Shades of Springsteen: Politics, Love, Sports, and Masculinity

by John Massaro

One of the secrets to Bruce Springsteen’s enduring popularity over the past fifty years is the way fans feel a deep personal connection to his work. Yet even as the connection often stays grounded in details from his New Jersey upbringing, Springsteen’s music references a rich array of personalities from John Steinbeck to Amadou Diallo and beyond, inspiring fans to seek out and connect with a whole world’s worth of art, literature, and life stories.
 
In this unique blend of memoir and musical analysis, John Massaro reflects on his experiences as a lifelong fan of The Boss and one of the first professors to design a college course on Springsteen’s work. Focusing on five of the Jersey rocker’s main themes—love, masculinity, sports, politics, and the power of music—he shows how they are represented in Springsteen’s lyrics and shares stories from his own life that powerfully resonate with those lyrics. Meanwhile, paying tribute to Springsteen’s inclusive vision, he draws connections among figures as seemingly disparate as James Joyce, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Thomas Aquinas, Bobby Darin, and Lin-Manuel Miranda.  Shades of Springsteen  offers a deeply personal take on the musical and cultural legacies of an American icon.

272 pages, Hardcover

Published July 16, 2021

Reviews

[Kevin Martin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a good read that covered the ideas and beliefs of Springsteen through his songs really well. I liked the use of the essays throughout the book to give context to the concepts. The book had more ideas and experiences of the author and how they aligned with Bruce and his lyrics than I expected. In some cases this was really engaging in others it caused the book to be a little drawn out. The book was written well and was pretty easy read that I really enjoyed.

[Chris Aylott · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rambling exploration of Springsteen as a lyricist and a poet, set in the contexts of both Springsteen's biography and Massaro's own life as an academic and family man. The format of connected essays threw me off at times, and I found myself wondering if the heavy focus on Springsteen's words ignores whatever he may have to say as a guitarist and composer. That said, the close reading of comparison of Springsteen's lyrics is excellent, and there's a lot to appreciate here.