Music Video Of the Week - September 26, 2025

"Born to Run" by Bruce Springsteen  (Go to the link in the upper-right-hand corner.)

Rockin' Trump

Bruce Springsteen made a powerful statement against Donald Trump and his dictatorial actions - you've already heard it, I won't repeat it - at a concert he performed in Manchester, England. 

To be honest, I would have preferred that he make that statement in Manchester, New Hampshire, not in a foreign locale, but as Trump got upset over it, it was worth it.

Trump is now threatening to investigate Springsteen, as well as pop stars like Taylor Swift, Beyoncé Knowles, and Paul Hewson, the artist familiarly known as  Bono . . . although, as an Irish national, Bono probably shouldn't be subjected to what is apparently the very, very long arm of the law.

Especially when he didn't participate in the 2024 presidential campaign, he being an Irish citizen and all.

Apparently, Trump believes that Springsteen's and Knowles' appearances at Harris campaign events and the appearances of other high-profile appearances of celebrities like Oprah Winfrey amounted to a "MAJOR AND ILLEGAL CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTION" (capital letters his), and that they were paid to appear.  In fact, they were not, and even if Harris had paid them, giving money to campaign supporters is perfectly legal, as is any campaign contribution Bruce or Beyoncé might have given the former future President.

Bruce . . . Beyoncé . . . Taylor Swift . . . They may all be singing the same song -  "Trump Is a Dictator" - but in the future, they may have to take the advice of Rubber Soul #14.

Music Video Of the Week - February 17, 2023

"Spirit In the Night"  by Bruce Springsteen  (Go to the link in the upper-right-hand corner.)

Music Video Of the Week - September 20, 2019

"Badlands"by Bruce Springsteen  (Go to the link in the upper-right-hand corner.) 

Music Video Of the Week - October 20, 2017

"Girls In Their Summer Clothes" by Bruce Springsteen (Go to the link in the upper-right-hand corner.)

Music Video Of the Week - September 23, 2016

"Badlands" by Bruce Springsteen (Go to the link in the upper-right-hand corner.)

Music Video Of the Week - November 11, 2011

"Born In the U.S.A." by Bruce Springsteen (Go to the link in the upper right hand corner.)

Clarence Clemons: 1942-2011

Clarence Clemons, the saxophonist in Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band who died yesterday from complications of a stroke, was a rarity among rock and roll sidemen - he was a star in his own right. Springsteen allowed him to become a star, because he was generous in sharing the limelight and he knew that Clemons had a tremendous talent that went far beyond his place in a backup band. He was the heart and soul of Springsteen's music. His forceful solos and bright sound gave the Boss's music a sense of gravity no other saxophone player could replicate in any other band. As much as I love Bob Seger, his own sax man, Alto Reed, simply couldn't equal Clemons in breadth and depth. His own solos on Seger's records, great as they are, can only be heard as desperate attempts to match Clemons's own playing.

Can you imagine Springsteen's "Thunder Road" without the soulful sax line that sends the song in to the fadeout? Or the hint of jazz that Clemons gave to "Dancing In the Dark" or "Spirit In the Night?" Clemons was always happy to spread his talent across the spectrum of popular music with his appearances on other people's records, most notably on Aretha Franklin's "Freeway of Love," and he played with just about everyone from Greg Lake to Lady Gaga. He had a presence, musically and figuratively, that could fill up a room. He wasn't called the Big Man for nothing.

The next time you listen to a Springsteen record, and a you feel a sense of warmth in the music, pay attention, really pay attention, to Clemons's saxophone. And kid, you'll get the picture. R.I.P. :-(

The Boss At Sixty

What is it about Bruce Springsteen, who turns sixty today, that keeps people coming back for more?

It's likely the way he's been able to articulate our hopes and desires, along with our disillusionment and worries, so well. He's always had and uncanny ability to turn desolation into some kind of dramatic grandeur and find majesty in the smallest positive gestures.

It helps that Springsteen is from New Jersey. As a resident of a state with everything from romanticized seashore towns and expansive pine forests to ruined cities and horrific chemical refinery scenes, a state neither rural nor urban, with wealthy townscapes and working-class neighborhoods, Springsteen has seen the best and worst of America, in all its messy diversity. He's seen it along this long, narrow corridor between the Delaware River and the Atlantic Ocean and he's been able to put it in a context that anyone can understand. Springsteen's America is our America, and vice versa. And it's New Jersey. Even if you've never been to New Jersey, you can learn a great deal about this state simply by listening to Springsteen.

Only Bob Seger, who's had more worldly experience than the Boss - Seger actually worked in a factory - rivals him as the all-American rock and roller. But while Seger has advantages over Springsteen, the Boss has his own personality and his own mystique that lends a quality to his music that no one can match. maybe that's why Springsteen felt a need to musically respond to 9/11 . . . and responded.

So what's my favorite Springsteen album? Nebraska, perhaps, because it's such a deeply personal album, with an intimacy that illuminates loneliness to an art form. Born In the U.S.A. always sounded bombastic to me, though I can listen to Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J. and Born To Run repeatedly.