Down the Tracks; 4th of Asbury Park by Daniel Wollf and A Change is Gonna Come by Graig Werner

The summer is almost over, but there are two book I would like to bring under your attention before it ends. Let’s be honest, nothing keeps the winter at bay quite as well as a lazy and rainy Sunday afternoon in bed with a good book and a live recording from the summer tour. In the past few weeks I’ve been reading Daniel Wolff’s 4th of July, Asbury Park: A History of the Promised Land back to back with A Change Is Gonna Come: Music, Race & the Soul of America by Graig Werner. The fist book deals with the history of the Jersey shore’s most famous town, the second relates the history of R&R’s relation to the civil rights movement. Both books feature some insightful chapters on Springsteen while managing to place him in a broader context.

Wolff’s book traces the development of Asbury park from its conception. It is not without irony to find out that the town full of losers Springsteen so desperately tried to leave behind was originally viewed as the promised land by its founder James Bradly. Asbury Park, in his mind, would be a safe haven for America’s religious values while financing itself as a wholesome vacation resort. A venture Wolff shows was bound to fail. Bradley established Asbury park and its boardwalk single handily, trying to keep a firm hand in the town’s direction by keeping it in private ownership. By his death Bradley had to admit that the venture was a failure, the boardwalk had only lost money. Still it remained the town’s main hope of survival through the past 150 years of its existence.

The book also sheds some light on why a multi ethnical act like the E-Street band, especially in its early conception when Sancious and Lopez were still active, never attracted an audience that mirrored their composition. Wolff paints a picture of a highly segregated beach resort with racial relations marred by lynching and deprivation. As Sancious recalls he and Clarence were an exception to the rule, blacks simply weren’t part of the scene where Springsteen rose to fame. So while Springsteen was building his core fan base, his audience was highly skewed to Caucasian to begin with.

Further light on this subject is shed by Werner’s book, “A Change is Gonna Come.” In a fascinating portrait on the relation between (“black”) music and the civil rights movement, from Gospel to Hip Hop, Springsteen is one of the few Caucasian artists that is featured at length, as one of the few outspoken artists in the eighties. Werner quotes black activist LeRoi Jones (Amiri Baraka) in describing Springsteen as a “blues shouter” who gave a voice to the voiceless. Going from there Werner also explores Spingsteen’s lily white audience, or rather the lack of colour in that audience. Aside from mentioning that around the eighties the racial divide had become too big again to bridge all that easily, Werner mentions that Springsteen was marketed to a white public, African-Americans simply weren't a factor in the marketing plans. Rock music was viewed as a white art form for a white public.

Werner also points towards the, at first glance, blatant patriotism of BITUSA was not something African-Americans growing up in the harsh racial realities of that time (and I suspect today) could easily relate to. The black record buying public found their experiences much better voiced in the stark and vicious Hip Hop beats and blatant raps. The music Springsteen drew from, like Memphis Soul and early R&R, had already been left behind by the African American public as being music of an era of broken promises. Also interesting is that Werner sees Nebraska's content most closely linked to Public Enemy's Rightstarter (Message to a Black Man) in its open criticism of Reaganism. Werner compliments Springsteen as one of the few performers to raise his voice in a time where music strove to be as a-political as possible.

Both books are essential reading for those who want to place Springsteen in a broader context. While the standard works of Dave Marsh strive to do just that, these two works, especially Werner’s, manage to clarify just where to place Springsteen in the ongoing dialog between music and broader society, complete with the often uneasy race relations. While Obama’s nomination radiates an optimism on that terrain that is unprecedented, these two works show that there is still much work to be done.

Read more on 4th of July, Asbury Park (a history of the promised land) here
Read more on Change is Gonna Come here

Down The Tracks; Brown Eyed Handsome Man, Bruce Pegg

As the summer continues I found myself in the park again digging through Bruce Pegg's biography on Chuck Berry. Amidst an abundance of Elvis books, a good Chuck Berry book is hard to find. Which really is a shame if you take Berry's pivotal role in R&R's development into account. Though that might not be just because almost every Rock and Roll superstar of the fifties tends to stand in the shadow of Elvis' star. Berry was notoriously reluctant in giving interviews and never worked with the same people very long. At the same time, R&R wasn't covered as extensively in the fifties as it is today. As Pegg's book shows, most reviews of the time focus on the fad or the threat of R&R, contemporary articles of the fifties rarely took an in depth look at the stars of the day. Profound analysis and an interest in what moved the stars of R&R didn't come until the late sixties, early seventies. Which means that sources on Berry's life, especially the formative years of his career, are spars. Pegg had to fall back on meager news coverage, trial transcripts, a concert film and a few interviews with people around Berry, willing to talk, to construct his portrait. To Pegg's credit he manages to give us a fairly interesting read.

What makes the book interesting is the effort Pegg put into reconstructing the social fabric of the time. Starting from a social portrait of 'the Ville' in Louisville where Berry grew up, Pegg branches out to the broader social context we need to understand the phenomenon of R&R. In Berry's case the racial relations in America were an important part of the fabric. Berry grew up and rose to fame in an America that was still segregated in the South, exploiting its own system of apartheid. The success Berry enjoyed were as much an important sign of the times as it was a motor behind the change. Berry's pop success amongst teens was an element of what helped America to integrate. Pegg shows a deep understanding of those mechanisms in his book and because of the subject matter and his breezy writing style Brown Eyed Handsome Man is a much more pleasant read than the many history books on this subject.The book, in all honesty, is a bit low on the juice session details or the road yarns you might hope for. Pegg's agenda is clearly different. Pegg's book draws you in with R&R and tricks you into learning quite a bit more about America than you might have bargained for. R&R, in my mind, is the perfect subject matter for such a ploy. Across the world there are few music styles that are so entwined with the social development of a country as R&R is. The genre especially is an eye opener to the uncomfortable race relations within the US.

I however do feel that Pegg goes a little overboard from time to time. Pegg takes great pains to underscore the relations between W.E.B. Du Bois' and Booker T. Washington's philosophies and Berry's way of conducting business. Berry was notorious in providing detailed contracts to promoters and fining them, sometimes by shortening the show, if they failed to provide what he stipulated. Even though Berry came from a Black middle class well educated background I must wonder if Berry applied those philosophies quite as conscious as Pegg claims. The sketches of Berry's way of handling promoters on the road sooner draw a picture of a man who got business savvy through street or road smarts. These are minor gripes though. Especially since Pegg's explorations of the racial fabric becomes key in understanding Berry's clashes with the law. Pegg makes a pretty strong case that Berry's run in with a 14 year old prostitute at the height of his career, might never have led to a prison term if he hadn't been black. Here Pegg again takes time to allow us a finer understanding of the Mann Act that led to Berry's imprisonment and takes the time to go through the court transcripts to establish that at no point it wasn't even for certain that Berry slept with the girl. Though that doesn't make for juicy and sensational writing that is so appealing in a lot of R&R biographies, it is to Pegg's credit that he doesn't play the myth building game and takes his time to create an as fair as possible portrait of Berry as possible.

As said, with Berry, this is a difficult task. Pegg managed to interview few people surrounding Berry and Chuck himself has always been a star veiled in a shroud of mystery. Even Berry's biography fails to touch key events in his life. Berry never talked about his jail time and was very spars in detailing on his conflicts with the law himself. The people Pegg does speak to like Billy Peek, the guitar player Berry used sort of continuously later on in his career, do allow us enough insight in his character, while at the same time explaining his shroud to make the book interesting. So while you'll never get the "Brown Eyed Handsome Man" through this book, this is probably as close as you'll get to gaining an understanding of him.

Down The Tracks; Lawrence Kirsch, For You

Dave Marsh has dubbed us Springsteen fans the cult. Springsteen fans habitually follow the guy around. Waiting in line at a show, waiting for the gates to open it is not uncommon to hear a cacophony of accents and languages. Some more than others. Natives from New Jersey and Italians tend to follow the Boss with just a tad more fervor than the average Springsteen fan, but it’s a trait that runs through all of us. There are many rewards of following the man around, of collecting every recording, legally or otherwise. Few artists allow you to actually grow old with them, few artists manage to maintain a certain level of integrity and artistic merit throughout their entire career. Springsteen does just that and gives a mean show to boot. For those in the know, following Springsteen around isn’t as odd as it may seem on the outside.

Springsteen may also be one of the few artists that is defined as much by his audience as he is by his body of work. After all he is continuously looking for that connection with the fans that surround him. So as good as Dave Marsh’s biography may be, it only tells half the story. For the other half you need to turn to the fans themselves. “For You” does just that. The book is the labor of love of Lawrence Kirsch, part of the cult since ’75. Kirsch first had the pleasure to experience Springsteen on a freezing winter night in ’75, in Montreal. “Bruce acted out the songs with such conviction he seemed to be living them out on stage. The audience was spell bound as this small skinny whirlwind of a man commanded their attention, he remembers now. Realizing, after attending many shows that felt like a family reunion, that the cult has a “pent-up desire to share” he set out to collect those stories. He received over 1500 stories from all over the globe. Kirsch gave himself the task to edit through them and decide which to publish. “It was very difficult to pick the ones that appear in the book” Kirsch relates. “the ones that made it into the book are not necessarily the best” he confesses, “No these stories are representative of the ‘Springsteen experience’ from the poignant and heartfelt, to the passionate and the trivial.” Lawrence himself calls the book a testimonial, and a treasure trove of tales. I think “For You” became more than that. Taken as a collective these stories represent the missing half of Springsteen’s biography.

Through the book we get a different perspective on Springsteen. We watch him grow up through the eyes of the cult and see the cult growing up with him. Kirsch allows us to unravel the secret of Springsteen’s magnetism like few other books can. There’s the complete awe of first concert experiences over the decades. There’s the fulfillment of that promise years burning down the road. There’s stories of fans coming to terms with strained family relations, Springsteen as the natural soundtrack in the back. We share in the battle against cancer, Springsteen offering that comforting shoulder. Flipping through its pages we meet Wendy from Born to Run, learn that the Big Man’s name is also Paul. Story after story the picture unfolds, after you’re done you feel like you’ve captured an essential element of Springsteen a classic biography could never capture. In a sense Kirsch is re-writing the book on how these things should be done or at least giving us the other side of the coin. The 400 something gorgeous pictures that were contributed to the book almost seem like a side note compared to that.

“Bruce fans are a fraternity” Kirsch reflects on the book now, “we share something deep and special, a relationship with the artist and with each other. At every show you meet old and new fans and the “family” grows larger and larger”. That probably explains why Springsteen is the first artist to have an alternative biography like this. You could wonder if the same kind of biography could even work for other artists. I like to think Springsteen fans are pretty unique in our seemingly unhealthy devotion. Although Kirsch called the book “a very personal tribute to an inspired and inspiring human being”, I think the reverse is also true. “For You” is a tribute to the cult as well. “For You” was printed as a limited edition available through the web only, get yours while they last.

Down the Tracks; Perilious Times, Geoffrey R. Stone

In the live version of "Living in the Future" Springsteen has criticized certain aspects of President Bystander's policies. In a speech where Springsteen recounts some of the good thing we all cherish about the US, from cheese burgers to the freedom of speech he warns night after night; "along with all the things that we love about the place we live, in the last six years we´ve had to add to the American picture things like illegal wiretapping, an attack on our Constitution, a rollback of civil liberties, rendition, those are the things that ain´t supposed to be happening here that are happening here now." A question that has been on my mind is if that critique is fair, if it isn't an oversimplification of the President's blundering. Though I might be misinterpreting the man, the speech reeks of a nostalgia to an America that never was. Of course R&R shows do not leave a whole lot of room for nuance, we wouldn't want the Boss trading "Badlands" for a lengthy dissertation, but still. America as I know it has always been marred by a strained relationship with its constitution, there have always been currents in the US that have felt that the constitution leaves too many liberties. America, to me, always seems like a concept or a dream that never has been fully realized. So in my mind Springsteen is referring to an America that never existed, but only dreamed of by the more idealistic Americans. Dubya isn't singular in his curtailing of civil liberties.

Placed in the context of Geoffrey R. Stone's book, "Perilous Times: Free Speech in Wartime", you might even want to conclude that Bush is progress in a history of ignoring the constitution during war time. At the hand of a few select conflicts in which the US was involved, ranging from the sedition act to the current War on Terror , Stone demonstrates that rights didn't always mean certainties in the US. The constitution might have been set in stone, more than once it was pushed aside gathering moss. Though New York Times notable book, "Perilous Times" is quite the academic read. Though Stone's uses clear language, the content is a bit dry from time to time. Mostly because Stone doesn't deal with case studies of actual people who became victims of their time, but makes an effort to clarify the currents that gnawed at the constitution over that passed two centuries. Still, even when you're not an academic, "Perilous Times" is a great read if you feel the desire to place Springsteen's political rants into context.

Because Stone puts certain periods in time under the microscope, a full read of the 560 pages isn't strictly necessary. Maybe to gain some understanding it is enough to read the chapter on the Cold War and McCarthyism. Stone is effective in demonstrating how that period was a turning point in American politics. Fueled by the Cold War, Joseph McCarthy was the first politician to win his place in the Senate by red baiting. During his campaign McCarthy took quite a few liberties with the truth to secure his place in Washington. "Tail Gunner Joe" who never was a tail gunner, won with a two to one margin by making his opponents look suspect. Every social democratic measure proposed by the other candidates was slandered as being Communist by McCarthy. In a period of heightened tension between Russia and the US, McCarthy would soon prove to be the powder keg that threatened to blow up the constitution, including freedom of speech. If red baiting wasn't enough to intimidate the more liberal candidates into abandoning social policies, McCarthy soon 'produced' a list of over 200 spies in civil service. The supposed list, to this day it is uncertain if McCarthy ever had one, led to the Tydings Committee, investigating civil servants, and McCarthy's place on the Senate's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. With initial support of the Kennedy family and a broad backing amongst Republicans McCarthy unleashed a which hunt that destroyed the careers of hundreds and even had some imprisoned. With the help of a few select disloyalty acts, McCarthy managed to make any social sympathy look suspect. From your neighbor to the stars of Hollywood, to George C. Marshall, architect of the Marshall plan, all became subversive in McCarthy's world.

To his credit Stone not only demonstrates the parallels between the Bush administration and the McCarthy hearings but also demonstrates how Bush is a step up from former perilous times. Stone shows the similarities between McCarthy's red baiting and Bushes "You're either with us or with the terrorists". Like McCarthy, president Bush has tried to make any criticism on US policy look suspect, maybe even bullying congress into abandoning their critique on the PATRIOT act and the invasion of Iraq. Bush effectively used the terrorist scare to curtail civil liberties, which in the immediate after math of 9/11 didn't seem all that important any more. Optimistic as Stone is however, while demonstrating on one hand that Bush's policies fall into an American political tradition, he also shows how America has learned from history. Stone rightfully credits Bush with reaching out to the Muslim community in the US, trying to diffuse an automatic notion of suspicion. He also applauds Bush for not prosecuting anybody who protested his administration's policies against terrorism. Such nuance in Stone's writing make his warnings on the implications of the PATRIOT act carry all the more gravity, you cannot accuse Stone of walking partisan lines. Stone is equally fair and critical with Democratic policy makers as he is with Republicans. Stone's ability to maintain an academic objectivity while writing on measures that gets the blood boiling of anybody who cares for the American constitution, makes this book an essential read on the subject.

Down The Tracks, Timothy Egan, The Worst Hard Time

"Dodge City went black. The front edge of the duster looked two thousand feet high. Winds clocked in at sixty miles an hour. A few minutes earlier there had been bright sunlight and a temperature of 81 degrees, without a wisp of wind. Drivers turned on their headlights but could not see ahead of them, or even see the person sitting next to them. It was like three midnights in a jug, one old nester said. Cars died, their system shorted out by the static...A woman in Kansas later said she thought of killing her child to spare the baby the cruelty of Armageddon". Black Sunday, April 14th, 1935, the biggest duster yet wreaked havoc on America, carrying the dirt from the mid lands as far as New York City. Much has been written on the Dust Bowl, but most books focussed on the exodus that the dust bowls caused. The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl is one of the few books out there that chronicles the experiences of those who decided to stay. In this absolute can't put down book, Timothy Egan breathes life into people who history forgot, majestically capturing the horror of the Dust Bowl and the reliances of those who decided to stay and face them.

The Dust Bowl was caused by a series of complex factors. To gain some understanding Egan takes us back to the final frontier, how the midlands were won. In extremely vivid story telling Egan relates how the Indians were chased from their lands in the era of home steading. He illustrates how the Texan cowboys chased the bison from the plains, how the farmers after that cultivated them, replacing the prairie grass for wheat. In a matter of decades, first encouraged by the high wheat prices during World War I, then by the dropping prices during the depression, every strand of prairie grass was destroyed. When the farmers decided to abandon their lands or stopped cultivating them, the top soil lay loose, easily picked up by the winds. Ultimately this caused one of the first man made ecological catastrophes that hasn't seen its equal since on American soil.



The scenes Egan sets in his book seems miles away from Springsteen's rendition of "My Oklahoma Home", a popular folk song from that era. The wry and ironic lines and the upbeat music cloud the tragedy of the Dust Bowl. Yet it lies waiting there for us to uncover. After finishing this book, not one line in "My Oklahoma Home" seems an exaggeration. The dusters and depression indeed took every little last bit from the people but their mortgage. After reading this book you can't help but admire the spirit of whoever wrote the original. To look that mean black duster in the eye, letting it fill up your lungs, take away your house and reasons for living and laugh in its face is inspiring indeed.

The main strength of Egan's book is how he traces a few select families from Dalhart and Boise City, located right in the heart of the Dust Bowl, a region aptly called No-Man's Land. Through these personal histories, Egan makes that complex interplay of what caused the duster come to life. Through Egan we not only get to know the people, the dreams they had when they settled and the terror they felt under the dusters and the depression, we also get to know the land, why it responded like it did. As this book illustrates, it doesn't hurt to reflect on those times every once in a while, be it trough song or reading. The Dust Bowl holds many lessons our collective memory would rather forget. But in an age of global warming, facing our past couldn't hurt.

Read more on the Dust Bowl and see interviews with survivors here

Down the Tracks, Steve Turner, The Man Called Cash

"I think Springsteen says it better than any of us did" Johnny Cash

I imagine that quote might be the biggest compliment Springsteen ever got from another artist. Taken from Steve Turner's biography, Cash said these words when asked about his "Johnny 99" album from 1983, on which he covered the title track and "Highway Patrolman". Though once a giant in music, Cash's career was in a slump at a time. Though Cash was still a much respected figure in country music, he didn't write the songs anymore that captivated a nation. I imagine that he looked at Springsteen's success with some nostalgia, remembering the time he spoke for the disenfranchised in much the same way. "He's the master of these songs, he's such a prolific writer" Cash relates, "I guess youth has a lot to do with it". The album proved to be Cash's second to last album before Columbia records foolishly set him out with the trash, like putting a Rembrandt through the paper shredder. Ten years down the line Rick Rubin would make Cash eat his words about youth, and Columbia hang its corporate head in shame, when he revived Cash's career on American Recordings. Allowing Cash a renaissance in the fall years of his life.



Steve Turner's book, The Man Called Cash, was the first biography that chronicled Cash's entire career right up till his passing on September 12th 2003. The book proved to be a very good companion reader next to Cash's own autobiography published in 1997. Though Cash arguably tells his own story better himself, Turner dispelled some myths from the that book and the movie that hit the theaters shortly after his death. As Turner explains in his book, Cash liked to stretch the truth a little bit from time to time, to make the story more compelling. Turner does an excellent job in chronicling Cash's career and is effective in explaining Cash's lasting appeal. Turner demonstrates how Cash was marketed outside of the Country scene and how his singular views appealed to both the conservative and religious Country fans as well as to the protest generation. Turner even touches on a part of R&R history that other Rock historians tend to ignore. When the protest generation began to show his flaws, some might even say proved to be morally bankrupt, they were overtaken by a Christian version spearheaded by Billy Graham and Johnny Cash. For a while the Jesus Freaks, as they were called, replaced the protest generation, fusing the free spirit of the sixties with religious conservatism.



Turner traces Cash's journey from being a Hillbilly hero to becoming an outlaw, from being a national television star to a relic from the past, to ultimately being an alternative rock darling and elderly statesmen. Few artists have had so many incarnations as Cash, few have been so consistent as Cash at the same time. Like no other artist Cash was aware that "no man is good all the time and no men is bad all the time". We carry both sides of the coin in us, Cash acknowledged both. Cash was not affraid to show that life was falling down as much as climbing up. Cash was as much humble before God as he was a backslider and didn't hesitate to show both sides of himself. Nor was he afraid to speak his own mind, his career be damned. That probably is the core reason why Cash spoke to people in all walks of life. From the inmates in San Quentin, where he recorded arguably his best album, to the mighty politicians who loved having him over for dinner. What his boom-chicka-boom music lacked in sophistication his words and the way his voice carried them revealed a complexity few artists are able to carry in their body of work. Don't take Cash for his word, nobody did it better than him, not even Springsteen.

Recommended listening:

Johnny Cash with His Hot and Blue Guitar
The first singles on Sun collected. Includes many of his biggest hits like "I Walk The Line" and "Folsom Prison Blues". Cash would be chasing the sound and simplicity of these singles for the rest of his career.

Bitter Tears (Ballads of the American Indian)
With this album Cash would be the first big Country star that would speak for the American Indian. He lays bare the trials of the Indian in modern times and the betrayals by the US government. An album that didn't sit well with his audience but is exemplary of his singular ways and refusal to compromise.

Orange Blossom Special
One of his most compelling studio albums at Columbia. Cash covers three Bob Dylan songs on this album. Embracing the protest generation as the natural continuation of the Folk movement before anybody else in Country music.

At San Quentin
Arguably the better of the two prison albums. At San Quentin strikes a perfect balance between his secular work and his gospels. At San Quentin Cash had a riot at his fingertips. The tension in this album is uncanny. It might even be the best live album ever recorded.

American Recordings
Recorded in Rick Rubin's living room. Cash acoustic and raw. Though initially intended as demos they proved to capture the essence of Cash like no studio album had done since his years at Sun records.

Down The Tracks; Peter Guralnick, Lost Highway

"Lost Highway" was the second book on my summer reading list that I finished in almost a heartbeat. Peter Guralnick's book is often seen as the seminal work on Country music, first published in 1979 it certainly captures Country music at a new hight. In the mid seventies, just when Country, much like R&R, threatened to drown in a swamp of mediocrity and easy listening, the outlaw movement put it back on track. Artists like Merle Haggard, Waylon Jennings and Hank Williams junior saved the genre from itself much in the same way as Punk and Springsteen redeemed R&R. Funnily enough one of the clubs that was instrumental in that movement was Max's Kansas City in NY. These days the club seems exclusively annexed by Punk historian, who often, conveniently, fail to mention the broad array of music that was featured on that small stage.

Guralnick is a pleasant rarity in music criticism. By his own admission it was his love for Blues that made him decide to write the book "Feel Like Going Home". When he finished that classic work he seriously considered to turn his back on writing, feeling he became too much of a professional to capture the essence of music. As this book and his classic biographies on Elvis testify, we're very lucky he didn't. Guralnick is able to capture the essence of the artists he portrays here, he captures in words qualities that often seem fleeting, an emotional experience that often seems beyond the grasps of words. Guralnick gets under the skin of not only the music, but the artists as well. With Guralnick many of the artists he portrays seem to be able to relax enough for their private personality to shine through the professional stance or myth created around them.

The figures we encounter through out Guralnick's book are often tragic and heroic at the same time. There's Charlie Feathers insisting on his place in Elvis' myth by claiming his success as his. There's the nearly forgotten Charlie Rich, unable to handle both his lack of success and his rise to fame, trapped by the bottle in both stages of his career. Gurlanick makes you marvel at obscure names as Sleepy LaBeef, stuck in a forgotten corner of America, playing the local truck stop, because his tour bus burned down. Cowboy Jack Clement explains his all compassing knowledge of Shakespeare with out ever having read a word the man wrote, or his plans on settling in outer space. Page by page the insane reality of these men unfolds, or rather these giants of individuality. No matter how lost or crazy some of these artists become, they inspire with their singularity as much as they do with their words. It is no coincidence that a head strong Sam Philips turns out to be at the very center of this book.

Although this book is built up around seemingly independent portraits and skips some of Country's biggest and most influential figures, it could be argued that few books capture the spirit of Country music as well as "Lost Highway". At first you might raise your eyebrows seeing portraits of Rufus Thomas and Bobby Bland amongst Ernest Tubb or Hank Snow but slowly and surely it becomes apparent how much Country and Blues are entwined. It seems everybody in this book was raised and influenced by the Opry, including the Blues artists featured here. Yet at the same time many of the Country stars here profess to be influenced by Blues names as Arthur Big Boy Crudup. Without making it explicit, Guralnick tears down the racial lines created in the music industry and makes the cultural exchange between the races in the deep South tangible. Without throwing it in your face, Guralnick forces you to reflect on American society, about things you hold true about it, about the music that on the surface seems to stress the division but in truth is as much of a melting pot as the country itself.

Down The Tracks; Greil Marcus, Mystery Train

"Gets as close to the heart and soul of America and American music as the best of R&R" - Bruce Springsteen on the cover of "Mystery Train: Images of America in Rock 'n' Roll: Fifth Edition".

Summertime has arrived in the Netherlands and that is always a good moment to catch up on my reading. Nothing better than bummin' around with a book in the park and some cold beverages. The first book I picked up is the recently released 5th edition of Greil Marcus' classic book on R&R, "Mystery Train". At first glance this book looks like an oddity, but proves essential reading for anybody who wants to gain an understanding of the medium. In the book, first published in 1975, Marcus tells the story of R&R by portraying three artists and a band; The Band, Sly Stone, Randy Newman and Elvis Presley. The artists of choice seem a little off at first, especially with hind sight. All except Elvis, their importance to R&R could be debated. With the Band it seems that the man they once backed, Bob Dylan, played a more pivotal role in the development of R&R, Sly and Newman beg the question if they even made R&R. Yet in Greil's book such questions become irrelevant. Marcus is not interested in reconstructing R&R's history, he is interested in what R&R says about America, the philosophical side of things. As such Marcus doesn't approach R&R in mannerisms, doesn't define it by rhythmic structures, but defines R&R as a force, as a powerful idea.

R&R is a totally unique art form in the world in the sense that it allows a window into America. R&R bears America naked for all the world to see. For us Europeans this has always been one of the exotic attractions R&R holds. No European music or other art form allows such a direct look into the very heart and soul of our various nations. Europe's history is too complex and ancient for any art form to grasp the entire notion of our individual countries. The US on the other hand, as Marcus argues, is still very young. The foundations of America, the promise that lies in its constitution aren't all that far removed from the people who inhabit the country now. Many Americans have heard from first hand how their grand parents came over from Europe. There are still people alive in America who heard first hand stories of slavery. Pick up Larry Crews biography "A Childhood" and he'll tell you what it meant to be a share cropper. Go to a Mavis Staples concert and she'll share memories of drinking from "colored only" fountains. The road to the America of today, with all its promises kept and broken, is still very much tangible in everyday life. Add to that the Democratic notions that are at the very fibers of American society and it becomes possible that an uneducated hillbilly like Elvis captures the essence of America's promise and terror in a three minute record.

Promise and terror are both sides of one coin that is both R&R and America is the argument Marcus seems to make here. As the great American notion, R&R holds a tremendous promise. That promise that the sky's the limit, that we are able to escape our mundane lives if we're willing to break loose. The latter seems the definition Greil uses for R&R in this book. Music that breaks through the boundaries, shocks people into awareness of their individual possibilities and that of their country, but which also holds the terror of failing, the mirror that shows Americas many mistakes in trying to achieve greatness. Reach high, fall deep is Marcus' argument here. Marcus' theory explains both the attraction of R&R in society as its rejection. R&R can cause great joy, place you on top of the world while at the same time confronts you with the great abyss. He makes his argument very effectively from the portraits he chose, how ever odd they may seem at first.

This book does a better job in helping you place contemporary artists and their function in R&R than any other book could. America's fascination with the rise and fall of teen stars like Britney Spears gains more context. After all if R&R reflects America, in Greil's definition Spears' bubble gum pop could very well be seen as R&R, what does Britney's fall say about ourselves and about the nation America is. What indeed did a song like "Whoops I Did It Again" say, with its uninhibited sexuality brought by an image of innocence. America's shock with Gangsta rappers like Snoop Dogg gains context in much the same way. It confronted the nation with harsh realities that not everybody was so willing to face. Marcus' book also helps you to place the controversy surrounding Eminem, in my mind the true heir to Elvis, Stagolee suddenly was white. Eminem shook up all kinds of latent racial stereo types that simmered under America's surface.

After reading Marcus it is easy to see how songs as "Rosalita" and "Born To Run" still get embraced so whole heartedly, it is easy to see why the songs on "Nebraska" make us a lot more uncomfortable. Not just because of what they tell us about America but also about ourselves. It becomes apparent why Springsteen made his best work of recent years against the backdrop of events that took away America's sense of security, and why his stance caused so much division amongst his fans. Springsteen's recent albums have confronted us with a side of America that isn't all that comforting to face. Springsteen has been asking question that are tough to answer, that sit easier left under the rug. "Mystery Train" is as helpful to make sense out of that unease as it was when it was originally released, the year Springsteen came out of hiding from those back streets.

Read Greil Marcus' original 1975 review of "Born To Run" for Rolling Stone here.
Also for further reading an interview with Marcus from 2001.