One reason I’ve enjoyed—but haven’t followed fastidiously—the back-and-forth between Bruce Springsteen fans who are either ENERGIZED by the 76-year-old celebrity’s up-to-the-moon demonization of Donald Trump or saddened (sad!) by the muse who transported them years ago is that it means nothing. I do find the social media comments that septuagenarian Springsteen looks like somebody’s grandmother stupid—he’s fit and has aged well—but that’s what happens in a pointless online war.
One of the really silly articles, and therefore worthwhile, was written by Steven Greenhouse, a year younger than Chris Christie’s “Boss,” and a labor reporter who had a long run at The New York Times beginning in 1983, eventually taking a buyout in 2014. Writing in The Guardian (desperate times…) on May 24th, under the headline “Bruce Springsteen is a model for how celebrities should resist Trump,” he writes: “The Bruce Springsteen concert I went to in Brooklyn last week was unlike any concert I’ve attended in decades. It was far more than a fabulous, joyous concert; it was also an inspiring resistance event.”
I don’t think celebrities—in music, film, fashion or the media—need any hints on slamming Trump (or Israel, for that matter); just ask Mark Ruffalo, the dregs of Green Day, the losing-his-mind Robert DeNiro, John Cusack, or Edward Norton. My question: what exactly is “the resistance”? Is it 500,000 people protesting in Washington, D.C.? New York City or Los Angeles (maybe the latter city’s too consumed with the breath-of-fresh-air mayor’s race where Spencer Pratt might pull off an upset against Karen Bass and Nithya Raman)? Trump’s approval ratings, for what that’s worth, are sliding as fast as gas prices rise, but the “resistance” hasn’t put a dent in his weird, but definitely ahistorical presidency.
More Greenhouse: “While Trump has delivered to billionaires, Springsteen has been fighting for working class men and women, for those who get the short end of the stick. That has given him extraordinary cred with average Americans.” Paraphrasing the Great Communicator, there goes another entitled journalist again, championing “average Americans,” most of whom, if so inclined, can’t afford a ticket to one of Springsteen’s “resistance” rallies. Greenhouse says he wishes Springsteen, “who doesn’t have any corporate overlords watching his every move,” would give dozens of free concerts, “but that might be too complicated and expensive to pull off.”
Why? Greenhouse doesn’t believe it’s worth a mention that Springsteen is one of the wealthiest celebrities today (his net worth is estimated between $750 million and $1.2 billion), and, given his clout in the “resistance” could find the money (kicking in a small part of his own fortune, but gladly taking some money that sloshes around in the Democratic Party) to hold, say, four concerts a year. This July 4th is an obvious choice for D.C., where people will have a ball celebrating/mocking the country’s semiquincentennial. Trump probably wouldn’t acknowledge it—although if joined the crowd, and swaying to “Streets of Minneapolis” that would be hilarious—but an overflow crowd (we remember Woodstock, but not Altamont!) would, in tandem with a pre-midterms festival in a battleground state like Michigan, give “hope and dreams” to the many “progressive” Democrats running for election. Bruce could clasp hands with special guests Zohran Mamdani, Graham Platner, James Talarico, Bernie, AOC, Joe Biden and David Remnick.
I preferred Kyle Smith’s take in The Wall Street Journal, even though I can’t imagine attending “11 or 12” of Springsteen’s concerts (I went to two, both in 1975, and they were spectacular shows). The 60-year-old Smith is conservative (though not to the extent that Greenhouse is a say-it-loud-I’m-a-progressive-and-I’m-proud) and wasn’t wild about Springsteen’s show he saw recently at Madison Square Garden, annoyed by “four political speeches… like a Rachel Maddow monologue.”
The two writers differed on the crowd’s reaction to the concerts they saw. While Greenhouse said it was Thunder-Road rapturous, Smith concludes: “Trolling political leaders can be satisfying, but to Mr. Springsteen’s admirers it looks pretty self-indulgent. If he wants to shout at the TV, perhaps he should do that when he’s on his 400-acre horse farm rather than in front of the fans who paid for it.”
The photo (at a time when Springsteen was playing with different band) is of my cousin Steve Duncan, mugging with my nephew Caleb at a family party. As I recall, Steve was sporting a monstrous hickey that day, and, pleased with himself, said, “Next time I see you, Rusty, I want to see one of these on your neck… or maybe south of that region.” Steverino, a year younger than me, was showing off, as teens do, but is a good guy, and is now a retired NYPD detective with an ever-inquisitive mind.
Take a look at the clues to figure out the year: Alan Passaro files lawsuit against Rolling Stones; Bill Withers releases Just As I Am; no accounting for taste, as Grand Funk Railroad sells out Shea Stadium for a concert; Derek and the Dominos disband; Delaney & Bonnie’s Motel Shot is released; Helen Reddy’s “Crazy Love” charts; Spiro Agnew is still Vice President; Joe Frazier wins a 15-round decision over Muhammad Ali; the Milwaukee Bucks win the NBA Championship; David Arquette is born and Van Heflin dies; Jerzy Kosinkski’s Being There is published; Pablo Neruda wins the Literature Nobel Prize; and no fiction Pulitzer Prize is awarded.
—Follow Russ Smith on Twitter: @MUGGER2023