Runaway American Dream: Listening to Bruce Springsteen [Paperback]

Jimmy Guterman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 14, 2005

Over the course of a career now in its fourth decade, Bruce Springsteen has earned one of the most passionate, devoted followings in all rock ’n’ roll. He’s selling more records and concert tickets in his fifties than he sold in his twenties. Yet to many fans he remains an enigma. How has Springsteen produced such a consistent body of work and retained his currency while other top rock ’n’ rollers have gone by the wayside? Jimmy Guterman, an accessible and entertaining music writer, has been writing about Springsteen since the late 1970s. In Runaway American Dream, he delves deep into dramatic and crucial moments from every phase of Springsteen’s career, interpreting the songs and incisively commenting on the man and the culture at large to deliver a nuanced portrait of The Boss from the earliest days right up to Springsteen’s 2005 album, Devils & Dust.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Now in his 50s, the Boss, aka Bruce Springsteen, is selling more records and concert tickets than he did in his 20s—proving his fans' admiration runs deep. Editor and journalist Guterman (coauthor of The Worst Rock-and-Roll Records of All Time) poignantly expresses his own love of the man and his music in this warm, absorbing collection of seven essays. He takes readers through a song-by-song analysis of Springsteen recordings and concerts going back to the 1970s. He weighs the relative merits of song selection, concert length and venue, and duly notes the comings and goings of various band mates, wives and girlfriends. Yet for all his admiration, Guterman doesn't get lost in minutiae or mired in nostalgia. He chattily discusses such topics as the shift in Springsteen's music starting with Born to Run, as it became more traditional, mainstream "white rock'n'roll"; and Springsteen's uneasy back-and-forth between "pure artistic statements" like Nebraska and The Ghost of Tom Joad and more "frankly commercial enterprises" like Born in the U.S.A. With subtle wit, real emotion and exactly the right combination of journalistic street smarts and music fan geekiness, Guterman has scored a success. (July)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

As the subtitle makes clear, this is about Bruce Springsteen's music; its perspective is that of a selfroclaimed "literate fan." Throughout, Guterman addresses Springsteen's strength--his consistency--and weakness--his musical conservatism. Though the curtain rises on the controversial Vote for Change 2004 tour, when Springsteen and like-minded musicians crisscrossed the country for Democratic presidential challenger John Kerry, Guterman comments on Springsteen's body of work: the "friendliness" of Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J., the optimism of Born to Run, and so forth. He discusses Bruce the Artist, who mostly pleases himself, and Bruce the Performer, everyman's favorite rock and roller, and how these "Two Bruces" have taken turns throughout his career, one releasing pure artistic statements, and the other blatantly commercial product. He dissects even such stinkers as Human Touch ("boring" and full of "genuinely not-good songs"), seeming surprised, indeed almost offended, that Springsteen could have a bad record in him. Still, Guterman points out, in almost every live performance, Springsteen lives up to impossibly high standards. A must for Bruce fans. June Sawyers
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Da Capo Press (June 14, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0306813971
• ISBN-13: 978-0306813979
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,355,774 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars fun read, fun ride, October 13, 2007

By 

wrappedupinbooks (new york) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Runaway American Dream: Listening to Bruce Springsteen (Paperback)

Okay, this might not be a "definitive" history of Spingsteen's music - for that, look for Marsh's TWO HEARTS or more recently Kirkpatrick's WORDS AND MUSIC OF BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN - but Guterman's might be the most entertaining read in the Springsteen book "canon." Entertaining, quirky, and (usually) right on target.

9 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Springsteen book for fans and non-fans alike., January 7, 2006

By 

Watujel (San Antonio, Texas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Runaway American Dream: Listening to Bruce Springsteen (Paperback)

Bruce Springsteen is a Rust Belt rocker who made a splash by writing Manfred Mann's psychedelic No. 1 hit "Blinded by the Light." Springsteen's career as a solo artist, however, has been marked by play-it-safe arrangements and heavy reliance on do-re-mi melodies (better for mumbling, I suppose). As Guterman notes, his music hasn't progressed all that much over the decades.

Springsteen does shine as a live performer and lyricist, which Guterman documents with his unmatched blend of insight, anecdotes and self-deprecation. Springsteen's strengths play into the built-in biases of mainstream art criticism. That's because it's easier to accessibly discuss lyrics and shows than to write about melody and music theory, even though lyrics are to a song what paint is to a house - important, but easily changed and unindicative of its potential beauty. But frankly, Guterman, who's the greatest rock journalist in the business despite being a part-timer, could make any subject interesting and entertaining, and his essays on Springsteen are no exception.