My first album I ever received/bought was Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the U.S.A.". It took me a few more years for my appreciation of Springsteen's music- as well as its' underlying message- to really resonate with me, but when it did, he had a fan for life.

Springsteen's music can be as stark as any I've ever heard, as solo, acoustic-driven efforts like "Nebraska", "The Ghost of Tom Joad", and "Devils and Dust" have proven, but at the heart of it all is an undying optimism that can't be destroyed. Never is this more clear than in three of my favorite songs of his:

"Atlantic City"- Originally off of "Nebraska," the song's ambient-acoustic sparseness musically in its' originally-recorded version gives it a quiet dispair, but two live performances I've heard tell a different story. Whether from the 1992 "MTV Plugged: In Concert" show he did sans the E-Street Band, or the 2001 "Live in New York City" album that was the result of his reunion tour with his iconic musical family, the song comes alive with a hope that overcomes the song's darker undercurrents.

"Everything dies, baby that's a fact. But maybe everything that dies, someday comes back. Put your makeup on. Put your hair up pretty. And meet me tonight in Atlantic City.

...Well now luck may have died, and our love may be cold. But with you forever I'll stay."

Though you might not know it listening to "Nebraska," take a listen to it from either of these live performances, and you'll hear the true soul behind the lyrics, and the genius in Springsteen as a songwriter and storyteller. Same story, but a different message comes through- instead of being in a down-and-out situation, the protagonist feels full of hope and possibilities. A different energy between the solo acoustic guitar-and-vocals of the album version and the full-band interepretation, with Max Weinberg's drums, the keyboards of Roy Bittan and the late Danny Federici, and the energy of Bruce, Steve Van Zandt, and Nils Lofgren's guitars. Just one of the reasons Bruce and the E-Street has been hailed to be among the best live acts in history.

"No Surrender"- I would use this as Exhibit B in that case. The studio version on "Born in the U.S.A." is full of joy and frivolity, an ode to friendship that rocks and rolls with the same sort of energy you feel when you get together with life-long friends for the first time in a while. But there's a performance on the 3-disc "Live 1975-85" box set put out after the band's "Born in the U.S.A." tour that has made the song my favorite of all-time. It's Bruce with an acoustic guitar and harmonica, slowing down the pace, as if crying out to an old friend, long forgotten, and a friendship lost to time.

"We made a promise, we swore we'd always remember. No retreat, baby, no surrender. Blood brothers on a Summer's night, with a vow to defend. No retreat, baby, no surrender."

Suddenly, what was full of rebellious feeling in the studio is full of longing and intimacy in concert. The message stays the same, but the musical context puts that message into a more emotional, almost elegaic fashion that feels like a calling out to the past than a celebration.

Over the years, I've wondered whether it was the duel versions/interpretations of "No Surrender" that was in my head when I decided to reorchestrate two of my own electronic pieces- "In a Lonely Place" and "Peaceful Meditation"- into chamber works for trombone quartet and piano, respectively. I certainly feel like those early experiments helped me understand my own art better, and maybe help others to do so as well.

"My City of Ruins"- In 2002, Bruce got the E-Street Band together in the studio for their first album in over a decade together with "The Rising". It was one of the first significant artistic expressions of the feelings and thoughts that we all had after the terrorist attacks of 9/11. Though written about New Jersey's Asbury Park (where Bruce is from, and which provided the title of his first album, with the E-Street Band, "Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J."), "My City of Ruins" became associated with the tragedies of 9/11 when Springsteen performed it on a celebrity tribute concert that aired shortly after, but as the closer on the album, the song becomes a fitting tribute to the city of New York after 9/11 with its' chorus of "Rise Up!" over the rock gospel performance of the band. The album itself is one of their best, but in this song, as well as the ones above, Bruce and the E-Street Band are at their best, getting to the heart of the regular Americans struggles from day-to-day.

That's why Springsteen continues to resonate with me to this day. Whether it's a pure rock anthem like "Born in the U.S.A." or "Born to Run", a conceptually-ambitious song like "Outlaw Pete" (off of their latest album- released earlier this year- "Working on a Dream"), "American Skin (41 Shots)" (from the "Live in New York City" album) or "My Hometown", or any number of just plain fun tracks over the years, from "Badlands" to "Dancing in the Dark" and "Glory Days", "Hungry Heart" and "Prove It All Night", and a number of great songs in between, Bruce Springsteen is a man whose beat is on the pulse of blue-collar America. I love his music because I hear a bit of myself in the guy who's "Tougher Than the Rest" in that rocking love song (from "Tunnel of Love"); the hopeless romantic who's content with his passions in "The Wrestler"; and the conductor who knows that "Dreams will not be thwarted" and "Faith will be rewarded" on the train heading to the "Land of Hope and Dreams".

I can't wait to see where his journey will take me next.

Thanks for listening,

Brian Skutle

http://www.sonic-cinema.com