"La vida del rock és brutal. No deixeu que ningú us digui el contrari"
"El moviment Ocupem Wall Street ha sigut molt poderós per canviar les converses a nivell nacional. El Tea Party havia copat les converses durant un temps però ara la gent està parlant sobre la igualtat econòmica. Aquesta és una conversa que no s'havia tingut a Amèrica en els darrers 20 anys"
"Vaig conèixer en Clarence quan tenia 22 anys, l'edat del meu fill (Evan), realment encara era un nen. Alguna cosa passava quan estàvem junts, disparava la meva imaginació. Perdre'l va ser com perdre alguna cosa elemental, l'aire o la pluja"
"Quan sento el solo de saxo (a Land Of Hope And Dreams), és un moment molt maco per a mi"
"Quan era un nen em van rentar el cervell amb el catolicisme (...) Si has sigut catòlic, sempre ets un catòlic"
"Com a artista, és millor mantenir una certa distància amb el poder"
En Neal McCormick ha publicat ja la seva entrevista al Bruce, feta avui a París. Aquí la teniu:
Bruce Springsteen: I enjoy artists who take on the world
Bruce Springsteen’s 17th studio album is his most overtly political yet. At its launch in Paris, the blue-collar icon reveals why .
Bruce Springsteen: 'I enjoy artists who take on the world'
“You can never go wrong in rock’n’roll when you’re p---ed off,” according to Bruce Springsteen. In Paris yesterday to unveil his new album, Wrecking Ball, to the world’s media, Springsteen admitted it had been written in a spirit of political anger. “My work has always been about judging the distance between American reality and the American Dream.”
Right now, he suggested, the distance was greater than it had ever been in his lifetime. With the financial crisis, “an enormous fault-line cracked the American system wide open and its repercussions are just beginning to be felt.”
Wrecking Ball is the 17th studio album from America’s blue-collar rock icon. Befitting troubled times for the working man, it is Springsteen’s most overtly political collection of songs. The title, he said, reflects “the flat destruction of some American ideals and values over the last 30 years. It seemed like a good metaphor.”
While the album is underpinned by a dark fury, in person Springsteen was relaxed, amusing and philosophical. Asked if he felt that his role as voice of protest was a burden, he laughed out loud. “I’m terribly burdened at night when I’m sleeping in my big house. It’s killing me,” he joked. “The rock life is brutal, don’t let anyone tell you different.”
Actually, he conceded, just to be a musician was “a charmed life. That’s why they call it playing.” But he spoke eloquently about how his family background, growing up in a household where his father had been “emasculated” by long-term unemployment, fuelled his interest in the underlying political causes, describing his songwriting as “having a conversation with myself”.
If so, it is a conversation that is taking a bleak turn. Springsteen has long chronicled the underbelly of the American Dream but this time he sounds sad, angry and even, at times, close to defeat. It is his Grapes of Wrath, an album for the New Depression.
Despite the anthemic roar and gutsy drive of the opening track, We Take Care Of Our Own, Wrecking Ball is not the kind of back-to-basics E Street rock Springsteen has been essaying in recent years. Reaching into the raucous roots of his Seeger Sessions, referencing gospel, folk and blues while bringing in drum loops, hints of hip hop and a raw mix that pushes vocals high, Springsteen appears keen to build bridges between the past and the present, finding contemporary resonances in timeless sources.
It also features the last sax solo from his long-time sparring partner, the late Clarence Clemons. “I met Clarence when I was 22, my son’s age, still a child really. Something happened when we got close, it fired my imagination. So losing Clarence was like losing something elemental, the air or the rain. There’s just something missing. We were lucky to get him on Land of Hope and Dreams. When the sax solo comes up, its a lovely moment for me.”
There is, in the essence of Springsteen’s oeuvre, a very American sense of exulting in the heroic underdog, but here there is a blackness to his mood, fuelled not just by the sense that the dignity of the working man is being assaulted and undermined, but that such assaults are, perhaps, a politically inevitable expression of the very character of the nation.
Time and again, Springsteen sets the image of the honest toiler against “bankers”, “fat cats” and “robber barons”. “An outrageous theft occurred that struck to the heart of the American idea,” suggested Springsteen. “And there has been no accountability.”
He does, however, see cause for optimism. “The Occupy Wall Street movement has been powerful about changing the national conversation. The Tea Party set the conversation for a while but now people are talking about economic equality. That’s a conversation America hasn’t had for 20 years.”
There is also a religious dimension to Springsteen’s latest songs. The album shifts towards the spiritual uplift of gospel music in its rousing finale, evoking Jesus and the risen dead. “I got brainwashed as a child with Catholicism,” joked Springsteen, who says biblical imagery increasingly creeps into his songs almost unbidden. “Its like Al Pacino in The Godfather: I try to get out but they pull you back in! Once a Catholic, always a Catholic.”
Springsteen supported Obama’s presidential campaign, and We Take Care of Our Own has already been added to the Obama re-election playlist, yet the often bitter tone of the album suggests Springsteen is not impressed with the powers-that-be.
He admitted, however, that he still supports Obama, who he felt had achieved some things in a difficult political environment. Springsteen doubted he would be actively involved in Obama’s campaign, however. “As an artist, its better to maintain a certain distance from the seat of power.”
He said the only thing he was really good at was making music. “I enjoy artists who like to take on the world as well as entertain their audience. I write to process my own experiences and if I can do that for me, I hope I can do that for you.”
He did, however, suggest that Obama could have a shot at Springsteen’s job. “Obama can sing!” he joked, referring to the Presidential karaoke performance widely viewed on YouTube. “Let’s stick together,” croaked Springsteen, then laughed at his own poor effort. “He’s better than me! I can’t sing that!”
