'Magic' provokes thought

Bruce Springsteen's new album reflects on current events

By Stuart Poulter
The Santa Clara
SCU's weekly undergraduate newspaper since 1922

Issue date: 10/18/07 Section: Scene
Originally published: 10/18/07 at 1:09 AM PST
Last update: 10/18/07 at 1:07 AM PST

When New Jersey's prodigal rock and roll son, Bruce Springsteen, stated in an interview that "the best music is essentially there to provide you something to face the world with," he must have had an album like his newly released work, "Magic," in mind.

With the Oct. 2 release of "Magic," Springsteen and the E Street Band answer both critics and fans with various types of songwriting that Springsteen has made his own since his debut in 1972.

While many would consider Springsteen a product of a past generation, his music has continually found resonance today among younger audiences brought up on his music by their parents.

As students, we often look to music that can inspire and is visionary in scope. Springsteen's music, from his down-and-out Jersey shore beginnings to his post-9/11 musical explorations of modern America, allows for such a visionary process to continue and has made his audiences understand themselves, and their world, that much better.

Beginning with his invigorating but thought-provoking single, "Radio Nowhere," Springsteen paints for us a picture of America lost within the image of itself, looking for a common belief and truth to hold onto amid the chaos of our present world.

The third song on the album, "Livin' in the Future," harkens back to the Springsteen of the "Born to Run" era, with Clarence Clemons blaring away on his saxophone and Stevie Van Zandt's rhythmic guitar playing. Together, they provide the edgy, Jersey sound that made "The Boss" and the E Street Band a staple of the rock scene in the late 1970s.



Springsteen at Madison Square Garden (10/17/07)

The political undertones of such songs as "Your Own Worst Enemy" and "Devil's Arcade" provide an '80s flashback to Springsteen's "Born in the U.S.A." by depicting disparate, forgotten people struggling to come to grips with the unforgiving world they find themselves in.

His message is applicable to current events -- from the political unreliability of our leaders, to the tainted international image of America to the more frequent lack of appreciation shown toward U.S. soldiers.

While relatively blatant in his message about all things social, political and romantic, such as the experience of the Iraq War and the loss of a common belief in the America he had grown up in, Springsteen reaches out to all Americans "searching for a world with some soul." Within the words of "Magic," we find Springsteen calling out to all Americans to question, to reach for a common ideal bigger than ourselves and to regain the unique energy that has allowed us to survive and prosper.

When a question of his patriotism came up upon the release of "Magic," Springsteen responded in a "60 Minutes" interview by saying: "Silence is unpatriotic ... I still see America as a beacon of hope and possibility ... I'm interested in the country we live in and the country we'll leave to our kids."

In the end, Bruce Springsteen's music is about making you feel something, whether good or bad, acting upon the emotions of the times, and falling back upon the human element of the American Dream.

"Magic" showcases Springsteen's innate ability to make Americans think about ourselves in a way we never knew possible.

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band are currently on tour in the U.S. through November.

They will be performing at the Oracle Arena in Oakland on Thursday, Oct. 25, and Friday, Oct. 26, at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are available through www.ticketmaster.com.

Grade: A-

Contact Stuart Poulter at spoulter@scu.edu.