I was 15 when I first heard Bruce’s music. It was 1985, a bunch of tapes on my bedroom floors and I can honestly say it felt like he was talking to me, me alone, me personally… I became – slightly – obsessed, I translated all his songs into Italian because I wanted to know everything he sang about; I learnt all the lyrics, I collected every article I could find… he was the soundtrack of my teenage years. Let me tell you it wasn’t easy… I was surrounded by Duran Duran fan but they always seemed too fluffy to me. Bruce was real, he wasn’t ‘pretty’, he was gritty, sweaty, he was a man, not a boy. He sang about cars, and the road and running chasing demons away and chasing dreams and for someone who couldn’t wait to escape into the big wild world that was everything I needed to hear. His shows lasted for hours and hours and left you exhausted and full of life at the same time. Full of hope. And lord knows when you’re at that age you want hope, you cling to hope… even if you have no idea of what you’re hoping for.
I was lucky to have seen him live, giving his all in concert a few times and so today, on his 70th birthday, I’m going to go on a little trip down memory lane because nothing does that as well as music… one song from most of his albums… come along for the ride…
From ‘Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J.’:
Blinded by the light
From ‘The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle’
Sandy
Only Bruce could have tempted me to a music festival… I didn’t go… but I wish I had… listening to the crowd singing gives me chills… from the magnificent ‘Born to Run’, the life affirming…
Thunder Road
From ‘Darkness of the Edge of Town’ a lesson in never ever give up…
Badlands
From the double album ‘The River’, this is my favourite song… I literally wore out the album…
The River
and this one too… because I think it is one of the best and most underrated love songs of all time…
Then came the surprising, intimate ‘Nebraska’…
Atlantic City
And then ‘Born in the USA’ exploded and my love started and I’ll forever envy ‘Monica’ from Friends for dancing with Bruce in this video, I almost cut my hair like hers, it would have been an error… (it is a terrible and terribly cheesy video… but it was 1985 after all… the whole decade was! just focus on the biceps…)
Dancing in the Dark
1987… from ‘The Tunnel of Love’…
Brilliant Disguise
From ‘The Ghost of Tom Joad’… the haunting…
The ghost of Tom Joad
From ‘The Rising’… the amazing…
Waiting on a sunny day
From ‘Magic’…
Long Walk Home
From ‘Working on a dream’ the most beautiful love declaration…
Kingdom of Days
From ‘Wrecking Ball’ …
Land of hope and dreams
and from his latest album…
Hello Sunshine
Thank you Bruce, thank you for ‘chasing the blues away’, thank you for giving us reasons to believe, thank you for the music, the words, the times, the miles…
Thank you from the bottom of my heart.
while you're ahead... 