2004 06 06

Perhaps there is some trick to American genetics that allows for an understanding which, I, as a Canadian, apparently lack in spades.

I don't get Bruce Springsteen.

I don't get him in the sense that I don't understand his appeal. I don't think he's awful, mind, he's spun a couple of good yarns, but on the whole he's - to me - quite easily disposable. His music is monotonous, his stories boring - and he is continuously touted as a great American storyteller. Folks, this would not be the embaassador I'd choose to tell my stories. I'm no fan of Dylan, but at least I get him, at least on some level. I grok the Dylan thing from the perspective of a non-fan outsider. I definitely grok the Tom Waits thing also. Now there's a storyteller.

If anyone's got some insight into how it is that Springsteen has become a great American storyteller, how it is that he's garnered some sort of blind faith in his ability to relate the tales and psyche of the American people, I'd very much appreciate a clue; because as it stands now, he's an aberration in my understanding of the American bardic psyche.