Review: Is Springsteen's 'Letter to You' a goodbye note?
Bruce Springsteen, 'œLetter to You" (Columbia)
Has Bruce Springsteen written a 'œLetter to You'ť to say goodbye?
The Boss turned 71 just last month. Although his fitness, spirit and the actuarial tables would suggest he has plenty of music left in him, it's hard to miss the valedictory feel and sense of loss that pervades this new album.
Its centerpiece is 'œLast Man Standing,'ť which Springsteen has explained was inspired by George Theiss, one of his mates in the teenage Jersey band the Castiles. Theiss' recent death left Springsteen as the lone survivor of his first band.
He's seen colleagues in the E Street Band fall, too, onstage foil Clarence Clemons most prominently, along with organist Danny Federici. He surely sees all of them by his side in the song 'œGhosts,'ť where he sings, 'œMeet you brother and sister on the other side.'ť
Similarly, in the album's concluding song, Springsteen sings that 'œdeath is not the end and I'll see you in my dreams.'ť
For a man who once sang 'œGlory Days'ť to mock someone stuck in high school, Springsteen is now looking back himself. The difference is that instead of bragging of exploits, he's reminiscing about the warmth and companionship a lifetime in music has brought him. There's an undertone of precious time lost to the pandemic when you listen to 'œHouse of a Thousand Guitars."
In that song, he yearns to 'œgo where the music never ends,'ť and he'll no doubt be joined there by the E Street Band. His old friends back him on 'œLetter to You,'ť doing something they'd never done before with a famed perfectionist as frontman: cutting the music essentially live in the studio in five days.
They can still make a mighty roar and that's something to be appreciated, too. They're not to be taken for granted. As Steve Van Zandt mentioned recently, who knows how many more of these albums are left in them, if any?
Three of the 12 songs here date back to the 1970s and almost seem written by another man, a youthful, ambitious Springsteen with Dylan-like imagery flowing out of him. Each of these rediscovered compositions stretch past six minutes.
The newer songs are more professional than inspired. Occasionally, they even slip into cliché; the 'œcrown of thorns'ť phrase usually suggests a need to try harder.
He is not, by any means, a nostalgia act. Yet his well-received Broadway show and 'œLetter to You'ť suggest Springsteen now is less about pulling out of here to win than pulling back in to appreciate what he has.