Bruce

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Peter Ames Carlin's Bruce is the life story of Bruce Springsteen, from his earliest years through his struggles to find acceptance as a kid to the first music days all the way through to his most recent tour.

I didn't know much about Bruce Springsteen outside of his Greatest Hits album.  Growing up, my dad would often listen to that album when we were in the car together.  I enjoyed the songs, and while I was initially too young to understand the lyrics, there was something electric about the music, something that made me feel really great inside.

When I went to Williams, there was a social psychology course offered during the month of January that was all about Bruce Springsteen.  While I never took this course, it put it on my radar that he was a guy whose influence extended far beyond my dad's car.  So when I was roaming through Barnes & Noble one day and saw this book for sale, I was hoping it would turn out to be the type of book I was looking for.

I enjoy books on influential, charismatic people; people who have changed the world and part of history; people who have accomplished or created exceptionally great things.  I like studying their life, particularly their come-up, and finding similarities and drawing parallels between the lives of different people.  Bruce's story did not disappoint.

Bruce was somewhat of a social outcast in his early years through college, never fully finding his place to fit in, keeping to himself, but staying true to what he believed through it all.  He wasn't about social norms.  He was about doing what felt right to him, and that's what he did.

Bruce describes the initial curiosity of music, the excitement of getting his first guitar, and the early frustrations of being part of high school bands.  Throughout this entire course and for the remainder of his career, three things remained constant:

1) Being true to himself

2) Having the vision of how big he could be, especially early in his career before the Born to Run album

3) The hours and hours and hours of work

While there was some raw talent initially, Bruce put in hours of time with his craft, honing his skill while developing a charismatic presence.  Combining this with his lyrics describing real-world issues, he drew people in and connected with them in a way that rock and roll hadn't experienced before.  Through it all he set an extremely high bar for the quality and feel of the music produced by his band, doing take after take of songs when nobody else could not hear the flaws in the first few versions, staying true to what he believed (and being incredibly unpleasant when forced to do otherwise).

And in the end, he became legendary.

I recommend this book to any Bruce Springsteen fan and anybody who wants an inside look at the life of somebody who was phenomenal at their craft.

Your body.  Your training.

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