Customer Reviews

It Ain't No Sin to Be Glad You're Alive : The Promise of Bruce Springsteen

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I just finished reading Eric Alterman's brand new book on Bruce Springsteen, entitled "It Ain't No Sin To Be Glad You're Alive -- The Promise of Bruce Springsteen," and I can safely say it is a very solid, well-researched, and thoughtful book. The book is definitely a worthy read.

Alterman's book is not so much a biography (which in many ways it is), as much as it is a substantive and interesting look at Springsteen's artistic work and productive career. As a result, the reader gets an insightful feel for where Springsteen fits in the grand scheme of American history and pop culture, as well as a meaningful human portrait of a rock 'n' roll icon.

Most of the book is devoted to conceptual and thematic interpretations of Bruce's albums and songs. However, to avoid purely subjective analysis, Alterman intelligently talks about the political and social times under which these albums were released. This has the overall effect of bringing Springsteen's work ALIVE for the reader and giving him or her the proper context to more fully understand what Bruce was striving for at that point in his career. All the while, there are biographic facts and stories interspersed which helps put flesh and life on the subject. In other words, when you read about Springsteen in Alterman's book you feel like you're actually reading about another human being, not some aloof and detached celebrity.

Alterman is also very fair in his writing. He talks about the legendary triumphs of Born to Run and Nebraska, as well as the artistic struggles and 2nd-rate nature of much of the Human Touch material.

The best element of this book is the human portrait of Bruce Springsteen that emerges. Springsteen has an amazing and unique gift from God and we are blessed to live during a time in which we can appreciate him and his music, first-hand. In so many ways, he has the amazing ability to inspire an intense personal relationship with his art. For many people over the last 25 years, Bruce has been a tremendous source of hope and inspiration, as well as a "reason to believe" on so many days and nights when we felt not so special or unique.

How many artists in any medium can you say this about? The substance-abuse problems, embarassing movie roles, and just plain crap that so many, if not all other, artists put out during their career is wholly absent from Springsteen's career. It's difficult, if not impossible, for me to think of another artist of any worth who has received so much commericial and critical success while still retaining integrity and credibility.

So, Eric Alterman's book not only reminds us of all of these things, but most of all everything that is human about the artist. In the end, we're left not so much with an account of a singer's career for the last 25 or so years, but in some weird way a guide on how to live a life of worth and meaning. A testament of how to go through the storm and come out with your soul and integrity intact. An inspiration to have the will and faith to believe in yourself, as well as your dreams. How not to lose your innocence and aspirations in the face of the harsh reality called becoming an adult in today's world.

As a Springsteen fan, I've read a number of articles and books on him and his music. Alterman's work is probably my favorite. It's interesting, insightful, and rewarding.

Tom Bernardo

Eric Alterman, a Springsteen fan himself, writes with insight and sympathy for Bruce Springsteen, a man who, despite his wealth and success, is still trying to figure himself out and be honest to his core values. Springsteen is trying to be the conscience of America while also it's best concert entertainer backed by the best band in the land. No mean task! No wonder he's such a perfectionist. As other books have implied, Eric Alterman leaves me feeling that Bruce makes all of his fans better for helping them keep in touch with the better angels of their nature. This book will only increase the reader's appreciation for Bruce Springsteen, the man and his art.

I was excited when I learned on the internet that this book was going to be released. Eric Alterman does a great job gathering an enormous amount of information, which he uses to put the reader in the room with Bruce. From the John Hammond audition, to the many late nights in the studio trying to perfect an album, to the night Mr. Alterman got to meet his hero, the reader is right in the middle of it all. Along with this, Alterman sprinkles in personal stories of sacrificing anything to get to see Bruce in concert. Any true fan knows what he is talking about and can relate to his love of Springsteen and his music. The book was so well written that it will cause me to research other things that Alterman has done. Feel free to send me your comments, or if you want a Bruce fan to chat with.

This is a really fun book for someone (like me) who both makes a living working in and writing about politics and who has spent more time than I normally would like to admit listening to the Boss. What's most compelling is Alterman's tracing (in a NOT academic way) Bruce's various views of community. He's picked up several Springsteen references to his nation of fans as an "imagined community", words taken almost directly from Benedict Anderson's book about nationalism that bears the same title.

I have one small reason for not giving this book a fifth star. I would have hoped that a writer of such talent in indentifying various bodies of thought would have been able to secure an interview with Springsteen. Much of this book demands comment from the Boss -- such as hearing what our self-taught muse has read that has influenced him. Occassional comments in other interviews or in concert monologues is an odd way to assemble his thought ... more akin to writing about a dead president than the living king of rock.

Or the quintessentially American tension in his music between rebellion and responsibility. Most rock artists (other than say Dylan) have avoided taking it on directly in their lyrics. What does this say about the limits of Rock as an art form? I want to know what the Boss thinks.

A draft of this manuscript certainly should have been worthy of getting a few hours of Springsteen's time so that he could speak more directly about his ideas. And if Alterman did try to do this and failed, that in itself is a story worth telling.

Still, a really fun read. I read it in two sittings.

"If a body catch a body comin' through the rye" Holden Caulfield would have loved Bruce Springsteen. He's no phony (to us or himself) and Alterman captures that so well.

Bruce has the same frailties that we have, which endears him all the more. My parents died several years ago and the home we grew up in was sold. I found myself driving out of my way to go past the old home without really knowing why. Alterman gives an insight into Bruce having the same unconscious habit that has given me something to think about regarding my own past.

I could not put this book down. There is a lot of human insight in this book that non-fans could even connect with. Alterman knows his subject. It's a great story and my next book is a letdown already.

Having read the vast majority of books on the subject. I am happy to say that this is the most intelligent and most enjoyable. A perfect balance of biography and wider analysis, the book manages to remain mature and interesting while still capturing all the childlike drama and passion of being a Springsteen fan. Where Jim Cullen's work was dry and self concously academic, this book is both human and enlightening. Not a source of the minute biographical detail that would thrill an obsesive fan, but beautifully capturing all that is positive and invigorating about Bruce Springsteen. If you are looking for a good introduction to the subject then this is it. If you are already a convert then this will help to send that shiver of excitement back through your soul.

Notwithstanding a few glaring factual errors, Alterman accomplishes what no other writer has: he explains the rational (in the view of this Bruce nut) near-religious ferver and devotion of Bruce Springsteen's core fans. I want my wife to read this book, so she might understand why I drop everything and fly around the country every few years to see a 50 years old man and his close friends sing and play for three hours a night. The stories are largely derived from Dave Marsh's hagiographies, but the book works.

It Ain't No Sin to be Glad You're Alive, is a critical/biographical look at Springsteen that is wholly objective, yet deeply personal. This combines for a narrative that ultimately moves the reader the way the best of Springsteen's music does - to the emotional realization that rock 'n' roll can matter in our lives, that it does matter. Alterman's occasional personal asides only liven the material. For a reader who is roughly the same age as Springsteen's carreer, the insight into what it felt like to be a teenager when Born to Run came out was especially powerful. Also, as someone who has never seen him in concert, the closing made me feel a little closer to what I missed without creating a larger sense of loss. That is, Alterman connected through his writing and recreated the feeling of the experience as best as one can on paper. A great book for lovers of Springsteen or lovers of rock in general.

More than a biography, this book is more a long essay about the cultural significance of the music of Bruce Springsteen and its far reaching - almost religious - impact on audiences: how Bruce was perceived during the Born to run era, the infamous Time & Newsweek's covers, the hype, the ups of downs of the eighties and the final, successful come back tour. Bruce has always been - except during the Lucky Town/Human Touch episode - a critical success if not always a sales success, and many quotes from rock critics are added to prove the point, and the author does not hide his love for Springsteen's work, but his views are always well-centered.

But the greatest value of this Alterman's work is perhaps the solid interpretation he makes of the albums and the songs. He has helped me see his music and each album under a new light and, must I say it, only deepened my admiration for the Boss.

Eric Alterman has achieved in this book what I belive no other author has been able to achieve when it comes to analysing the music of Bruce Springsteen. In it he delves into the lyrics to Bruce Springsteen songs and how they reflect what stage of life he was experiecing at a certain time in his career.In addition, each albumn is analysed in terms of success and artistic merit, as well as a look at the tours conducted following each record. A must for any long time Bruce Springsteen fan, as well as any new fans of the "Boss".