Springsteen Has Message for the People

Back in his commercial glory days in the ‘80s with the E Street Band, Bruce Springsteen combined the celebration of Elvis Presley and the commentary of Bob Dylan.

On the solo acoustic tour that included a stop Wednesday at the 2,400-seat William Saroyan Theatre here, you sense other models at work--the grass-roots activism of Dust Bowl troubadour Woody Guthrie and the unrelenting social consciousness of novelist John Steinbeck, whose “The Grapes of Wrath” inspired much of Springsteen’s latest album, last year’s “The Ghost of Tom Joad.”

In comments between songs (a denunciation of the anti-affirmative action Proposition 209) and in such tunes as his own “Sinaloa Cowboys” and Guthrie’s “Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos),” the singer-songwriter spoke Wednesday about the exploitation of society’s underclass, a theme that was at the heart of Steinbeck’s novel and Guthrie’s music.

What was most striking about the show--part of a tour that continues tonight in Santa Barbara--is that Springsteen is still doing these small-hall shows at all.

After having an album fall quickly from the sales charts the way the demanding “Tom Joad” did, many artists might have simply returned to the studio to work on new ways to connect with their once-massive audience. But Springsteen has continued spreading the word during an election year in which pop music has been scandalously silent on issues. (He’s also scheduled to appear at an anti-Proposition 209 rally at noon Sunday at the Westwood Federal Building.)

When Springsteen--who found time in the 2 1/2-hour set for a tender new song about his mother and stark versions of such old tunes as “The Promised Land”--does inevitably reunite the E Street Band, the old fans will once again rush to fill stadiums and arenas. By missing these arresting shows, however, they will have lost out on a significant chapter in the Springsteen saga as well as an enriching lesson in the healing power of pop music.

* Bruce Springsteen performs tonight at 8 at the Arlington Theatre, 1317 State St., Santa Barbara. Sold out. (805) 963-4408.