Podhoretz’s Attack On Springsteen’

Podhoretz blunders in typical tunnel-visioned fashion. He and Ronald Reagan hear only what they want to hear in the Boss’s lyrics. The rest of us just shake our heads. It’s another case of politicians and the media existing only for each other.

As one of the more universal arts, music can be interpreted in as many ways as there are people who listen. But those who hear only blind patriotism or resigned desperation are missing the mark. These conditions, these moods, these people exist. If you haven’t experienced them, you have missed something.

Podhoretz would like to ask the ghost of Joe McCarthy about this Springsteen fellow. Reagan, if he was running again, would probably appoint Bruce “Poet Laureate” (and wouldn’t understand a damn thing Springsteen wrote).

Bruce Springsteen is no starving artist. He is big-time entertainment, but so eloquent in describing the lives and hopes of Americans, residents of the best country in the world. He knows (and we know) that we are the country. Politicians and the media are part of the crazy quilt, but part of the fringe. If you haven’t lived the lives of the common people or at least listened to rock ‘n’ roll over the years, it is probably too late to start.

MICHAEL URBANEK

Ojai