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Springsteen at Seventy
An Appreciation of The Boss on His Birthday
Compared to most people I know, I’m a relatively new Springsteen fan.
It’s not like I hadn’t heard of the guy in my formative years. There’s a great story (which deserves its own post) involving my beloved, late Uncle Doug giving me a Springsteen autograph. I remember liking “Tunnel of Love” when it was released. And during my college years, two of my best friends lived down the hall from someone who was (and still is) the biggest Bruce fan I’ve ever known. When I think about that time, that dorm, that group of friends, The Boss is a big part of the soundtrack in my mind.
That was all circa 1987–1989.
My husband, who I met in 1990 and have been with ever since, likes to take credit for introducing me to Bruce. “You never listened to him before you met me,” he says, and to some extent that’s true because I never listened closely enough. To appreciate Bruce, you need to listen to the lyrics and let them seep into your soul, and while I was beginning to like his music more and more, for whatever reason I just didn’t take the time to listen deeply.
That all changed with the release of “Streets of Philadelphia,” the title track of the 1993 movie of the same name.
