Book Review 2 - Bruce by Peter Ames Carlin

Loyal readers of this blog must be getting a sense of deja vu.  "Didn't you guys already review this book a couple months ago?"  Indeed, your memory is not playing tricks on you.  However, I received this book as a gift for my birthday shortly (perhaps based on Steve's review), and have just spent the past two weeks plowing through this book.  As a loyal reader, you obviously know that Steve and I tackle Springsteen from different angles, so I would be remiss if I didn't add my two cents on this recent biography.

While I am a fan of non-fiction, I find the biography format can often be too formulaic - you go in a straight line from the past to the present, and make sure you make all the appropriate stops along the way.  As a Springsteen aficionado, I've already amassed a solid amount of information regarding Bruce's timeline.  So, when the book opened up with Doug and Adele meeting, I rolled my eyes and thought I was in for another standard tome.  However, once Bruce picked up the guitar, the book, too, got rocking and rolling.

Like Steve pointed out, this book doesn't aim to present Bruce as a mythical being, nor doesn't it purposely try to be iconoclastic. (Sidenote: in rereading my overly-harsh review of Chris Sanford's book, I can't help but think of the two ways the authors presented the infamous fight with Lynn Goldsmith on Bruce's 30th birthday.  While both portray it as an embarrassing moment in Bruce's career, Ames presents it in the context of Bruce's timeline, with frustration mounting from intense River recording sessions. Sanford throws it at you in the opening chapter, immediately tainting your view of the incident and of Bruce for the entire book.)  This book presents Bruce's triumphs and tragedies in the most human light I've seen in my year of being a Springsteen blogger.  While Springsteen's 20s were a roller-coaster unlike anything my friends or I could even imagine, Ames captures Bruce's emotions in an immensely relatable way.  As someone who just turned 28, I found myself easily understanding Bruce's thought process and justifications for his antics with his career, friendships, and women.

Another classic moment in the book is Bruce pointing out that Elvis and James Brown seem like superstars who don't have any friends, and vowing never to be like them.  Appropriately, this book does a very good job covering the E Street Band.  Quotes from Tallent and Weinberg are all over the place, and the madcap personalities of Vini Lopez and Danny Federici are entertainingly presented.  However, Clarence Clemons does come off very tragically - the last quote he has before he dies is about not being in the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, while Scialfa is barely covered.

Like many other biographies, the book also gets a bit thin when it comes to covering the last 10 years.  While Born To Run and Born In The USA will be analyzed for years to come, I can't help but hold a soft-spot in my heart for Bruce's work from 1998 to 2008.  This was the period of time where all under-30 Bruce fans found his work, and not much here is dedicated to it - a blink of an eye and you'll miss The Seeger Sessions.  But, admittedly, this is a selfish complaint.

Overall, this book is an entertaining guideline to the history of Bruce, and I definitely foresee me going back and consulting it when writing future posts here.  I'd give it a solid 4 out of 5, and completely worth reading.

Book Review - Bruce by Peter Ames Carlin

Peter Ames Carlin’s “Bruce” is – in a word – perfect. Carlin has set out to make the definitive Springsteen biography and he’s accomplished just that. It’s hard to imagine a more complete, more thoughtful, more entertaining account of The Boss’ backstory. Combining comprehensive historical detail with sober objectivity and engaging musical analysis, “Bruce” is a must-own.

Starting out with Bruce’s grandparents and moving along right up to the first leg of this year’s Wrecking Ball tour, Carlin’s book benefits from unrestrained access to 60+ years of Springsteen history. For those who have read Dave Marsh’s iconic books (“Born to Run” and “Glory Days”) many sections in “Bruce” will ring familiar (including my favorite anecdote of Bruce befriending a Denver teenager during a screening of Woody Allen’s Stardust Memories). But Ames is such a naturally engaging and ethical historian that he adds an additional layer of analysis that makes you pleased to reread these sections.

The book’s defining quality – and what distinguishes it most from Marsh’s landmark works – is Carlin’s resistance to romanticize or deify his subject. Don’t get me wrong though, this is still a book about Springsteen so it’s laudatory overall and dutifully worshipful in the right places. But it isn’t afraid to present Bruce as human and vulnerable either. On several occasions, Carlin makes reference to Bruce’s narcissism and mood swings. He doesn’t shy away from Bruce’s darker moments either. That being said, there aren’t any real skeletons on display here: one of Bruce’s more egregious offenses involves angrily chucking a slab of chicken cordon bleu at his road manager when he didn’t get the fried chicken he requested.

Carlin isn’t afraid to contradict Bruce or identify hypocrisy and inconsistency either. At one point early on, he adds a footnote that uses history to question the accuracy of Bruce’s memory about watching The Beatles on TV. A seemingly inconsequential distinction but the footnote establishes from the onset that Carlin’s work is interested in the truth, not the fantasy behind the Springsteen legend.

Is “Bruce” too Bruce for a casual fan? Perhaps. But Carlin also traces the rock 'n' roll saga in striking detail in its own right. The early chapters convey the excitement, uncertainty and naivety of being in a band. The devil-may-care, anything-to-make-it sensibility in these early sections is infectious. But it also illustrates the relentless drive that Bruce possessed and in equal turns illustrates both the gift and curse associated with his passion to make it as a musician. From there we get the highs of initial success, the cold realities of the business, the challenge of sustaining a career and finally, the triumph of making it to the top and truly owning your musical identity. It’s a trajectory that will sound familiar to anyone who has read a “rags to riches” tale before (fictional or historical) but it’s infused with the unique, transcendent quality that Springsteen invokes to so many people.

At over 450 pages, “Bruce” manages to be expansive but not longwinded; concise but not streamlined. The work is punctuated by the beat-by-beat, lyric-by-lyric analysis of each of Bruce’s albums that diehards will read with vested interest and will be equally ready to agree or argue with Carlin’s thoughtful critiques. Released in time for the holidays, every Springsteen fan should be so lucky to find this wrapped up in a bow.