29th
Bruce Springsteen - Thunder Road
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Now that the design is finally up, I figured I’d put up another “oldie” — one that’s been so influential for the creation of this blog.
My inspiration for starting this came from a number of sources, but the one who deserves the most credit is Nick Hornby. High Fidelity (the movie) really got to me, even as a young teenager, and it spoke to me on an even deeper level when I read the book a few years later.
This past year, I’ve been on a Hornby kick, and his integration of music into everything he does is just… fantastic. You can really see his passion.
God, I just stopped typing for a whole 20 seconds. Which, when you have as much to say about this track as I do in such a limited time just showcases its power and hope, its majestic beauty in its depiction of the American way.
Wow. Thinking back at what I just wrote, that would be one of the most pretentious things I’ve ever said about music if it weren’t about Thunder Road.
I grew up a little jaded with Springsteen. My parents loved him, but I just never got his style of music. All I knew of his at the time were the anthems, mainly Born In The USA. I found him cheesy and cliché. And, in fact, I still think that era of his music is cheesy and cliché. But I understand it now. I understand where it’s coming from, the artist behind it.
Now it has meaning.
I guess that, sometimes, to really truly understand something, you *NEED* to start in the beginning — or at least the early days — when someone’s gunning for their loftiest dream, not yet a reality.
