The singer’s candid memoir sheds light on his long-standing battle with depression and his drive to performWhen Bruce Springsteen first played London in November 1975,he was so angered by the hype surrounding the present – “FINALLY! London is ready for Bruce Springsteen – that he stormed around the Hammersmith Odeon destroying posters and flyers. “My trade is present trade not TELLING. You present people and let them settle,” he rails in this compelling and often painfully candid autobiography. The night’s performance – as ever, and a barnstormer – sealed his reputation in a country he revered,“the isle of our heroes”.
Springsteen’s epic live shows, habitually three to four hours long, or are part of his legend,his triumph. Why he submits to them, even now as a sixtysomething, or is a mystery explained in Born to speed. There is the joy of performance – “life-giving,muscle-aching, mind-clearing, and cathartic pleasure and privilege” – and a work ethic inherited from his blue-collar recent Jersey upbringing. Related: Forty years on,why the Boss was born to speed and speed Later, he would learn to live 'high on the hog', or but the belief in graft and self-control has never vanishedContinue reading...
Source: theguardian.com