Bruce Springsteen: On Jersey, Masculinity And Wishing To Be His Stage Persona "People see you onstage and, yeah, I'd want to be that guy," Springsteen says. "I want to be that guy myself very often." Originally broadcast Oct. 5, 2016. TERRY GROSS, HOST: This is FRESH AIR. I'm Terry Gross. We're ending the year with a series of some of our favorite interviews of the year. Today, the interview I recorded in September with Bruce Springsteen at his home studio in New Jersey, not far from where he grew up. His memoir, which had just been published, shares the title of his most famous song, "Born To Run." (SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED BROADCAST)
GROSS: The theme of that anthem is escape, but in much of the book Springsteen reflects on how he and his music were shaped by home, roots, blood, community, freedom and responsibility. Throughout the book, you sense the presence of Springsteen's father, from whom Springsteen says he learned the rigidity and blue-collar narcissism of manhood '50s style and the distorted idea that the beautiful things in your life, the love itself you struggled to win, will turn and possess you, robbing you of your imagined, long-fought-for freedoms. He says his father resented his own family for what he thought he might have accomplished but didn't.
Springsteen also has a CD called "Chapter And Verse" that serves as an audio companion to the book with a selection of songs that span his career. Let's start with a track from the album that helped set the tone for our conversation. It's his demo recording of his song, "Growin' Up." (SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "GROWIN' UP") BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN: OK, take two. (Singing) Well, I stood stone-like at midnight, suspended in my masquerade. I combed my hair till it was just right and commanded the night brigade. I was open to pain and crossed by the rain, and I walked on a crooked crutch. Well, I strolled all alone through a fallout zone and came out with my soul untouched. I hid in the clouded wrath of the crowd. When they said sit down, I stood up. Ooh (ph), growing up. Well, the flag of piracy flew from my mast. GROSS: Bruce Springsteen, welcome to FRESH AIR. And thank you for welcoming us into your studio. I'd love it if you would start by reading the very opening from the forward of your book.
It's really a fantastic book, and I'd like our listeners to just hear a little bit of your writing. SPRINGSTEEN: OK, my pleasure. (Reading) I come from a boardwalk town where almost everything is tinged with a bit of fraud. So am I. By 20, no race-car-driving rebel. I was a guitar player on the streets of Asbury Park and already a member in good standing amongst those who lie in service of the truth - artists with a small A. But I held four clean aces. I had youth, almost a decade of hardcore bar band experience, a good group of homegrown musicians who were attuned to my performance style, and a story to tell. This book is both a continuation of that story and a search into its origins. I've taken as my parameters the events in my life I believe shaped that story and my performance work. One of the questions I'm asked over and over again by fans on the street is - how do you do it? In the following pages, I'll try to shed a little new-lights on how and, more importantly, why. GROSS: Thanks for reading that.
So what's it like for you to write something that doesn't have to rhyme and that you don't have to perform on stage? SPRINGSTEEN: (Laughter) That's actually - not having to perform it on stage is a good one. But it's a little different, you know? It's - I'm used to writing something, it becomes a record, it comes out. Then I go perform and I play it and I get this immediate feedback from the audience. So that's been the pattern of my life.