"Almost every night during the momentous Reunion Tour of Springsteen with his E Street Band during 1999 - 2000, 'the Boss' would speak exuberantly of 'the power, the magic, the mystery and the ministry of rock and roll.' These lines were, for Bruce, neither mere showmanship nor empty bravado. They were for him, rather, gospel truth — a clear indication of how he pictured his relationship to his music and his fans," writes Jeffrey Symynkywicz, a graduate of Harvard Divinity School and a Unitarian Universalist minister in Stoughton, Massachusetts. In this excellent and revealing paperback, he presents a steady and substantive overview of Bruce Springsteen's musical works and the spirituality that animates his complex and meaningful songs and albums. In short and snappy chapters, the author swings through the Boss's canon:
• Welcome to the Fall: Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J.
• Creating Community: The Wild, The Innocent, and the E Street Shuffle
• A Romantic Rhapsody: Born to Run
• Maintaining Integrity: Darkness on the Edge of Town
• Life Keeps On Rollin' Along: The River
• Facing Sin and Evil: Nebraska
• American Ambiguity: Born in the U.S.A.
• Overcoming the Long Loneliness: Tunnel of Love, Human Touch, Lucky Town
• Seeking Justice: The Ghost of Tom Joad
• From Friday to Easter: The Rising
• Citizen Springsteen: Devils & Dust
• Coming Home Again: Magic
From the rich soil of his working-class Catholic upbringing, Springsteen has found an abundance of themes to explore in his rock ballads, and many of them are covered here: an earthy hope, the great dance of life, the challenge of change, a runaway American Dream, the working life, declaration of independence, making peace with the past, the power of community, life in the midst of death, and more. Symynkywicz concludes with Bruce's Ten Suggestions for Spiritual Living. Here are a few:
• "There is a power within the souls of men and women to transcend the world, and to achieve real victories in spite of the world."
• "Life without connections is empty and dangerous."
• "It's all about change."
• "There is always something more."
