Bruce Springsteen's America: The People Listening, A Poet Singing [Paperback]

Robert Coles (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 9, 2004

In this compelling book, Robert Coles, the celebrated Harvard professor and Pulitzer Prize–winning author, turns his attention to popular music legend Bruce Springsteen, and to the powerful impact Springsteen’s work has had both on the lives of his audience and on this country’s literary tradition. Coles places Springsteen in the pantheon of American artists—Walt Whitman, William Carlos Williams, Dorothea Lange, and Walker Percy, among others—who understood and were inspired by their “traveling companions in time,” the ordinary people of their eras.

With wisdom and a unique personal perspective, Coles explores Springsteen’s words as contemporary American poetry, and offers firsthand accounts of how people interact with them: A trucker listens to “Blinded by the Light” during long, lonely nights and reminisces about his mother; a schoolteacher is astonished when a usually silent student offers a comparison between “Nebraska” and Conrad’s Heart of Darkness; a policeman responds to “American Skin (41 Shots),” reflecting on his own role in his family and community. As these people, and others, candidly discuss the meaning Springsteen’s words have in their lives, Coles listens and, with the special insight and compassion that are the trademarks of his art, sheds new light on “The Boss,” removing the legendary American rock musician from fan-filled stadiums and placing the poet in a greater social, cultural, and philosophical context. Coles sees Springsteen as a representative of a uniquely American documentary tradition—as a sing-ing and traveling poet who does not simply embody the culture of which he is a part but fully engages it, interacting with its people and creating a conversation that has helped to shape a distinct way of looking at, and living, American life today.


From the Hardcover edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The best part of this disappointing work is the dissection of Springsteen's lyrics but Coles's bid to highlight average Americans' interpretation of the Boss's songs falls short on several levels. Many of what are essentially oral interviews with about a dozen everyday Americans-from truck drivers to lawyers-are rambling and at times barely coherent. Curiously, many of the songs they discussed come from Springsteen's Nebraska and The Ghost of Tom Joad, two of Springsteen's least popular albums. The focus on these solo albums may have been a conscious decision by Coles (The Moral Intelligence of Children; Children of Crisis) since they fit his attempt to portray Springsteen as a singer/poet in the manner of Arlo Guthrie, but it leaves out much of Springsteen's best material. And worst of all, the interviews, complete with short biographies of the people featured, generally offer little insight. The liveliest piece is one in which a teacher and her students discuss the messages in several Springsteen songs. Although fans may find themselves singing some of Springsteen's lyrics that appear in the book, the work is mostly full of flat notes.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

In an unusual pairing, famous child psychologist Coles pays homage to rock musician Springsteen. In two long essays that serve, in effect, as a foreword, Coles quotes the late novelist Walker Percy on Springsteen's wide appeal: "His songs are about America, without hyping the country up and without knocking the country down. . . . he sings of us while singing to us." Furthermore, Coles connects Springsteen to another New Jersey native, William Carlos Williams, calling them poets of ordinary American people. And in the sections that follow, that point is underscored as people from all walks of life talk in loving detail, as if they were in a conversation with Springsteen himself, about the musician's lyrics. A cop takes issue with the portrayal of law enforcement in "Highway Patrolman"; a grandmother is moved to tears by the love song "If I Should Fall Behind"; an affluent pre-med student is carried back to the Depression by "The Ghost of Tom Joad." Plainspoken and poignant, their uplifting comments continuously circle the bedrock issues of family, community, and work. Joanne Wilkinson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks (November 9, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0812973003
• ISBN-13: 978-0812973006
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 0.6 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 1.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,912,014 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Robert Coles is professor emeritus at Harvard University and the author of numerous books, including his series Children of Crisis, for which he won a Pulitzer Prize. He has also won a MacArthur Award, a Presidential Medal of Freedom, and a National Humanities Medal. He lives in Massachusetts.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Not exactly Studs Terkel..., November 4, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Bruce Springsteen's America: The People Listening, a Poet Singing (Hardcover)

I had been looking forward to this book for a long time based on what it had been purported to be: the words of actual non-rabid 'lesser' fans speaking about what the music of Bruce Springsteen means to them, says to them. I suppose I let myself imagine a book on the order/level of Studs Terkel's 'Working,' where one can almost hear a variety of different voices speaking of their lives.

Unfortunately, a major problem I had with this book was that the voices Coles chose to include sound very much the same, almost as if one person was doing the writing/speaking and attributing it to different people. Nearly every account has a comment along the lines of "this guy, the Boss, they call him, this Springsteen guy....." which to me sounds like a line from a film. Beyond that, aside from the very first account (a teacher discussing her class going from Wild Billy's Circus Story to the Nebraska album), these people (person?) are speaking but no one seems to quite be saying anything. People recall various lines of songs but few give any insight into themselves as people, as the people Bruce sings about, or how these songs really relate to them aside from being able to recognize some biblical references.

I would suggest that anyone looking to this book as any sort of scholarly work should instead purchase a copy of Jim Cullen's excellent treatment of the way Springsteen, Woody Guthrie and Walt Whitman relate to the country, the world, and each other. And pick up a copy of the aforementioned Terkel book to 'really' hear the way Bruce Springsteen's America speaks. The people interviewed in Working may never mention Bruce Springsteen by name, but they are the characters who populate his work and our lives, much more so than those presented (or portrayed?) in this new book.

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Born to Run -- far away from this book!, July 26, 2004

By 

L. Feld "lowkell" (Arlington, VA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bruce Springsteen's America: The People Listening, a Poet Singing (Hardcover)

My god, this book is awful. How can a "celebrated Harvard professor and Pulitzer Prize-winning author" write such a pretentious, embarassing, ridiculous, overwrought, narcissistic/self-centered, rambling, poorly edited (was it edited at all?), unreadable piece of drivel? Perhaps Coles was looking to cash in on the popularity of "this guy they call 'The Boss,'" or perhaps he was trying to get away from his Harvard ivory tower and slum it for a bit with a few "average Americans," showing what a down-to-earth guy he really is? Unfortunately, those "average Americans'" comments and thoughts, as presented here by Robert Coles, end up as little more than incoherent ramblings which shed no light and provide little if any insight into Springsteen the man or the artist. Is this why Springsteen tries so hard to control what gets written and said about him? So that books like this don't ever get written? My advice to any Springsteen fans (or anyone else) out there thinking about buying this book: you were Born to Run -- far away from this godawful book!

20 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars 1 Star Only Because I Couldn't Give 0, November 10, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Bruce Springsteen's America: The People Listening, a Poet Singing (Hardcover)

I fortunately had the good sense to save my receipt, and returned this awful book almost immediately. If I weren't a fan, this work wouldn't convince me- I'd likely think that Springsteen's audience was cultish and stupidly devoted, and that he was a vapid rich guy masquerading as a modern day Steinbeck or Woody Guthrie. That's the LAST thing that he is, and anyone who really listens to the music should be able to tell that. I would also think that anyone who knows the music AND possesses their own writing skills should be able to effectively convey that to readers. Coles fails at that. Miserably.

Where did Dr. Coles find people who "talk" like this? Who would actually use the expression "this guy they call The Boss" when referring to Bruce Springsteen? (Do these people go into record stores and ask where to find "those Fab Four lads" or "that chap they named the Chairman of the Board"?) The answer- NO ONE! No one, that is, unless you're an eccentric, out-of-touch academic who is trying to emulate the way you think that "common people" talk. I have to suspect that Coles made these interviews up, or drastically and mistakenly paraphrased them. Sure, Springsteen is still a major rock star and a household name in much of the world. I would guess that he still has several million fans around the world who regularly listen to his music and count him among their alltime favorite rockers. But- and here's my main complaint with this book- does the average person on the street who isn't a a major fan (as Coles makes a point of reminding us about the people he quotes in the book) REALLY give Bruce Springsteen THAT much thought? What are the odds of just pulling randomly off the street someone who can speak in detail about Bruce Springsteen's role in American culture? Does he really play THAT big a role in their everyday lives that they could reflect at length on the meaning of his songs? Does Joe or Josephine Average American really view Bruce Springsteen as THE spokesman for our times? I highly doubt it. I mean, if you know only what you hear on popular radio, how could you be familiar some of the more obscure songs that Coles' interviewees discuss (when was the last time you heard Johnny 99 on the radio?!!!)? Why would someone who is not a fan go around thinking regularly about an artist 20 years past the peak of his commercial popularity? The whole thing just doesn't make sense. There are plenty of legendary, influential pop culture figures of whom I'm aware, but who I would not be able to discuss with any credibility if someone interviewed me about their impact on my life and on our culture. Bruce Springsteen is by far my favorite artist, and his music means the world to me. But let's keep him in perspective- he's not some pop culture superhero/god who is on the forefront of every American's mind. He's big, but he's not quite the Elvis or the Beatles (and even with them, could your grandmother or your mailman really give a profound, flowery dissertation on the meaning of some lesser known track off the "White Album""?). Unless you're a fan, I can't imagine that you've given him much thought in the past 15 years. It's not that Bruce's music isn't important to a lot of people, but to ascribe this as commonplace to most Americans is absurd and insultingly phoney. He's a major American singer/songwriter who achieved superstar status some twenty years ago, and who still commands a fiercely loyal following. Nothing more, nothing less. Sorry, Dr. Coles, but you're making a mountain out of an exceptionally fine molehill here. Bruce's songwriting and place in American music stands on its own, but this pretentious and contrived nonsense ends up demeaning and trivializing it.

My suspicion is that Coles, an academic, wrote about what HE thinks Bruce Springsteen should mean to people- the Springsteen ideal. Even his knowledge of the music is questionable- has he ever actually listened to a Springsteen album??? As good and important as Springsteen is, he's still entertainment. Profound, first class entertaintment, sure. I'm not diminishing at all the role that art and the artist play in our lives. But ultimately, I felt that this effort was rather patronizing and demeaning to Springsteen AND to his audience. That's really doing a great disservice to an important artist. Sad, because given Springsteen's support of Coles' magazine Double Take, I was really looking forward to this book. For whatever reason, a truly great analysis of Bruce's music has simply not been written yet. If that's what you're looking for, avoid this odd piece of work at all costs.