Springsteen at the Super Bowl

Bruce Springsteen has promised a “12-minute party” during his Super Bowl halftime set this Sunday, which means among other things that he won’t be performing any song he’s written in the past quarter-century or more. Actually, the Boss was cagey about his playlist, telling the media, “Who decides? The Boss decides. People suggest, hint. They cajole.” Listeners of the world, unite!

Here’s a guy who went from making love in the dirt with Crazy Janey out behind the dynamo off of the backstreets near Thunder Road during the freaking Ford and Carter years to bitching and moaning about unemployment and factory shutdowns during the booming 1990s, when his entire musical universe was populated by hobos walking along highways with hats in hand and mumbling about unions, Pinkertons, and the WPA. Like most self-absorbed rock stars, the turning point came early, the moment he started writing songs about how hard it was to be…a rock star.  (more…)