Stories in times of crisis - another view
20 March 2009
Bruce Springsteen on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart 19 March 2009 affirms the role of storytellers.
Stewart asks: When you get together, and you start rehearsing, is it all so natural? How do you work together? Your shows are always so tight but also so joyous. How does that process work?
Springsteen replies: We don’t really rehearse. Rehearsal: we did that the last forty years, you know. What we do mainly is, we get together and you try and find a show that you haven’t done before, that both sort of contains the history that you share with your audience, contains the new music that you’ve written, and contains someway that’s occurring out in the world right now.We’ve had an enormous moral, spiritual, economic collapse. People go to storytellers at times like that. And our band was built from the beginning for hard times. That was the music we wrote, that was the way that we played. Right now, the country has lost its moral center. It’s something you {gesturing to Jon Stewart} joked about and talked about but you know, it is true. The only thing it can remind me of is a bit post-Watergate, when there was a rootlessness.
A moment later, Stewart observes: As an artist you probably don’t have the burden of having to define the politics. But how do you balance that with your audience, because your audience is also, can be conservative, blue collar, they might reject some of the political arguments.
In a flash, Springsteen replies: When they do that, they boo.
Stewart asks: Do you just pretend they’re saying “Bruce”. Springsteen replies: Yes I do.
Stewart: I think that’s wise. I think that’s a smart move.
Springsteen: But. Unfortunately. Believe it or not, you can tell the difference.
But that happens, he continues. It’s just part of what we do. I go out and play out to many audiences at night. There’s an audience that comes because they want to hear their favourite songs. There’s an audience that comes because they’re interested in the philosophy and the ideas of what you’re doing. There’s many different audiences. And I take it into consideration when I go out there, but I don’t let it define what I do, how we do it, or what we’re trying to do on any given night.
If you missed the broadcast, it's online at www.thedailyshow.com. John Payne and Chris Westberg, especially: watch it, you'll love it.