Scottish Catholic Observer

No musician or popular songwriter splits opinion more than Bruce Springsteen, much like faith itself you’re either standing shoulder to shoulder with or against. In a recent Guardian article the writer Dorian Lynskey described feeling like ‘an atheist in Church’ watching Springsteen’s Glastonbury performance in 2009. But it didn’t take long before there was a shift in opinion. Undoubtedly Ms Lynskey is one of many writers who have changed their mind about ‘The Boss.’

I have to confess to previously not being a fan, although a number of my friends were, growing up in the 1980s. In those days you couldn’t be passive about Bruce; you were either in or out. My own conversion was after watching a clip of him performing on the STV news at the Edinburgh Playhouse back in the mid 1990s. This was not the Springsteen I was familiar with; aided with only a harmonica and a battered old acoustic this understated version, bearded with his hair pulled back tight, was a million miles away from the bombastic stadium performer of Born In The USA fame. That one man show in support of his 1995 album The Ghost of Tom Joad was inspired by the John Ford film of John Steinbeck’s novel The Grapes of Wrath. I felt immediately pulled in by the narratives and character studies of America’s struggling underclass which focused on drifters, war veterans, illegal immigrants, ex-cons and those left-broken by post-deindustrialisation.

Central to Springsteen’s writing has been an Irish/Italian Catholic background which encouraged his compassionate view of those on the fringes of society or as Springsteen would have it; the Darkness on the Edge of Town. Like many of us, Springsteen’s ancestors left Ireland during The Great Hunger, his paternal grandmother Martha O’ Hagan was only two generations away from ancestors that had been forced to leave Westmeath, eventually settling in the singer’s hometown of Freehold, New Jersey. Springsteen admits his Catholic background has dictated a profound impact on his work, relating to one interviewer the well worn adage: ‘Once a Catholic; Always a Catholic.’

As a songwriter he’s carried that sensibility forward by raising awareness towards life’s unfortunate and invisible. One of his most successful attempts was the story of a man suffering with HIV on The Streets On Philadelphia, sound tracking the film of the same name. The less familiar Sinaloa Cowboys focused on illegal Mexican immigrant brothers trying to cut across the US border in a bid to transcend their circumstances. In 2006, Springsteen released his version of the Irish folk song Mrs McGrath on We Shall Overcome: The Segar Sessions, he successfully managed to strike the difficult balance of Irish folk and rock n’ roll further on the likes of American Land celebrating diversity over blind nationalism. His cultural allegiance to Ireland suggests Carl Jung’s theory of a ‘collected unconsciousness’ where the memory of Ireland and its associated experiences of hunger, Catholic Faith and struggle continue to resonate from deep within.

I have travelled the length and breadth of Britain to a number of his shows since becoming a Springsteen fan in the mid 1990s; it’s a minor frustration that he has only returned to Scotland once since that Edinburgh performance. But his visit to Hampden Park in 2009 was undoubtedly worth the wait.

In truth, I have grown to enjoy the pilgrimage and the journey where you meet fellow travellers, among them are always legions of my kinfolk keen not to miss out on yet another tour. Like most freelance writers, I’ve had to tighten my belt and with another baby on the way it took some persuading before I could set off on yet another road trip to see Bruce Springsteen. Thankfully my father-in-law is another fan and with a joint petition enforced it wasn’t long before we were booking our tickets and making the necessary arrangements to travel to the north east and Sunderland’s Stadium of Light.

Despite the rain hammering down spirits remained high, there is nothing quite like going to a Springsteen gig, and it doesn’t have the lairyness of Oasis or the uptight atmosphere of Bob Dylan where you daren’t breathe too loudly for fear of reprisals. On the Metro one fan in conversation reminisced to a younger group about his last time seeing Bruce during the Miner’s Strike, St James Park, 1985. Another chimed in saying it had ‘changed his life.’

Springsteen’s music remains rooted in the local, his characters and their struggles with life, jobs or relationships largely inhabit the singer’s hometown of Freehold, New Jersey. Yet still, in a very Catholic way, he manages to connect us through a shared sense of alienation, poverty and struggle while pointing towards solace, hope and redemption. As the rain lashed down Springsteen (above) informed the crowd: “This is how it’s supposed to be; I don’t want it 75 degrees and sunny… I want it just like this.

A major selling point for the returning fan is spontaneity; Springsteen never plays the same set twice and unlike the Rolling Stones, Oasis or Dylan the new material is greeted with the same fervour as his extensive back catalogue. The penny whistle led Death To My Hometown on his recent instalment Wrecking Ball sounded like he was being backed by all the vital force of a pipe band, the potent anger and hostility in the song towards the culture of greed that created the economic turmoil in which we are amid particularly resonated with the post-industrial landscape of Sunderland.

The working life is a constant theme in Springsteen’s cannon; from the mid 1980s Working On The Highway sounds like the distant cousin of Matt McGinn’s Three Nights and a Sunday. But on newer material the songwriter’s focus has become the lack of it and the effect on the human condition. Yet he does not leave us to wallow in injustice. With each passing hour he raised his game in an astonishing three hour set. On We Are Alive the hope he pointed toward was ‘a cross up yonder on Calvary Hill,’ on Rocky Ground he lamented again: “Rise up shepherd rise, your flock has roamed the hills, the stars have faded the sky is still, the angels are shouting ‘Glory Hallelujah.’”

In the often aloof, secular world of rock n’ roll Springsteen continually points to a loving and understanding God and toward the miracle of prayer and the peace that it brings in the mist of the life’s darkest moments.  At the same time he reminded us on the classic Badlands: “It ain’t no sin to be glad you’re alive.” It is a sentiment worth holding on to and one that was gloriously apparent in this summer.

— SCIAF praises Bruce Springsteen’s donation to Caritas http://sconews.co.uk/news/20789/the-boss-backs-work-by-caritas-denmark