These are the voices of Bruce Springsteen?s
America?individuals young and old, from various parts of a nation,
linking themselves in words of reminiscence, reflection, assertion
with certain of a singer?s songs. In their sum as listeners, these
Americans provide a chorus of resonance to an outpouring of
engaging, stirring, inspiring music sent during our recent times
toward the many who hearken to the summons of a troubadour.?
Robert Coles, from Bruce Springsteen?s America
People listen
內容簡介：
In this compelling book, Robert Coles, the celebrated Harvard
professor and Pulitzer Prize–winning author, turns his attention to
popular music legend Bruce Springsteen, and to the powerful impact
Springsteen’s work has had both on the lives of his audience and on
this country’s literary tradition. Coles places Springsteen in the
pantheon of American artists—Walt Whitman, William Carlos Williams,
Dorothea Lange, and Walker Percy, among others—who understood and
were inspired by their “traveling companions in time,” the ordinary
people of their eras.
With wisdom and a unique personal perspective, Coles explores
Springsteen’s words as contemporary American poetry, and offers
firsthand accounts of how people interact with them: A trucker
listens to “Blinded by the Light” during long, lonely nights and
reminisces about his mother; a schoolteacher is astonished when a
usually silent student offers a comparison between “Nebraska” and
Conrad’s Heart of Darkness; a policeman responds to “American Skin
41 Shots,” reflecting on his own role in his family and
community. As these people, and others, candidly discuss the
meaning Springsteen’s words have in their lives, Coles listens and,
with the special insight and compassion that are the trademarks of
his art, sheds new light on “The Boss,” removing the legendary
American rock musician from fan-filled stadiums and placing the
poet in a greater social, cultural, and philosophical context.
Coles sees Springsteen as a representative of a uniquely American
documentary tradition—as a sing-ing and traveling poet who does not
simply embody the culture of which he is a part but fully engages
it, interacting with its people and creating a conversation that
has helped to shape a distinct way of looking at, and living,
American life today.
關於作者：
Robert Coles, a child psychiatrist, is the Pulitzer
Prize–winning author of Children of Crisis as well as The Spiritual
Life of Children, Women of Crisis, and Lives of Moral Leadership,
among many other books. A professor of psychiatry and medical
humanities at the Harvard Medical School, he is also the James Agee
Professor of Social Ethics at Harvard. He lives in
Massachusetts.
目錄：
I. Conversations and Songs About Life
II. A Songwriter''s Traveling Companions
III. Americans Tell of Hearinga Singing Poet of the
People
A Schooheacher, "The E Street Shuffle," and "Nebraska"
"Saint in the City": A Lawyer
"My Drivin'' Life": A Truck Driver and "Blinded by the Light
"Darkness on the Edge of Town": A Schoolteacher and Race
"Factory": "Prove It All
Night"
A PolicemanTakes on the "4-1 Shots" oF
"American Skin,""]ohnny 99"
"Born in the U.S.A.": A Businessman
Crisscrossing the Country
"Glory Days" and "Tunnel of Love":
Thinking of My Husband, a Businessman. Traveling
"My Hometown": A Student of MineWhistling
Bruce Between Classes
"Ifl Should Fall Behind": A Grandmother and Her Family
IV. Afterword
Song Lyric Credits
Index
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