Bruce Springsteen is Boss, but...

… he’s also an asshole. Should we be surprised?

Hell no! We’ve all had bosses who are assholes. How often have we suffered with a boss who thinks he’s the center of the universe as if all would stop moving if it weren’t for him. Likewise, think of the boss who seems to fall in love with the sound of his own voice as if every word he says is important. We’ve all had bosses like that. Bosses talk the talk about how great their support workers are, but in truth, many of them will use them and get rid of them as they see fit not always in keeping with what’s best for the company. The asshole boss often has opinions on everything and many of them don’t have anything to do with the job at hand, but he sure wants you to know what they are even if he’s terribly misinformed. The asshole boss casts himself as a larger than life figure, might even have a coffee cup with his name and title on it or his initials monogrammed on the sleeves or pocket of his dress shirts, all signs of extreme vanity where a little bit of status and success goes right to their big heads.

Can you see some parallels between the boss from hell and Bruce? Hell yeh! Look at Springsteen’s involvement in politics especially during the last two Presidential campaigns but really this goes all the way back to his disdain for Ronald Reagan. How shamefully “The Boss” has become the virtual spokesman for organizations like “MoveOn.org” the radical left, the lunatic fringe of the Democratic party. Listen to him speak out on political issues and imploring his loyal minion of fans to support the candidates of his choice. He speaks so sanctimoniously with such pioused conviction while presenting such an air of condescension toward anyone who would dare believe in anything other than the cause, it’s hard not to see a narcissistic asshole in full glory. His gestures and tone of voice sound as if his words are divine edicts not just one man’s opinion as if he has any real inside knowledge of what makes this society tick. In his case, that would be highly doubtful.

Does Bruce Springsteen have any idea the extent to which he is alienating many of his fans and does he really care?

He seemed to trash his working class roots after the success of “Born in the USA” afforded him legend status in 1984. Quickly, he was off to Hollywood with his trophy bride, Julianne Phillips, ready to sit poolside in Beverly Hills and Malibu with Hollywood’s elite, and it sure wore off on him. The E Street Band who had labored slavishly to put him on the top were suddenly expendable except for the newly acquired red-headed backup singer who quickly became his bride. Gone were Little Steven, Clarence Clemons, and all but pianist, Roy Bittan, as “Lucky Town” and “Human Touch,” two separate albums released on the same day, failed to impress even some of the most loyal fans. His return to New Jersey went largely unnoticed as the last decade of the 20th century would not prove kind to the boss’s fortunes.

He’d alienate many fans with the release of “Streets of Philadelphia” a mournful tune used as the them song about a poor soul, a gay attorney, who died from AIDS. While we absolutely do not condemn his sympathies in supporting this film, others saw otherwise. His blue collar base is also decidedly anti-gay, and surely “the Boss” couldn’t raise the consciousness of such folks. It would have been nice if he could have.

While the 90’s would prove to be the decade creativity and spirit seemed to have died in pop music where the music industry became largely reduced to four mega record companies, where the industry’s model seemed to follow that of McDonalds, making pop music into junk food, bland, consistent, and not very good for you, Bruce did little to serve up any recipes for something better. In fact for most of the decade, his presence was noticeably absent. His attempt to reinvent himself as the reincarnation of Woody Guthrie on the album, “The Ghost of Tom Joad, 1995, failed to create much interest at all.

The Boss would be asleep at his desk with the door closed for most of the rest of the decade only issuing a massive four C-D boxed set of outtakes, unreleased material, and alternate versions, a treat to his real fans but a “you got to be kidding!” to the broader public.

The new millennium roared in with good news and bad news for Bruce Springsteen. The good news was reuniting the “E Street Band” and hitting the road, the bad news was a terrible song which made “The Boss” a disgraced enemy those he insulted viciously with the release and performance of “American Skin (41 Shots)” where Springsteen points the finger at the New York City Police for the tragic accidental shooting death ofAmadou Diallo. Not only did Springsteen stick it to the NYPD, he also helped create a picture that to be an immigrant in America is to be exploited. The inferences are clear, as best expressed by the following (not to mention the line “41 shots” is repeated forty-five times in the song).

It ain't no secret (it ain't no secret)
No secret my friend
You can get killed just for living in your American skin

(41 shots)
(41 shots)
(41 shots)
(41 shots)

The city of New York was understandably divided over this tragic event. There was no question Amadou Diallo was an innocent man, but his horrible death was not a case of police genocide. It was an irreversible dreadful mistake that shook the ranks of the NYPD to its roots with shame and sorrow. These were not renegade officers. They were scared and maybe a little paranoid creating a lethal mindset when feeling threatened by the likes of a black man who might have been slow to respond for lack of his mastery of English. Regardless of what Springsteen intended, he poured salt on an open wound making a hurtful event in America’s largest city a world-wide scandal.

After the horrors of 9/11, Bruce Springsteen was the first major artist to offer an album influenced by the murderous disaster. “The Rising” offers many insightful songs of heeling and loss, in most respects, a perfect album for its time.

For all the good Springsteen did with his glorious album, when it was time to make sure another 9/11 would never happen again and our country faced the difficult consequences of the war on terror, the Asshole Boss was back in full glory. Rather than supporting our troops or the war effort to make sure another 9/11 could never happen, Springsteen swung to the hard left becoming part of the chattering bobbleheads reciting the anti-American mantra of the hard left.

Has Bruce Springsteen ever come across as more sanctimonious or over-dosing more on his sense of self-importance than performing “The Rising” on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial with a gospel choir dressed in burgundy right behind him as part of the huge Obama inaugural celebration, a historic occasion to be sure, but also pocked with the incivility and dishonorable behavior of thousands who taunted the departing President and Vice President and their spouses even mocking and laughing at Vice President Chaney who was confined to a wheelchair for sustaining a back injury while moving out of the Vice Presidential mansion. While Springsteen did not instigate this disgraceful behavior, his attitude of self-righteousness surely helped fuel it.

So now “The Boss” has a new album out, perhaps the first major release in the new era of Obama-Nation, “Working on a Dream.” Loyal fans will find it a good listen for several plays giving a little refresh to their Springsteen collection before the novelty wears off and they return to the established classics like “Born to Run” and “The River.” For the rest of us, it’s a largely forgettable product as have been most of Springsteen’s albums since “Tunnel of Love.”

Bruce Springsteen surely deserves tremendous acclaim as part of the incredible wave of pop music that started with Bob Dylan, the Beatles, and Rolling Stones and concluded with the rise of Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty, and John Mellencamp. Springsteen’s music attempted to wed the lyrical magic of Bob Dylan with the showmanship and energy of the Rolling Stones. At his best, Springsteen succeeded brilliantly, but sadly paying the cost to be the boss has been a very expensive proposition for Bruce Springsteen. It appears to this listener, somewhere along the road, he sold his soul, the spirit that made “Born in the USA” such a breakthrough album, to be firmly established as “the Boss” of Pop Music.

While Springsteen might be the Boss, he will never surpass the feats of another New Jersey titan, who will forever be Chairman of the Board, Frank Sinatra. Bruce Springsteen has a long way to go before coming close to measuring up to his fellow Jersey dignitary.