The Girl in the Scarf

*My review of Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere has spoilers, FYI

I’m a massive Bruce Springsteen fan. I am also a massive prog rock fan.

Take all the time you need to process that.

I’m happy to report that you can safely be a fan of both the Boss and prog without compromising any of your emotional wellbeing. But in all seriousness, it doesn’t seem like there’s a lot of love for the Boss in the prog community. Yes, I know that technically social media isn’t exactly the best representation of society and of people, but for me, anytime I see someone give Bruce the briefest of acknowledgements in a prog rock group or discussion forum, the virtual torches and pitchforks come out and an onslaught of angry comments strike down the offending poster, for reasons I’m not entirely sure of.

Ok, Bruce is probably not someone you think of when you hear the term “prog,” and that’s fine. His music and lyrics don’t really meet the accepted criteria to be considered prog. He doesn’t play many odd time signatures, he doesn’t write songs about mythical creatures, and he’s not the most renowned vocalist. That’s why it stands out to me the few times he has managed to pull off some semblance of a prog-like sound or influence. Multi-part songs like “Jungleland,” and his album The Wild, the Innocent, and the E Street Shuffle come to mind.

I got into Bruce at the height of the pandemic, after watching the film Blinded by the Light. There were lots of ways that film spoke to me, and before I had never given Bruce much thought, but watching that, I was hooked.

I’m writing this post at the height of the release of the new biopic Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere, which I saw at my local AMC theater over the weekend. Like others, I was really excited for the film, but ultimately, I thought it was just ok. It’s a 2-hour film that covers just a small window of time in the Boss’s career, so I understand that there might not have been a lot events to work off of when crafting the script. From the trailer, I was under the impression that it was that it was going to be centered around the making of his album Nebraska, and while it did devote a decent amount of screen time to that, I walked away realizing that I still didn’t have a full understanding of why that album was considered so monumental in his discography. I’ll give the filmmakers props for having scenes that detailed the recording process for the album, something I don’t see often in musical biopics, but after a time, it felt like there was a lot of the same scenes and shots happening over and over again (talking in a diner, extended shots of Bruce staring contemplatively down the boardwalk in Asbury Park, etc.). I’m not a filmmaker, but I also thought the editing was a bit wonky, especially towards the end, when it came to Bruce finally coming to grips with his mental health and accepting treatment for depression (read his autobiography Born to Run if you want more info on that). I’m all for filmmakers trying to branch outside of conventional biopic storytelling norms and tropes, by choosing to zero in on just a portion of the subject’s life rather than a cradle to grave narrative, but whether you love him or hate him, Bruce Springsteen is a monumental figure in rock music, so I can’t help but be bummed that the first feature-length dramatization about him (at least, I think it’s the first) ended up being just so-so. I’d give it a 6/10.

Believe it or not, I visited Asbury Park last year on my cross-country road trip. Here’s a few photos from the afternoon I spent there! If you’ve seen the film, you’ll likely recognize these locations!

And as luck would have it, just two days later, I got the chance to see Bruce for the fourth time at one of his postponed shows in Pittsburgh. I just happened to be looking at my Facebook feed at the right time, the night before I was scheduled to leave Philadelphia and begin the journey back to California. Check out my vantage point! I was first row behind the stage: