Bruce Springsteen's America: The People Listening, a Poet Singing

by Robert Coles

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 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.

Genres: Music, Biography, Nonfiction

256 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

Child psychiatrist, author, Harvard professor.

Robert Coles is a professor of psychiatry and medical humanities at the Harvard Medical School, a research psychiatrist for the Harvard University Health Services, and the James Agee Professor of Social Ethics at Harvard College.

Reviews

[Jack Fuller · Rating 3 out of 5]

A Pulitzer-Prize winning Harvard psychiatrist put Bruce into the same realm as John Steinbeck, Walt Whitman and William Carlos Williams. That is all I needed haha. Anyways, I would say 3.5/5.

I struggled with this rating because I found the stories interesting and enjoyed how Coles let each person speak on what Bruce meant to them with no interference. I found his comparison of Bruce to a Troubadour very apt, and it shows how Bruce will speak to a part of your soul whether you are searching for it or not.

And yet, it needed more editing. Stories rambled and jumped around as you would expect from people speaking. As an avid Bruce fan, I was able to know what songs people were mentioning, but if you weren't, you would be lost when they added in new lyrics and new songs. The chapter titles gave some reference, but several of the interviewees mentioned several songs that were not in the chapter title, nor did they clarify what song they were now speaking of well. Some info on the songs and context would have helped. These additions could also better draw someone who is not a Bruce fan to possibly listen to the songs, read into the lyrics for themselves and better understand why the Boss is able to speak to the soul of the nation like no one else.

[J.J. Lair · Rating 2 out of 5]

This author did a book about William Carlos Williams and spends 40 pages comparing Springsteen to poets especially Williams. The author really likes exclamation points! The interview stories meander and drag.

[Todd Stockslager · Rating 3 out of 5]

Why are we listening to these people and not Bruce?

So Springsteen is the new Dylan, and now both are getting the academic treatment, which works sometimes for Dylan, but hasn't work yet in the couple of books I've read about Springsteen. In this one, Coles, a professor of psychiatry, tries to link Springsteen to writers like William Carlos Williams and Walker Percy by extensive unbroken quotations, the kind of quotations an English teacher would downgrade a student for using to compose a term paper.

This especially stands out because the meat of the book is first-hand accounts from Coles' patients about the impact of Springsteen and his songs on their lives. So Coles, the "professional writer" does almost no writing, while his patients (like most people who aren't professional writers, thinkers, or speakers) are fitfully banal and insightful. Surprising, a couple of female patients find Springsteen's lyrics sexist, treating women as objects and referring to them as "Babe" or "Baby". Okay, so I never felt Springsteen sexist from my male (I'm certain un- or sub-consciously chauvinist) perspective, but I checked with my wife, also a Springsteen fan, and she doesn't find him sexist. Some of the segments seem almost quaint with their references to Springsteen's nicknames--"The Boss", "Bruuuuuce", and "Bruce baby" (Hunh? I've been listening since Born to Run and NEVER heard anyone call him that)--as if they are new or foreign. Perhaps it is a testament to his longevity and status as a cultural icon that it no longer seems surprising or even shocking that a teacher (as two do here in segments that date from the late 1990s) would use Springsteen lyrics in poetry lessons.

In any case, I'll conclude this review as I did the other review of a book of Springsteen lyrical treatment by saying it's time to stop talking and go listen. After finishing this book an evening or two ago, I dialed up "Better Days", "If I Should Fall Behind", and "I'll Work for Your Love" on my iPOD, and cried myself to sleep with tears of joy and longing. That's Bruce.

[Peter · Rating 1 out of 5]

Did not finish it. While a decent work in its own right and context, it just wasn't what I was interested in, as it happened. Premise is a number of people around America, and what Springsteen means to them, in their life. I don't care.

Bought from Aurora (?) library.

[Jessica Fisher · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book helped me appreciate how Americans view Bruce Springsteen and also help me appreciated him as a poet.

[This is V! · Rating 3 out of 5]

As the cover suggested , I thought this book was about Bruce Sprinsteen and his America, instead the author interviews a bunch of people asking them how Mr. Sprinstreen has influenced their lives. The book its not bad because the stories are still a part of how American people sees Bruce but it would have been better if this book was more about him. Not suggested if you looking for a book about Bruce and only him

[Jean]

Awful book. Tedious even if you are Springstein crazy.

[Juli Danilson · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is not my type of book.

[Claire · Rating 3 out of 5]

Coles interviews (I think) various Americans and gets them talking about Springsteen's music. A couple of the "talking" essays really take off: the first one about a teacher using early Springsteen to get her students interested in the vibrancy of vocabulary; one by a pre-med student considering his rather privileged life in comparison to so many who have so little. But some of these are just plain off, as though the people haven't really even listened to the songs (or have failed to grasp their irony, e.g. "Born in the USA"). The "talking" style starts to grate after a while: "This Springsteen, the Boss they call him, this Mr. Springsteen..." Who talks that way, really?
Still, it's an interesting conceit.

[Paul · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted this to be about Bruce Springsteen and how much he matters to people. But it just didn't matter to me. Perhaps this would have been better as an audio book. Hearing the voices, rather than reading speech transcribed, would be more engrossing.

[Lauren · Rating 1 out of 5]

Horrible book, please avoid