The song Bruce Springsteen called a “call to arms” for America
There is hardly anyone who personifies America more than Bruce Springsteen in rock and roll.
Some people might like to embrace their inner patriotism every once in a while, but when looking at the greatest icons that the good ol’ USA has ever spat out, ‘The Boss’ deserves to be on the Mount Rushmore of musicians the same way that Johnny Cash, Pete Seeger, and Woody Guthrie do. But the reason why Springsteen became an American icon was his ability to wake up and stand up for what he believed in.
There was more than teenage passion that put that guitar in his hand, and even when he was playing in his native New Jersey, there were a lot of dues that he had to pay before even thinking about leading his own outfit. It was hard work, but the fact that he can still play to thousands of people every night is what the American Dream stood for. Anyone could manage to fulfil their dreams as long as they believed what Springsteen did, but that’s not always the America people are born into.
Whereas everyone likes the idea of America being the kind of melting pot where everyone has a shot at happiness, it’s not easy to say that to those who saw what the Great Depression brought to people. It was a good decade of people going through pain and strife in the fields throughout middle America, and even Don Henley of the Eagles remembered hearing about his father being torn out of school after eighth grade to go work in the fields.
But after a while, it didn’t feel like people had much to complain about anymore. The economy was getting better than the rock bottom it had faced, but the country wasn’t exactly perfect or anything. The Civil Rights Movement was still heating up, and while blatant racism was still practiced throughout the country, it took people like Bob Dylan to wake everyone up to what was happening as the country prepared to wage war on Vietnam.
Everyone going half a world away was about to face atrocities that no human eye should ever have to see, and Dylan was reminding everyone of what was happening through his songs. ‘Blowin’ In the Wind’ might not have blown people away by being the most complex tune of all time, but there was food for thought in pretty much every line he threw out into the world.
Those questions didn’t have a lot of answers, but ‘The Times They Are A-Changin’ grabbed Springsteen by the throat when he heard it, saying, “This song was written in a moment in our country’s history when people’s desire for a more urgent and just society exploded. Bob Dylan had the courage to stand in that fire, and he caught the sound of that explosion. This song remains a beautiful call to arms. The meaning of the song and the echo of that explosion live on in the struggle for social justice that continues so fiercely today.”
But Springsteen doesn’t necessarily have to be political on every one of his songs to live out those ideals. He had been participating in the No Nukes concerts back in the 1980s, and even when he was making his “patriotic” album Born in the USA, his critique of what was going down with Vietnam Veterans was a lot more bitter than what everyone thought about when they played it at the summer barbecues every Fourth of July.
So while there are still many people that will no doubt blow a gasket when they see someone like Springsteen sticking their neck on the line for political causes, most of them aren’t realising the kind of artist that they have been looking at all this time. He was fighting for the ideals of all Americans, and the ideals that Dylan taught him back in the day are alive and well every single time he critiques the way the government is working.
Never Miss A Tale
The Far Out Bob Dylan Newsletter
All the latest stories about Bob Dylan from the independent voice of culture.
Straight to your inbox.