The Boss

  The Boss & The Big Man - 1978 
  Originally uploaded by KBlood.

Bob Lefsetz had this to say about Bruce Springsteen in his Less Than Sold Out post which in its entirety made for some very entertaining reading:

Bruce Springsteen with the Seeger Sessions Band
DTE Energy Music Center, Clarkston, MI-Saturday 6/17
Gross: $582,374
Sold/Capacity: 8,035/15,274

Let me put this in perspective.  Four days later, at the exact same venue, the GIN BLOSSOMS outsold Bruce.  Sure, tickets were a fraction of the price, but what should Bruce be charging anyway, isn’t he a man of the people, doesn’t he have ENOUGH money?

Then, a night after the Gin Blossoms, PAT BENATAR outsold the Boss.

Hate to tell you this, but Bruce Springsteen is a B-level artist.

Oh, he’s TALENTED, has made some great records, but he’s no Bob Dylan. And, he hasn’t put out a good record since "The Streets Of Philadelphia".

And now, even the fans have had enough.  Oh, they came back to see the E Street Band, but that’s all they’re interested in, nostalgia, and the grosses for those original band shows were declining too.

Sure, this is a hefty number.  I just want to state that the ink the Boss gets IS NOT COMMENSURATE with the size of his fanbase.

People under the age of twenty five, THIRTY, truly don’t give a shit.

Oh, I love that he takes a stand against Bush.  I loved seeing him do "Jungleland" at the Bottom Line.  I have such fond memories of "Candy’s Room".  But after he sold out and made a commercial album with "Born In The U.S.A." I had my suspicions.  And he’s never done much to dissuade me that he’s lost his way.

Now was the time for originals, not covers.

People believe in Neil Young.  Somehow, fans adore Bruce, but they just don’t believe in him the same way anymore.

Can’t we see the alienated fuck again?  The loner with something to prove as opposed to the cheerleader for baby boomer contentment?

And to Bob’s credit he published a bunch of email he got on the Less Than Sold Out post, including this one from Harlan Frey:

You are an IDIOT to say that springsteen is B level.  He is a career  artist. One that does not depend on selling out on any level to achieve success. One that does not depend on commercial airplay or video each  record in order to do platinum business.

And record wise...'The Rising' was one of THE BEST Bruce records to date.  Your taste is FUCKED if you can't appreciate this record.  Might I add that  Bruce is  by far one of the most riveting, compelling LIVE entertainers in  the biz. Please take that west coast head of yours out of your ass.

I didn’t grow up a Bruce fanatic like so many of my generation, but I love The Boss; for Rosita, for Darkness, for Born to Run, for Nebraska, for The Rising when we needed it, and for his love of American music and performing. He is not anywhere near a “B level artist”.

I was driving down El Camino Real tuesday night listening to KFOG and Manfred Mann’s cover of Blinded By The Lights came on. Wow. What a great song that is. And behind all that psychedelia, you hear Bruce’s words and they are in his voice. That’s what makes Bruce every bit as much of a legend in my mind at Dylan, Woodie Guthrie, and the other greats of American music.

And it may be true that people under the age of 25, 30 “don’t give a shit” about The Boss, but I was witness to one ten year old boy, my son Josh, who was up on his toes with his hands over his head clapping to the beat for two hours at the Seeger Sessions show last month.

And I will remember for a long long time his look up at my eyes and his saying, “this is a great show Dad”.

That’s because Bruce is one of the greatest performers ever. He brings it every night and never lets the crowd down. I don’t want “the loner with something to prove” again Bob. I just want The Boss in whatever form he comes in. That’s plenty good for me.

Comments

[Jeramey Jannene]

Add one more to the total of under 25 Bruce Springsteen fans. He's stll popular with my generation of almost 20 year olds, however, his music doesn't get played at bars as often as say John Mellencamp's "Small Town".

[JayR]

I'm not a Springsteen fan, but I appreciate who he is and what he means to other people. He could probably sell out Giants Stadium for a couple of weeks every year, bring the E Street Band together and play all of his hits through "Born in the USA", and everyone would go crazy. But he doesn't do that. He does what has meaning to him, and you have to admire him for it. That's what true artists do.

Maybe someday there will be a Vegas revue with a soundalike Springsteen and Bob Lefsetz can see the "alienated fuck" he's looking for.

It would be great if Elvis Costello came back and did another angry young man album like This Year's Model or Armed Forces, and then did another tour like he used to in the '70s where he'd play a blistering one-hour set, go off stage without an encore and turn up the feedback in the theater so everyone would run out into the streets holding their ears. But wouldn't that look kind of silly now?

[Al From Chicago]

Lefsetz misses the point. I have been going to Springsteen shows since he opened the Brendan Byrne Arena in 1980. I've seen E Street, Tom Joad, Seeger, LuckyTown, tons of shows.

No one brings it like the Boss. Every show of his has more energy, enthusiasm, and infectious joy of performing than any other artist I've seen. And even non to slight fans of his get turned on by the shows. Agreed on the Rising, and even though I don't agree at all with his politics, I thought it was a pretty darn honorable thing to do in bringing back Pete Seeger's music.

The point of Bruce is that he IS faithful to his own artistic muse; not to to LA-based/Clooney/Neil Young knee jerk stuff. He has always done what HE thinks is important, not which way the wind blows. Finally even in Born in the USA -- the title song alone is pretty darn true to his Politics.

[jackson]

I think that Bob misses the point, and so does everyone else for that matter. All this says is that the people in Clarkston Michigan have really crappy taste.

The Boss is still the Boss, as he will always be, despite he fact that he's *"fucking up rock and roll, fuckin' it all up".

(* According to Pee Wee in "Nice Dreams"....."Hamburger!")

[Tony Alva]

Just another example of Bob's misguidedness as far as I'm concerned.

[charlie crystle]

Amen.

[scott partee]

I read all of Bob's stuff (on your recommendation). He is wildly inconsistent, but always entertaining. I don't think his dis of the Boss was really warranted when, in fact, the Boss is doing exactly what Bob seems to hold up as the IDEAL -- being a career-oriented artist in it for the long haul.

I think the Boss sold out and learned his lesson and went back to doing what he wanted to do. He had his Annie L. photos, his model wife, his multi-platinum hits and sold out three-year arena tour. It was enough to thrill anyone, but obviously it didn't thrill the Boss for the long term.

He dumped the model and married the musician. He made TWO records as his followup to Born in the USA (commercial and chart suicide was the general impression of the day), and that was that. He washed his hands of it.

Now, about the ticket prices, AMEN, brother Bob. WTF is up with these people? The METERS are charging $50.00-$75.00 here in Vienna. Who the fsck can or even wants to pay that?

[Bruce Springsteen is killing rock and roll]

Soooooooooooo over rated. Saw him in concert and was totally bored. 6 songs that run 30 minutes each. The constant back and forth singing with the audience gets old real quick. He's finished.