Bruce Springsteen - Classic or Dud ?

Ah yes, how can I forget the time Bruce's crouch came rocketing at us like a missile?

Jeep's main concern is whether their demo agrees with that vision

xp

*crotch

America's crotch.

I don’t know a ton about Bruce, I guess I just didn’t know he was that into Jesus and stuff

same

his crotch surrounded us, everything went black

I don't think it showed before, but after the E Street Band reunited he worked the Catholic imagery like hell. On tour it was like a gospel revival, but then when he did The Rising it's all the lyrics, and of course he's made numerous references to his Catholic upbringing with his recent projects. It's like that old saying about people getting old and going to services more like they're getting an insurance policy - I've had priests and rabbis confirm the same thing, they typically see a lot of older faces they've never seen before.

*all over the lyrics

I can think of few artists as famously rooted and steeped in Catholicism as Bruce. Scorsese, I guess.

He talks a lot in his book about how important religion was to him as a kid, to a surprising degree. That was new to me as well.

"hes a superwealthy white guy clinging like grim death to a midcentury vision of what america ought to look like, he has a few blind spots"

Well, yeah. I was more just responding to the people I've seen on Twitter arguing, somewhat strenuously, that this was actually a pro-MAGA commercial. Which it wasn't. Just a tone deaf, earnest "unity plea" that falls flat.

I don’t know a ton about Bruce, I guess I just didn’t know he was that into Jesus and stuff

same here...

I just watched the ad, and didn't find it as shocking & hardcore as I had assumed it would be (from some of these reactions) - but even assuming the best intentions, I don't know how he thinks that it will change a single heart or mind. I also agree that sending this msg in the context of an ad feels somewhat cynical or clueless. Mainly, I just thought he looked silly in that crisp jacket & scarf, driving the Jeep, putting on the hat, etc.

Bruce has had that tent-preacher streak for a while, but he used to disguise it as shtick, or as The Church of Rock And Roll, or as allegory or something; him coming out and saying "yup, I believe in God and Jesus" is pretty new. I think it's partly that he's getting more religious in old age and partly that he's deliberately leaning into religion to try to speak a language that will appeal to Trump supporters.

sorry jon i dont mean to come at you about it, it just got me hot under the collar for a sec

I can think of few artists as famously rooted and steeped in Catholicism as Bruce. Scorsese, I guess.

A lot of the great auteur filmmakers deal with Catholicism or Christianity - Bresson, Bergman, Rivette, Ford, McCarey, etc. (and don't forget Paul Schrader).

Not so much rock though, not unless you go back to something like the Sun artists (Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash, etc.) or soul artists who already have gospel connections (Sam Cooke, Aretha Franklin, Al Green, I think Marvin Gaye, etc.)

sorry jon i dont mean to come at you about it, it just got me hot under the collar for a sec

I didn't think you were and I don't disagree with you, really - he's not the guy to be delivering this message at this point in time. I was more reacting against the motives being ascribed to him on social media, which I think are pretty wrong.

Oh yeah, Schrader for sure. (Especially because I was thinking of living folks, anyway.) Rock ... there's U2, of course.

craig finn

Hey it didn't work for the right-wing either

https://thefederalist.com/2021/02/08/the-3-worst-things-about-that-terrible-jeep-super-bowl-ad/

Can't help thinking of the guy near the middle of this Dan Melchior drawing

https://www.instagram.com/p/CHYs7Jalp8z/

Yeah I remember being surprised to hear that U2 kind of started off like a Christian rock band. Not lyrically, but in terms of how they saw themselves, their faith, what they were doing with their music, etc. I'm sure that's had some role in shaping their music over the years, but I don't find it noticeable.

I've been looking at reactions to Springsteen's ad around social media - i.e. people I know - and it really drives home the point that anyone who thinks they can make a message that will speak to all Americans and unite them is kidding themselves. It ain't gonna happen - the differences in opinion make it impossible. Springsteen's much more of a romantic than I'll ever be, but I don't think he's so delusional that he thinks he can craft a message that will have a profound effect on everyone across the entire sociopolitical spectrum, and see who's responding positively to it (and why) I think Lily's pretty much got the right idea.

*seeing who's

*crotch

Groin in the U.S.A.

(Rejected joeks:

Wrecking Balls

Ghost of Tom Choad

Human Crotch)

(...provided just so you can see that I considered - yet discarded - several inferior options, and went with the most elegant pun, which I continue to belive is "Groin in the U.S.A.".)

The P4K thinkpiece is in: https://pitchfork.com/thepitch/bruce-springsteen-jeep-super-bowl-commercial/

I def feel One Eye Open on this. We just talked about how Bruce is (to me) too American (on the musical controp thread) and this is an unsettling iteration of: "You thought I too American? Buddy, you ain't seen nothing yet! I'm gonna do one better, by preaching sanctimonious bullshit, not in church, but in the most American medium: the most expensive add to sell cars!"

xp Good piece, imo

It is.

One more thing about filmmakers steeped in Catholicism (which should be in another thread, but I'm following up on one point made here), I want to say Leo McCarey's best work has done the most effective job in getting across how his Catholic faith has shaped his work. Great filmmaker with a varied and interesting career, he actually got his start directing a lot of great comedies with Charley Chase, Laurel & Hardy and the Marx Brothers' best film Duck Soup. He became especially successful doing more or less his own personal films like Make Way for Tomorrow (a flop but it's possibly his greatest film), The Awful Truth, Love Affair, etc. McCarey made Love Affair twice, again as An Affair to Remember, and as Dave Kehr has written, "just like Love Affair, in which the Catholic theme is even more pronounced, McCarey depicts the relationship between his characters as a step-by-step development from a casual sexual attraction to a sanctified union, a transformation that must be earned through sacrifice and suffering." I was skeptical about it because of Sleepless in Seattle, and it is indeed an imperfect movie, but it ultimately won over for the reasons described by Kehr. Speaking as a complete agnostic, I found those aspects of the movie deeply moving. McCarey made some thoroughly mediocre films when he tapped into that well (like Going My Way, but still a massive hit and won Best Picture) and he made a thoroughly disgusting one in My Son John (if you narrowly see it as a domestic drama, it's quite powerful, but the reactionary politics are impossible to ignore). But as a line of communication to a very different philosophy, he sticks out as someone that I like to watch - the common ground usually translates into something great.

xp That pitchfork piece is great.

"Ghost of Tom Choad" is where i lost it

Some jokes just write themselves

TMZ is reporting that Bruce was busted for DWI in Jersey back in November. I can usually find excuses for most of the things Bruce does, but it's a real dick move to agree to make a car commercial without disclosing to the ppl paying you that you are about to appear in court for a DWI.

Imagine being that, er, state trooper.

Even song title reference aside, imagine being the cop that pulls over Bruce for reckless driving in NJ.

I imagine most cops would let the Boss off with a warning, which does kind of make me wonder if this has happened before.

For sure a mug shot would be a better album cover than 90% of his covers.

Again we return to the "Storytellers" strip club story Josh posted a month ago.

“I used to like to go to strip clubs. Back before they were fancy. Back in the prehistoric days before the lap dancing. One time, as I reached the parking lot, a man and a woman spied me and said ‘Bruce, you aren’t supposed to be here.’ I could see where they were going with the whole thing, so I said, ‘I’m not. I am simply an errant figment of one of Bruce’s many selves. I drift in the ether over the highways and byways of the Garden State, often touching down in image-incongruous but fun places. Bruce does not even know I’m missing. He is at home right now, doing good deeds.’ That usually stupefies and satisfies them. Hey, I gotta get through the world somehow.”

I wonder if Bruce, stopped by a cop, tried this defense. "Actually, Officer, Bruce does not even know I'm here. He's at home doing good deeds. I'm just one of Bruce's many figmental ethereal selves, drifting in the ether."

"Yes, Bruce. You and your many selves were drifting in the 'ether' if by that you mean across the center divider."

"sir is that an open bottle of ether in your hand?"

Saw an errant figment of one of Bruce’s many selves handcuffed to the bumper of a state trooper’s Ford

"Hey, I gotta HICCUP get through the world HICCUP somehow..."

I've felt for some time that Bruce is most likely an alcoholic and in denial about it; hopefully this will wake him up but I doubt it. It takes a lot of denial to a. do your own driving instead of paying a driver when you're as rich as Bruce is, and b. make a fucking Jeep commercial for the fucking Super Bowl a few months after getting busted.

oh my boy

Is DWI the same as DUI? /nonmurican

its different between different states but my understanding is DWI always refers to alcohol intoxication while DUI generally refers to other 'impairments' that can be observed but not tested for onsite, i.e. drugs.

I see, thanks.

Sorry to keep beating a dead horse; clearly I have too much emotionally invested in Bruce Springsteen-as-human-being rather than Bruce-Springsteen-as-artist, but this both pisses me off and bums me out.

It's one thing to get a DWI. It's obviously shitty and irresponsible to drive drunk, but we're talking about someone with an unpredictable mental illness and an unacknowledged drinking problem, a year into a pandemic that's exacerbated everyone's mental health issues. The actual arrest is depressing but not all that surprising.

But the sheer entitlement of agreeing to be in the world's most visible car commercial, a couple weeks before his court date, and not thinking he has to disclose it, just blows my mind. Did he think it wouldn't come out? Did he convince himself people loved him too much to care even if it did come out? Did he just think he was too important to have to change his plans or behavior because of a DWI?

I don't normally find myself feeling bad for people who handle advertising for car companies, but imagine spending a decade trying to get Bruce Springsteen to be in your ad, finally succeeding, and then finding out three days later that he hid this from you. Motherfucker.

I don't follow the minutiae, but has there been worry about Springsteen's drinking habits for a while?