Springsteen Week Part 2

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10-year old kids back in the 1970’s didn’t have a lot of opportunities to buy new music.

We listened to our favorite songs on tiny radios and the only records in our house back then were Sinatra and Dean Martin records.

Rock and Roll was loud! And according to Dad the singers we liked had little talent and wouldn’t last.

I liked ‘Born to Run’ but I was a Rolling Stones fan first and foremost until one afternoon I went over to my buddy Doug’s house.

He had the new Springsteen record, ‘Darkness on the Edge of Town.’

Halfway through ‘Badlands’ the first song in the record, the Stones hold on number one was slipping.

“Old man wanna’ be rich, rich man wanna’ be king, and the king ain’t satisfied until he rules everything.”

He sang of spitting in the face of the Badlands.

I was hooked.

Me and Doug and Digger devoured that record. Over and over and over again.

But the Bruce love didn’t become really real until I shared ‘Darkness’ and ‘The River’ records with my brothers and my buddy Tom.

I can see my brother sitting at the table, reading the lyrics to ‘Backstreets’ as the record played loudly.

“Wow,” he said.

Tom wasn’t yet all in.

But there was a whole lot more coming.

We were coming of age.

We were aware of girls and our dreams of living in a country that was all about what was promised to us.

“If dreams came true, ah, wouldn’t that be nice?”

We were proud Americans.

We needed an anthem.

‘Born in the U.SA.’ was about to be written and released and we weren’t the only fans waiting for that record.

It made Bruce one of the biggest stars in the universe.

Me, John and Tom and all of my younger siblings were singing along.

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