music," which is what you implied. It doesn't.


And of course, I said one thing and you told ME to lighten up, when it was you who seemed to get bent out of a shape.

(phew)

Unknown said...

Good Lord don't read it again. The point is whatever you want it to be. Maybe you were looking for something else when you read Sal's sparkling pre-endorsement. New tour dates? I don't know. For me the point was: this author is a girl with a smart/snarky writing style, who is conveying her passion for an artist. She's concerned that she is the last of a dying breed- a young Springsteen fan. She's incredulous that this could happen, and wants to understand why, when there are so many other artist/bands from the same era with a still-growing fan base in the younger demographics. She doesn't care that you think Miley and Lady GaGa suck - yet she wants you to know that she is a person from the same demographic that can appreciate them - so why can't other people her age be just as fanatical about Springsteen, when he's certainly infinitely more talented than Lady Miley? Had the piece not been so well-written, I most likely would not have gone beyond 2 paragraphs. However, her writing and her passion and insight caught my attention. If it didn't catch yours, that's fine. I think the frustration comes in with the fact that the word "brilliant" was never included in your comments. :) It was as if you skimmed it for facts you hadn't heard before and dismissed it as some dumb college kid yammering on about something that doesn't matter. Actually, maybe a "who gives a sh*t" might have been a better comment, rather than picking out the entertaining parts of the story and ripping them apart. Yeah, I think next time just go with a "who gives a sh*t".
Does any of that make sense to you? Virtually everyone who responded commended her writing (Candy's Room aside), which made it appear that you didn't get it. Get it? ;)

FD13NYC said...

Ok, got it. My sincere apologies to all for being the insensitive fly in the ointment, really. I do like Springsteen and the piece was good.

Marcia, nice Dale Carnegie dig, nearly blew my head off.

Now Sal, post some songs, willya, please huh.

Sal Nunziato said...

Coming right up, Frong.

Unknown said...

~smile~ Thanks FD13NYC :)

cmealha said...

When I was young way back in the 60's I hated anything that pre-dated the Beatles and Beach Boys. I wouldn't listen to Big Band music, Dean Martin, 50's doo-wop, classical,Frank Sinatra and a lot of other artists and musical genres I grew to appreciate as I got older. They were all as far removed from my world view as Bruce is from todays 20 year olds. They're into their own music and are a bit chauvinistic about it. As they grow and their tastes expand beyond the narrow bands of their generation's music I thin many of them will learn to appreciate what an outstanding artist he is.

I'm not a super Bruce freak as witnessed by the fact that after listening to Born To Run when it first came out I filed it away never to listen to it again until almost 20 years later when I suddenly began to get it. Same time I started listening to classical music, Phil Spector and all the other 'crap' I had dismissed in my younger years.

The point is most of us grow up sooner or later and we're all the better for it. Let it be.

Unknown said...

I love this girl! Can she be my daughter? Brilliant writing.

I belong to the group of Bruce fans who refused to listen to him, for whatever silly reason, until I was 48 years old. (Thank you, Sal!) I went to my first and only show (SO FAR) at the Garden and was treated to one of the most amazing concert experiences I had ever had. As my boss loves to say, I was "baptized." He and his wife are huge Bruce fans, and had told me about trances Bruce would go into when he sang certain songs, and I must admit, I thought they were a little nuts, until I heard "Point Blank" and felt myself going into a trance.

My college-age daughter went to see Bruce for the first time the night before I did. She barely knew who he was (MY FAULT, I KNOW!) but certainly did appreciate how "tired" he must have been after that performance! She also go a kick out of Clarence being referred to as "The Big Man."

I still believe there is hope for her generation--maybe not just yet, because they may THINK they're not ready. I regret not having been a part of the Bruce craze for thirty years. Kids, don't let that happen to you!

Anonymous said...

"Is anybody alive out there?!?!?!"

This blog post was sent to me by my mother, a 50 year old BRUCE FANATIC, im not kidding you..shes one of those bruce people..and i am glad to say so am I! I am 20 years old and a sophmore in college and i relate with Jon when i say i wouldnt have made it through this year without rosalita! I have 5 roomates who i work on everyday helping them to "understand my obsession", and do it not only by blasting bruce throughout my dorm everyday, but hanging up posters all over my room of BRUCE!

My parents and good friends we have made from concert after concert all agree that bruce is our person, and we are STARVING without him this year 2010.

Best Bruce Moment: Getting GA tickets to the last concert at Giants Stadium. Not only did we pray for the rain to stop, we prayed for a GOOD NUMBER! ..and it WORKED! #1 INTO THE PIT!! not only did I meet an amazing guy from sweden, BRUCE GAVE ME HIS PICK! it is now framed with the setlist on my mantle at my house! haha

Just letting you know there still YOUNG people out there!!

fecknom said...

My dad pointed me to this post. Says it sounds like I might have written it. I'm 22, and have been a big fan of Bruce for several years. I might have just graduated from Oberlin, but I'm not fratty, I promise.

You're not alone, but you're certainly right to be concerned. We're definitely few in number.

I really really hope the irony is coming to an end. Can I quote you on that "a widespread generational embrace of postmodern irony accompanied by a universal rejection for all that is honest, genuine, joyous and sincere" thing?

I totally support you on the Miley/GaGa thing, too. I'm not into them so much, but a few select artists shouldn't be allowed to discredit your musical taste. I listen to and love some obnoxiously terrible Russian pop music, and I'm proud as hell of it.

Rock on.

Count Screwloose said...

Yeesh. Why do Springsteen fans always have to sound so much like rock 'n' roll Scientologists? It's not enough that they like him - everyone else has to like him, too, or the Republic is in danger of extinction. I've said it before and I'll say it again: World's Luckiest Bar Band!

Sal Nunziato said...

I find it just as interesting when the Springsteen naysayers simply say, "He sucks!" or "World luckiest bar band," or worse, dismiss any one of his talents as inferior based on not agreeing with his politics.

Yeah, the diehards get passionate, but at least they back it up.

"Yankees suck!"

NO they don't, actually.

Same mentality, no?

FRANCIE said...

I First saw BRUCE before there was even an "E STREET BAND". I was 20 and had a major problem which was, I couldn't find anyone to go with me. I didn't want to go with a date,because I knew I already had a huge CRUSH on him even before seeing live. I bribed a girl I worked with to go see a show with me. We had a night that neither one of us can't even describe today, and it has been 37 years. We left the show in a state of uphoria!!. We feel so lucky to have watched the building blocks to STARDOM!!Some weeks in the first 3 years we would see him 2,3 or more timesa week. My girlfriend,in college at the time wrote a term paper on BRUCE,and got the teacher listening to the first 2 albums.Her children have gone to shows. My Grandmother was a big movie star fan her whole life, and she was always tellling me how handsome BRUCE is. The more gossip I could tell her, the better My grandchildren at 3 and 7 love to sing and dance to BRUCE'S music all the time!!. So here I am at 57 and still just as hooked as that first night in 1973,and if you ask me WHY?? I have no logical reason or answer other than "HE MUST HAVE SOMETHING"

elizabethm said...

The writer mentions the Beatles and Zepplin being popular among the mid-20s and under; the Doors and Hendrix could probably be added, but what separates Bruce from them is that he's still an active performer and musician with a widely ranging style. He'll be "cool" when he's dead or fades from the popular scene.
It doesn't help that most commercial radio stations are so genre-based that his music doesn't get played outside of classic rock stations with an occasional "soft rock" spin. And that narrow focus cuts two ways - maybe I'd be more Miley and GAGA tolerant if the stations I usually listen to played them.(or dislike them more, but at least I'd know why) Even the relatively broad based public / college radio shows can be limited.
It'll all work out in the end; it was lonely being a Beach Boy fan during the mid sixties. Pet Sounds may be a classic now, but it wasn't the album your friends wanted you to bring over, much less 20/20 or Wild Honey. Just remember when you have the chance, "to teach (the) children well" (to adapt the CSN lyric)and maybe "accidentally" break your car radio and the only thing it will play is the Springsteen CDs you'd left in it.

Aaron De Coninck said...

Hello there,

I'm a Belgian Springsteen-fan and 19 years old. I've seen him four times in Belgium and once in the States (Giants Stadium). I've friends who like The Boss and who dislike him. But it's not true that all youngers hate the Boss. I'm a fan till I die..