Posted on 09/23/2016 2:56:37 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
"The republic is under siege by a moron," Springsteen says in excerpts from upcoming Rolling Stone feature. "It's a tragedy for our democracy"
Bruce Springsteen spent the summer playing stadiums with the E Street Band and preparing to release his autobiography, Born To Run, while largely staying clear of this year's presidential campaigns. In an excerpt from an extensive interview that will appear in the next issue of Rolling Stone, Springsteen shares his thoughts on Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, while addressing his own absence from the trail. RELATED
Bruce Springsteen Talks Throat Surgery, Depression, New Music Musician opens up about his troubled relationship with his father, family's history of mental illness ahead of new autobiography What do you make of the Trump phenomenon? Well, you know, the republic is under siege by a moron, basically. The whole thing is tragic. Without overstating it, it's a tragedy for our democracy. When you start talking about elections being rigged, you're pushing people beyond democratic governance. And it's a very, very dangerous thing to do. Once you let those genies out of the bottle, they don't go back in so easy, if they go back in at all. The ideas he's moving to the mainstream are all very dangerous ideas – white nationalism and the alt-right movement. The outrageous things that he's done – not immediately disavowing David Duke? These are things that are obviously beyond the pale for any previous political candidate. It would sink your candidacy immediately.
(Excerpt) Read more at rollingstone.com ...
Bruce- Like your old friend Mulheren would tell you, “Shut up and sing!”
The dirt bag who lived under the board walk, like the bum he is, and I know a young lady who worked for a music magazine who paid for his food when he was a no body, should shut his stupid mouth and try to pronounce his words better
When he finally gets to two-dimensional thinking, the rest of us will have already left the building.
Well, at least he's wealthy, and can enjoy life in ignoRANT hypocrisy... :)
He's just green because Trump's bigger than he is.
Riiight. After all, what would Trump know about creating jobs, growing the economy, and national security compared to a no talent Socialist?
As far as young people go, in 2016 Rolling Bones magazine is right up there with Architectural Digest, Plumbing Today, the Weekly Standard and Outdoor Power Equipment Monthly.
They were mailing RS out free to try and gin up some interest.
Always felt the same about Springsteen and his music, even before he began to preach to the “morons” who bought his crap on how to vote. I, for one, never spent one cent on his messy garbage.
I was also raised in NJ. I hear Springsteen’s music as simple, lazy crap. I do agree with you about Trump being brilliant, though.
Bruce, just STFU and take a long ride down Highway 9! ;)
Of Course, you are a limo liberal, so STFU.
Better not, they hate MUSIC...
On second thought, your music isn't music, so they might not behead you....
Bruce was exposed for what a no-talent poseur he really is when the Kennedy Honors asked him to sing a Bob Dylan song. Dylan’s voice is itself so idiosyncratic, you can’t imagine someone could mess it up. But Springsteen did. I was embarrassed for him.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wa0fOE-x84k
Speaking of Dylan, I came across a 1966 New Yorker I was saving, and found that it had a music review of “Bringing It All Back Home” and “Highway 61 Revisited.” Some excerpts:
For a while there one could scarcely turn on the car radio without hearing that edgy, insistent voice raised in scornful measures of his own “Like a Rolling Stone.”...
His songs range from fairly simple plaints in a familiar folk vein to diatribes in which musical form — rudimentary in his work at best — is forced to yield to his pell-mell exhortations...
Before Dylan’s emergence as a popular performer in his own right, his pieces depended for their success on the melodious delivery of such folk singers as Peter, Paul & Mary or Joan Baez...
[He] adopted the rock-’n’-roll apparatus, and in the latter recording [Highway 61 Revisited] a sizable combo (amplified guitars, piano, organ, drums, and bass) helps create a considerable racket...
Bye bye Bruce.
Saw him once in 1992. I would rate the show about a 7 out of 10. Was never compelled to see him again though. I hear enough of his political views here on FR as it is.
I liked the New Yorker review because I thought the put-downs were so funny. I love that understated style of panning something, with a raised eyebrow as if to say, “What is this crap?”, but not coming right out and saying it so bluntly. LOL!
I never bought that line that the musical part of Dylan’s songs wasn’t good. I thought the tunes as tunes (without considering the lyrics) were great, and the arrangements too. (And I thought the lyrics were outstanding poetry.) The only caveat would be, when I used to get sheet music, the Dylan songs had very simple chords, while the Beatles sheet music had all kinds of complicated chords. Does that mean the Beatles were a lot more sophisticated musically than Dylan, or does it just mean that whoever transcribed Dylan’s songs was just not doing a very good job?
The New Yorker review closes by comparing Dylan unfavorably with the 1930s protest songs:
“Dylan’s protest songs, not to mention those of his imitators, are much less interesting, both musically and lyrically, than such notable songs of the depression days as can be found in, say, Harold Rome’s ‘Pins and Needles’ score. They lack, among other things, the artistic detachment and the attendant humor and grace that distinguish the latter.”
The reviewer knows something’s happening, but he don’t know what it is.
On a side note, Dylan hated criticism. I’m sure his “friends” showed his this review at the time, and I can see him blowing his stack LOL.
LOL! Good one!
A few years ago there was a story about Bob wandering around a seashore town in New Jersey where he was to appear later that evening, just looking around, wearing a hoodie. Someone was scared of him examining the outside of a house with a for sale sign and called police. A young Hispanic policewoman picked him up. He had left his ID on the tour bus, wasn't carrying a cell phone, and she didn't know who he was. She took him to the police station and one of the older white cops recognized him.
When I read this story it quite unexpectedly brought tears to my eyes. I thought, "What are the chances of running into Bob Dylan in an elevator or someplace, and having a moment just to talk with him? The policewoman had him in her car for 15 or 20 minutes, and it was as if a child dug up a precious stone, played around with it and then tossed it in the creek. I pictured Bob just riding along with her, being present in the moment and either enjoying the anonymity or taking curious interest in an unexpected experience.
A few years ago I would've said he'd just mumble something, but his autobiography and his XM radio show sounded like you could have a normal conversation with him.
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