Confessions of a Conservative Atheist
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Barely half as many couples are getting divorced and more couples are getting married than in recent years. Some experts attribute the trend to being intentional about your mate and choosing companionship rather than romance. Perhaps Springsteen put it best in “Tougher Than the Rest,” or even Shakespeare hundreds of years earlier in Romeo and… Continue reading Springsteen’s “Tougher Than the Rest” and the dramatic decline in divorce rates
Most people likely wouldn’t connect these two bands for obvious reasons, but on two songs, eight years apart, we get the sense the world is rapidly falling apart because those who are supposed to be the wise ones are revealed to be only fools. In 2007, Bruce Springsteen released his fifteenth studio album, Magic, which… Continue reading Bruce Springsteen, Duran Duran, and the wisemen are all fools
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
Mr. Petty, who sadly passed away in 2017, is not widely known for writing songs that comment on social issues, much less near-dystopian fiction like “The Last DJ,” generally preferring brilliant, catchy cop confections like “Free Fallin’” and “Running Down a Dream.” Released in 2002, what we might call the early days of digital media… Continue reading Tom Petty’s last hit, “The Last DJ” is more prescient than ever and other thoughts on a remarkable career
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
A forgotten gem from Tunnel of Love offers no gloss, cover, or potential escape, lyrically or musically until the very end. This couple doesn’t even appear to have fond memories to haunt them. The riff, like we assume their relationship has to be as well, is exceedingly short and simple, pumping up and down like… Continue reading Springsteen’s searing “Spare Parts”
The song exists entirely in the moment, purely for the unrestrained joy of what music can do for you in a single moment. It’s a party in seven minutes, but most classics aren’t built this way. Thankfully, there is no shortage of classic songs in the rock and roll world. The rare tracks that rise… Continue reading Springsteen’s “Rosalita” is the ultimate party song and the rare classic that cannot be overplayed
There’s little doubt the 80s rocked, but sadly both the word “rock,” whether as a noun, verb, adjective, or possible adverb form along with the genre itself fell out of favor in the early 1990s for reasons that remain entirely unexplained - perhaps until now. There’s little doubt the 80s rocked. If the 70s were… Continue reading Greta Van Fleet and the insatiable need to rock
An updated rendition of “Darkness on the Edge of Town” and the debut of “Spirit in the Night” sets the second show apart, but you can’t please all of the people all the time as some deranged critics are claiming the Boss needs lessons from Taylor Swift, who should be so lucky playing at this… Continue reading Bruce Springsteen spends Labor Day at the Meadowlands to the delight of fans and ire of a particularly misguided critic
“Man’s Job,” a little known track from Human Touch, presents an interim step on the journey into darkness and despair, before the lover is overwhelmed by loss, treating jealousy as something of a delusion or self-rationalization, the denial phase of grief, right up until the point it isn’t. “Man’s Job” is the first of two… Continue reading Springsteen’s “Man’s Job” and our endless capacity for self delusion
Confessions of a Conservative Atheist 