On Saturday I was fortunate enough to see Bruce Springsteen and the Max Weinberg Seven - I mean the E Street Band - live in concert in Cincinnati. I had great seats and the show was awesome, but more than once the spectacle unsettled me. Allow to elaborate.
Bruce has loyal fans. I mean really really loyal fans. The woman who sat behind Sara and I, for example, has seen the boss 53 TIMES, including 5 times on this tour. She is only slightly above average. Springsteen's the kind of guy who has fans that know all the words to all his songs even though they have roughly 1,286 unrhymed words apiece. Seriously, there were 12 year old girls singing every syllable of "Prove it All Night," an obscure song Bruce wrote about thirty years ago. Also, most of Springsteen's songs and all of his image are cultivated around the working-class stiff ideology that he seems to sweat. More than maybe any other rock star, The Boss is "One of Us." So, long story short, people don't just kind of like Springsteen. They adore him. Which leads me to the unsettling part.
There were several hundred standing room General Admission tickets sold to people who got to show up early and stand close enough to the stage to rest their elbows upon it. At several points during the show, Bruce came one step down from the main stage onto a platform directly in front of all the floor seat people and strutted, as rock stars will do, from one end to the other, eliciting excitations from the crowd. This is all pretty standard stuff. However, at various intervals Bruce would get close enough to be touched by the fans, who reached and laid their hands upon his boots and jeans as though they were reaching to touch the hem of Christ's robe. I'm not exaggerating. I saw people get their hands close and actually withdraw them as though they couldn't bear actually humanizing Bruce by touching him. Others touched him and maintained the contact as long as they could. At one point Bruce lowered himself onto his knees and fans fought their way through to get just a finger on him. I tell you the truth when I say I looked away from the sight after a moment because of a feeling in my stomach which I can describe only as a cross between embarrassment and distaste.
Bruce Springsteen is a showman. I get this. Plus, his songs are peppered with lyrics about Faith and Hope and God and being born in various states (to run, in the U.S.A.), so it almost feels like a worship service at times. It is his job, as Jason Lee's character says in Almost Famous, to, "Find the one person in that crowd who isn't getting off, and [make] him get off." But this crossed the line. For the first time in my life, I saw what I honestly believe was the active practice of idolatry. I've seen people cheer and sing along at concerts and behave in similar ways towards athletes, but I've never felt that it crossed that line from admiration and a feeling of connection to worship. I've said before that my experience at an Arcade Fire concert was a worship-like experience, but I meant that it was such a feeling of dedication and shared experience focused on joy that it felt the same, not that I worship that band. Then again, maybe I don't even know where the line is.
So I'm taking the Petie route and making this a question for all to answer. What does idolatry look like to you? Am I overreacting or underreacting? Have other things, like money or possessions or status become our idols already, and is the Springsteen thing just an extension of that? What? Feed me your opinions and thoughts. I'm very interested to see what you all have to say about something which I believe is often seen as an ancient issue.
4 comments:
perhaps we should just start emailing each other our blogs, as we are the only ones that seem to read and/or comment on them.
I pull an often over-used line but true nonetheless: Humans were created to worship. The object of our worship is the choice we are all poised to make. I've never met anyone who genuinely didn't care about anything and didn't "worship" something.
Idolatry such as what you saw is incredible isn't it? I just don't know why people would get that worked up over him or anyone. I mean seriously, if I saw Dave Matthews up close and personal, I would be pumped, and I'd even be so daring as to go for a high five. But to oooh and ahh and lose my breath? Seriously? no sir, not for me.
In my personal experiences, idolatry has taken the form of many things for me. Anything that takes my attention, thoughts, feelings, and devotion over God would be an idol. For me, it has been: Smash Brothers (to an extent), Music, LOST, the pursuit of dvds and books, women, and cake. Seriously, all of those things at one point in my life have been such points of focus for me that I forgot about my relationship with God and had nothing of a Godly perspective.
Those are my idols. I like your post and your definitions. I miss you musk.
For those of us who are Springsteen fans, and who have been since way back, you have to understand that no one's songs touch the heart like his do. If you aren't a big fan, no big deal, but the writing is so earnest and so like my own experiences that it is deeper and closer to the bone than anyone else's. For those of us who are fans, that feeling you describe from the Arcade Fire shows of shared emotion and community are very deep at his shows. I don't know that I'd push anyone to touch him, or for that matter be unable to touch him, but I find his music means more to me the older I get, and the more deeply I reflect upon my own life. It's no accident that Bruce has developed a bit of a friendship with Arcade Fire--they've joined each other on stage several times in the last few years. You might never feel the way about Bruce that I do; but I think on some level, it is important that a band you admire so much seems to feel the same way about him that his fans do. He is much admired as a lyricist, particularly by other musicians...
Hi Corman,
Do you remember where you got the picture of Springsteen from? I'm a researcher looking for images for a documentary. Thanks.
Martin
maedralin@gmail.com
I'm a Belgian fan for over thirty years now, but I don't cross the edge. I try to see him whenever he comes around but I don't travel for it. So that should brief you in on my degree of idolatry.
For what it's worth, people that know someone (yeah, it's hearsay but I trust the source) who had the chance to work in Springsteen's environment told me that he's not faking the "normal guy" attitude. He's just like that for real and I know it's been questioned over and over again. I'm over forty now and liking music a lot, I have seen many artists come and go. I think by now I know how to tell the fake elements from the real stuff in the show. Sure, Bruce is a performer but he's as close to being "real" as a performer will get. That's why his fans are so loyal.
I've seen him perform with nothing but guitar and harmonica when he did Tom Joad. He didn't do the touching stuff or the first row strut but he outperformed lots of others. Never forget he's being adored by musicians in the first place. They can tell...
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