In New Jersey and eastern Pennsylvania, no musician has more respect and more moral authority among white working men than Bruce Springsteen. For thirty-five years he has written songs about the lives of ordinary people struggling to maintain their self-respect in the face of factory closings and a changing economy. When Springsteen plays Philly, he can sell out six shows in minutes. So, his endorsement of Barack Obama means something here. It might mean more than the endorsements of Governor Ed Rendell and Senator Bob Casey.
Dear Friends and Fans:
LIke most of you, I’ve been following the campaign and I have now seen and heard enough to know where I stand. Senator Obama, in my view, is head and shoulders above the rest.
He has the depth, the reflectiveness, and the resilience to be our next President. He speaks to the America I’ve envisioned in my music for the past 35 years, a generous nation with a citizenry willing to tackle nuanced and complex problems, a country that’s interested in its collective destiny and in the potential of its gathered spirit. A place where “…nobody crowds you, and nobody goes it alone.”
At the moment, critics have tried to diminish Senator Obama through the exaggeration of certain of his comments and relationships. While these matters are worthy of some discussion, they have been ripped out of the context and fabric of the man’s life and vision, so well described in his excellent book, Dreams of My Father, often in order to distract us from discussing the real issues: war and peace, the fight for economic and racial justice, reaffirming our Constitution, and the protection and enhancement of our environment.
After the terrible damage done over the past eight years, a great American reclamation project needs to be undertaken. I believe that Senator Obama is the best candidate to lead that project and to lead us into the 21st Century with a renewed sense of moral purpose and of ourselves as Americans.
Over here on E Street, we’re proud to support Obama for President.
Bruce Springsteen
For all those people that used to work at places like Bethlehem Steel, they know Bruce speaks for them. In the haunting 1978 album Darkness at the Edge of Town, Springsteen sang about the grind of life in these struggling Steel Towns.
Factory
Early in the morning factory whistle blows,
Man rises from bed and puts on his clothes,
Man takes his lunch, walks out in the morning light,
It’s the working, the working, just the working life.Through the mansions of fear, through the mansions of pain,
I see my daddy walking through them factory gates in the rain,
Factory takes his hearing, factory gives him life,
The working, the working, just the working life.End of the day, factory whistle cries,
Men walk through these gates with death in their eyes.
And you just better believe, boy,
somebody’s gonna get hurt tonight,
It’s the working, the working, just the working life.
In other songs like Working on the Highway, My Hometown, and Johnny 99, Springsteen has anthemized the plight of working men. And he is dearly loved for it.
In what is really a description of himself, Springsteen sings of the Ghost of Tom Joad from the Grapes of Wrath:
Now Tom said “Mom, wherever there’s a cop beatin’ a guy
Wherever a hungry newborn baby cries
Where there’s a fight ‘gainst the blood and hatred in the air
Look for me Mom I’ll be there
Wherever there’s somebody fightin’ for a place to stand
Or decent job or a helpin’ hand
Wherever somebody’s strugglin’ to be free
Look in their eyes Mom you’ll see me.”The highway is alive tonight
But nobody’s kiddin’ nobody about where it goes
I’m sittin’ downhere in the campfire light
With the ghost of old Tom Joad
I grew up in Jersey where Springsteen is king. But he’s just as big of a legend in the closed-down Steel Towns of the Lehigh Valley, and pretty much anywhere where blue collar workers have struggled against globalization and lost jobs.
Lived for many years next door to Freehold, the Boss’s hometown.
The Boss represents the best of Jersey — the energy of its people, the heart and soul of the common man and woman.
Glad to hear him endorse Obama, our next President.
Yes, we’re damn proud of him. We love him.
Here’s another example of how he speaks for just the kind of people that Obama needs to reach.
Finally everyone gets positive about Jersey, where I also grew up, Essex County. Couldn’t resist the opportunity to chime in.
Jersey is the greatest state in the union. Except for those brutal property taxes…
I spent a few years on the south end of the state, in Salem County. In fact the people we bought our first house there from said their kids used to sell sodas and snacks to the people in the cars lined up along route 49 to use the ferry in the years before the Delaware Memorial Bridge went up. I used to drive all over the backroads of south Jersey. Being from a desert town back west that literally grew up overnight during World War II, so its history went back about 30 years, I marveled at the houses there that had 18th and even 17th-century dates built into the brickwork of the chimneys.
If you get away from the awful stretch of road between about New Brunswick and Newark along the Turnpike, it’s easy to see why New Jersey is called the Garden State.
New Jersey Turnpike at the break of dawn…
That is a spiritual experience.
glad the boss stepped up.
everybody smells it, even the Clinton die-hards.
Lichtman appearing on BloombergTV: “A whiff of Doom” hangs over Hillary Clinton. Obama’s bitter words didn’t help her.”
New Polls
Reuters/Zogby
LA Times/Bloomberg
He had me back when I got Born In The USA over 20 years ago. I still remember the words to My Hometown:
The change that’s in the air now has been a long time comin’.
Yes!
I feel like sending him some orange juice. Think he likes fresh squeezed?
The news is looking up this morning. Don’t miss Jed Report’s latest which is a must-see.
that’s a killer, thanks!
reflected here in these Polls:
Washington Post April 16, 2008
Poll Shows Erosion Of Trust in Clinton
PPP: No Ill Effect over “bitter” for Obama (.PDF)
This is pretty big. If he can nail down a Mellencamp endorsement, too, it’ll be all over for Hillary among the older working-class voters.
I’d been thinking about Mellencamp too. Where he’s from in Indiana he is very highly respected even by conservatives.
Bestest song evar. Really tight visual lyrics
The screen door slams
Mary’s dress waves
Like a vision she dances across the porch
As the radio plays
Roy Orbison singing for the lonely
Hey that’s me and I want you only
Don’t turn me home again
I just can’t face myself alone again
Don’t run back inside
Darling you know just what I’m here for
So you’re scared and you’re thinking
That maybe we ain’t that young anymore
Show a little faith there’s magic in the night
You ain’t a beauty but hey you’re alright
Oh and that’s alright with me
You can hide ‘neath your covers
And study your pain
Make crosses from your lovers
Throw roses in the rain
Waste your summer praying in vain
For a saviour to rise from these streets
Well now I’m no hero
That’s understood
All the redemption I can offer girl
Is beneath this dirty hood
With a chance to make it good somehow
Hey what else can we do now ?
Except roll down the window
And let the wind blow
Back your hair
Well the night’s busting open
These two lanes will take us anywhere
We got one last chance to make it real
To trade in these wings on some wheels
Climb in back
Heaven’s waiting on down the tracks
Oh-oh come take my hand
We’re riding out tonight to case the promised land
Oh-oh Thunder Road oh Thunder Road
Lying out there like a killer in the sun
Hey I know it’s late we can make it if we run
Oh Thunder Road sit tight take hold
Thunder Road
Well I got this guitar
And I learned how to make it talk
And my car’s out back
If you’re ready to take that long walk
From your front porch to my front seat
The door’s open but the ride it ain’t free
And I know you’re lonely
For words that I ain’t spoken
But tonight we’ll be free
All the promises’ll be broken
There were ghosts in the eyes
Of all the boys you sent away
They haunt this dusty beach road
In the skeleton frames of burned out Chevrolets
They scream your name at night in the street
Your graduation gown lies in rags at their feet
And in the lonely cool before dawn
You hear their engines roaring on
But when you get to the porch they’re gone
On the wind so Mary climb in
It’s town full of losers
And I’m pulling out of here to win
Gotta love Bruce, but also gotta be real. He tried but didn’t help Kerry very much. He first and foremost just another celebrity endorsement
Well, my point is that he isn’t just any celebrity endorsement in Pennsylvania among the underemployed blue collar workers that make up half of Clinton’s base.
In a national election where he’s plugging Kerry? Yeah, the help is minimal. But if you want to convince a former steelworker to give Obama a chance? This endorsement is gold.
No, its not a bad thing. Its just that Dale Earnhart Jr, Brooks & Dunn or Chuck Norris would likely do much more, especially in the Alabama that sits between Pittsburgh and Philly…
But they’re Republicans š
Check out the internals (.pdf) of today’s PPP poll, where Obama now leads in PA, 45%-42%.
Region
Northeast PA- Clinton 57%, Obama 28%
Southeast PA- Clinton 33%, Obama 53%
South Central PA- Clinton 41%, Obama 46%
West Central PA- Clinton 48%, Obama 39%
Southwest PA Clinton 52%, Obama 37%
Obama is getting swamped in the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre area and in the area south of Pittsburgh and its suburbs.
That’s right where a Springsteen endorsement can help move a few people and make a difference. As for the delegate count, holding Clinton under 62.5% percent in the 4 delegate districts yields a 2-2 split. I think the endorsement is important.
You’re right. In a campaign where 1-2% points will make the difference, this can’t be minimized.
In my blood lust optimism (how’s that for a concept?), I’d like to see her lose by 20 points state wide and if one of those “small town” heros like Jack Ham, Big Kenney, John Rich, Dave Schultz or Jimmy Spencer backed Obama it could well shock that small town world into a new POV.
(Just checking your cultural literacy, other than Jack Ham, do you know who those people are? No cheating)
My favorite – cuz it’s about Mary …
Bruce is the best thing that came out of New Jersey. Even better than BooMan.
On that, we’re agreed.
As a musician, he amazes me. Not because he’s flashy and showy — quite the opposite. His songs are simple yet powerful. Heck, he can even take seven notes, sung over and over, followed by a chorus of three notes, over and over, and turn it into a song like Pink Cadillac. And to my ears anyway, his version is better than Natalie Cole’s with its embellishments and flourishes.
But then what do I know, I’m a musical nekulturnya.
I’ll tell you what’s odd for me. I’m a person that doesn’t listen to lyrics and I never really know lyrics until I’ve heard a song .. oh, about a thousand times.
Except Bruce. And what’s really odd is that it’s not like it’s easy to tell what the lyrics are by just casual listening.