Springsteen Channels Seeger and Marx

I was lucky enough to have seen Bruce Springsteen before he became a bore. During the ‘70s Springsteen put on some fantastic shows and he was writing wonderful material. Springsteen got rich and satisfied and as far as I’m concerned hasn’t really done much of anything in almost 30 years. He was once called a new Bob Dylan, poor Dylan. Bob Dylan has recreated himself many times while still being the same Dylan; Springsteen just seems to be milking it. I saw a photo of him recently performing with his wife, a band and an orchestra. An orchestra? What the? What happened to the E Street Band?

I have not heard any of the new Springsteen album on which he sings a number of songs by the late Pete Seeger. Seeger’s populist anthems have been used by American communists for years as their anthems; they probably actually are their anthems. An interesting article about Mr. Seeger and American communists can be found here.

I am not surprised that Mr. Springsteen is covering the Seeger classics, some of them are pretty good songs and I get the idea that Mr. Springsteen identifies closely with the early communist movement; it ran parallel to the early labor movement, a subject that he has written about. Besides, liberal boomers are all over that stuff.