Meanwhile… I'm Still Thinking

Curty Ray of Power Pop Overdose comments:

Am I the only one in the world that thinks Springsteen is WAY overrated?

Now that’s a tough one. I’ve never understood Bruce Springsteen’s uber-appeal… he’s good, but why and how did he become BRUUUUCE?

His first couple of albums were full of wordy shuffles that inexplicably got him branded as the next Dylan, and a few years later we got a couple of thin sounding synth-y things that were huge commercially, but pretty hard to listen to if you were on the fence to begin with. Fact is though, there were some really good records mixed in there as well and it all worked out: his mediocre records made him more popular and his good records made him more popular, and intermittent suckiness just didn’t make an ounce of difference. Everything the guy did seemed to enhance the icon factor. Think about it – the guy writes a melodically simplistic song about a Vietnam vet living a dead end life (Born In The USA), and it becomes misinterpreted into some sort of fist-pumping patriotic anthem that gets played at every fireworks display in America. Good work if you can get it.

My theory? Hard, hard work, a great live show, enough intelligence to pull back and deconstruct every so often (Nebraska) and a sneaky ability to create music (and a persona to match) that can be misunderstood in surprisingly beneficial ways. Overrated? maybe. Undeserving, no.