Those words from Bruce Springsteen's The River got me thinking about this idea of singular dreams and how they define who we are and what we do.
I dive into what this potentially means and what it, perhaps, should mean for us, in today's episode.
All tagged Bruce Springsteen
Time Away From Old Friends...
The song “Born To Run” is probably one of, if not THE, most popular Bruce Springsteen songs ever. Written in 1974 and released in 1975, the song became famous as much for its lyrics as its “wall of sound”. Ostensibly, it’s a love song that, at its core, is about a young man’s desire to get out of Freehold, New Jersey, but, really, it’s about our desire for freedom, our passions and going after whatever we believe in.
It’s one of the most played songs by The Boss and it’s highly unlikely that anyone reading this hasn’t at least heard of the song. In fact, particularly in the days before digital media, when live radio was in its prime
"Is A Dream Alive If It Dont Come True?"
“Is a dream alive if it don’t come true, or is it something worse?”
I’ve been thinking a lot about Bruce’s words from The River. There’s a gravity in them - a sense of frustration, but more than that, a sense of finality and hopelessness.
Now, I know the specifics of that song and the context within which he sang those words, but as with all things Bruce, his words apply to so much of how we live our lives and the paths we choose to take and the people we choose to love.
Lessons From Springsteen On Broadway
By the time Bruce Springsteen released his first album, Greetings From Asbury Park, NJ, in 1973, he’d already had almost a decade of playing experience under his belt. He’d started playing back in 1964 with a band called The Rogues, then another, then another, ultimately morphing into the now famous E Street Band.
That first album met with critical acclaim but little commercial success. The one after (The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle) fared pretty much the same, and he didn’t really achieve commercial success until Born To Run was released in 1975.
Bruce, Bobby Jean And A Lesson From A Pop Song
The year was 1984. Bruce Springsteen's Born In The USA album had just come out and I was doing my best to wear out the cassette on my Sony Walkman.
I remember sitting by the window in the tiny bedroom that I shared with my two older brothers in Hong Kong. Eyes closed, headphones on, volume on 10.