Bruce's Letter to Us
Letter to You is perhaps Springsteen's most explicitly autobiographical music.
My old friend Bob Doyle didn’t just make us a playlist for his review of Bruce Springsteen’s Letter to You. He sent liner notes: “You might want to give the readers an FYI on the playlist. I start with a track from Letter to You, the latest album and then immediately follow it with a song from Bruce’s catalog that the new song reminds me of in some way…a lyric, sound, subject, instrumental usage, etc. Nothing formal, just fun. I hope this is what you wanted.” Yes, Bob. This is what I wanted. You’re going to want to read his review of Letter to You even if you’re not big on Springsteen. It sneaks up on you. Enjoy.
by Bob Doyle
In a year dominated by asymmetry of historic proportions, leave it to Bruce Springsteen to release his 20th studio album amid the closing days of the 2020 presidential election and claim that it is non-political. More on that later. All praise to the Rock 'n Roll Gods that the symmetrical intersection of Bruce Springsteen, human existential reflection (contradiction noted) and 1,000 ass-kicking guitars has been delivered – non-postage due along with your completely filled out absentee ballot – via the brilliant and confounding Letter to You.
Before we get started, this is a “review” only by the loosest of definitions. I’m in the tank for Bruce so it is never a question of if I like the new music he puts out, it is a question of how much. Now that we have an understanding, let’s get going.
A Springsteen record from The Boss in his 70s. An album whose unexhumed lyrical foundation is about death, loss, and aging. But in Bruce’s world where transformation is a tangible thing, pain and grief give way to joy and gratitude, to brotherhood and living.
Letter is of a piece with his recent writings: best-selling memoir, Tony-winning Broadway show and 2019’s Western Stars. Bruce has grown more comfortable in sharing his personal life with his audience during these last years, and much of that surely has been driven by aging and loss. In Letter to You, we hear perhaps the most explicitly autobiographical music he has ever released.
In Letter to You, we hear perhaps the most explicitly autobiographical music he has ever released.
And what we hear on the record is a classic E Street sound impossibly elevated. It really sounds like nothing he’s put out before. Why? Bruce has said that after he wrote the album he had lunch with E Street pianist Roy Bittan to show him the songs. Bittan suggested that instead of Bruce pre-arranging the music – the typical way the E Street Band has made music over the last 20 years – that the band go into the studio and record the album live. Good call.
It transforms the very sound, pacing and flow in a way that overdubs and post-production could never do. There is an explosive vibrance to the music that is, frankly, more consistent with the band’s live shows than the studio releases. Every instrument is forward yet knit together cohesively. Bruce’s lead vocals lean heavily on the beautiful, but seldom used, high reaches of his range. There is serious sensory overload when Little Steven Van Zandt steps in to harmonize, which, is blessedly common and a clear nod to 1980’s “The River” double album. The album sounds effortless to those of us who see the shows. There are five decades of considerable craftsmanship and brotherhood that define this sound.
There is a six-song core of the album. A three-pack of songs about what it means to be part of a band, losing members along the way, and celebrating the birth of new music with bandmates who have endured for so long. This is the beating heart of Letter. Bruce has said the seeds of this album were planted after the 2018 death of George Theiss, the lead singer of the first band Bruce was in as a teenager. “Last Man Standing” recounts George and those experiences while praying to honor the memories “deep into the heart of the crowd.” In the luminous rocker “Ghosts” Bruce emphatically answers the question he poses to his audiences every night… “I’m alive!” And, in “Letter to You” there’s an expression of unabashed joy and reflection on lessons learned (“I wrote ‘em all out in ink and blood”) through his friendship and long earned years of working and creating with the band.
Bruce counts “House of a Thousand Guitars” as one of his favorite songs ever. In it he creates a musical heaven for himself, his bandmates and his fans. This is Bruce’s aria, with nods to “Jungleland” (“churches and jails”) and “The Rising” (“we’ll rise together till we find the spark”) that dissolves into a lush, full-band coda.
Bruce counts “House of a Thousand Guitars” as one of his favorite songs ever.
In the best traditions of Bruce’s records that continue to be vital today – Darkness, The River, Born to Run – there is no randomness to the order of the tracks. “One Minute You’re Here” – the only pure ballad on the album – leads off and makes plain we will be dealing with serious subjects on this record with a “big black train comin’ down the track.” The album’s final song is the shimmering “I’ll See You in My Dreams” an obvious homily to former E Streeters Clarence Clemons and Danny Federici where Bruce borrows from Bob Dylan to declare the ultimate meaning of the album: “Death is not the end.”
Love and passion come alive in “Burnin’ Train,” a hard rocker with a heavy dose of Max Weinberg on the drum kit; “Power of Prayer,” where Professor Roy Bittan takes a star turn on piano and the haunting “Janey Needs a Shooter.” “Janey” is a white whale to E Street fans. It was written in 1972 and the band made a stab at recording it in 1979. Bootlegs have kept it alive for decades. It was worth the wait. Magnificent harmonizing. Complete integration of every instrument. A lead vocal that dances with Max’s masterful pacing. A chilling coda that will quiet arenas of the future. Classic Springsteen writing… “I so long had been prepared for her.” Confounding. In a good way. How could something this captivating have been kept in the dark for so long?
“Song for Orphans” and “If I Was a Priest” were also written in the early 1970’s and left behind somehow. “Priest” is a lyrical odyssey emblematic of Bruce’s early work and neatly marries Charlie Giordano’s organ with the band’s guitars. If you reach for a lyrics sheet you’ll be treated to a story which stars Jesus as a sheriff and Mary, who runs a saloon, and “sells her body on Monday.”
Did I ever tell you about the time I heard Bruce Springsteen serenade Barack and Michelle Obama?
Although “Rainmaker” was supposed to have been written prior to the rise of Donald Trump, it paints a vivid picture of a demagogue who exploits the vulnerable. This is akin to the angry, necessary music Bruce wrote on Magic. Sometimes its good to be angry. Here it seems especially righteous: “Sometimes folks need to believe in something so bad they’ll hire a rainmaker.” Yes. Sometimes they do.
Now, as an homage to Jason Stanford…did I ever tell you about the time I heard Bruce Springsteen serenade Barack and Michelle Obama?
It was 12 years ago this past Sunday night. In a small, old theater in New York City. In nine days, Obama would be elected President, and me and the few hundred others in attendance knew that very well and were willing to pay way too much for our seats. Mine was at the front of a small balcony that very nearly hung over the stage. I felt like Lincoln up there. Remember Lincoln? He’s the President that did almost as much as Trump did for black people.
So, the big draw of the night was the joint appearance of Bruce and Billy Joel, which was as good as you’d hope it would be. Billy did his stuff, they did stuff together – kind of spectacular to hear Bruce singing “New York State of Mind.” John Legend was there, and he was solid, too. But, obviously, to avoid injuries and other atrocities, Bruce was given the anchor leg of the night which turned out to be about 90 minutes.
He sat on a barstool and she kind of just fit herself into him.
About midway through his set, behind the curtains at the back of the stage, I saw the Obamas walk in. Given the angle of how the curtains hung I am certain that only the few of us in that forward box could see. He sat on a barstool and she kind of just fit herself into him. His arms around her. They listened to the rest of the set just like that. Swaying and softly dancing as Bruce commanded the place.
That memory I’ll hold on to.
OK, a final thought about Letter to You supposedly being a non-political record. By any normal, objective measurement it is undeniably non-political. Over his career, Bruce has written purposefully many times about the country, our civic life, war, economic pain in a highly critical, responsible voice. Of course, we don’t live in normal times so definitions aren’t always so neat these days. This album was released 12 days before a critical election that could well determine the fate of our democracy.
So perhaps it’s because I’m more politically charged now that at any point in my life that I choose to find rich political meaning in Letter to You. I hear a recitation of a set of values that I thought me and my countrymen shared: brotherhood, love, grace, peace, the transformation of pain and loss into joy and connection. How necessary has it been these last four years to find voices who could speak with authority and integrity on these matters? People who could breathe life and vitality into these values and give us hope that one day they would be restored at the high reaches of our government. And at a time when the President actively perverted these values every day. I’ve been grateful more than ever for Bruce Springsteen’s voice through these times.
So, by the standards of this asymmetrical year, and the past four years, I find “Letter to You” to be a heart-stopping, pants-dropping, earth-quaking, air conditioner-shaking, legendary political album.
Thanks, Bruce.
Bob Doyle is a political consultant. His previous byline for The Experiment was “We Need Bruce Springsteen” in May.
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