Confessions of a Conservative Atheist
Living proof marijuana doesn't kill brain cells…
We’re all looking for something better, but are unlikely to achieve it through some magical moment, some mystical epiphany, or some mythical transformation. Ironically, Bruce Springsteen’s two albums most focused on positive outcomes and the possibility of redemption, are also his most underrated if not outright forgotten. After spending almost two decades penning songs about… Continue reading Springsteen’s “Better Days” and the promise of a more limited redemption
Surrounded by tens of thousands of fans, many of whom know the lyrics by heart, the promised land is then and there. As Springsteen belts out the lyrics - even as he approaches the fifteen hundredth time – the moment we are seeking is right now. “The Promised Land” has never been one of Bruce… Continue reading Springsteen in Albany and “The Promised Land”
The seemingly omniscient narrator of the main verses is interrupted by a first-person speaker who sings something almost entirely different, setting up both a duality and a contrast that persists throughout the song until the very end, where it is either resolved with Billy as the speaker or someone else. Bruce Springsteen recorded the incredibly… Continue reading Springsteen’s “Rockaway the Days” is a lost classic, culled from a few other songs, but with a unique structure that stands on its own
One of the most ironic things about getting older is that, mentally at least, you rarely feel your own age. Your body might be well past your middle years, but in your head you’re still a teenager. This fiction is far easier to keep when your parents are still alive because no matter how old… Continue reading Bruce Springsteen, the passing of his mother, his impromptu 63rd birthday party in 2012, and becoming the elder generation
The search for something better defines us, and will always do so. The only way to cope is to tell the world itself to fuck off. We can rise above our fates only if we spit fate itself in the face and live in the moment. “Badlands” isn’t my favorite Bruce Springsteen song. A perennial at… Continue reading Springsteen’s “Badlands” and the moment that just don’t come
Like a great sonnet of old, Bruce Springsteen uses the perspective of the speaker to establish a character that is both part of the story and separate from it. A verse about this father cut from the original song, but available in lyric form further illuminates a story of aging that is both universal and… Continue reading Springsteen’s “Glory Days” and the unreliable narrator
Confessions of a Conservative Atheist 