Bruce Springsteen's America: The People Listening, A Poet Singing - Softcover

"These are the voices of Bruce Springsteen's America--individuals young and old, from various parts of a nation, linking themselves in words of reminiscence, reflection, assertion with certain of a singer's songs. In their sum as listeners, these Americans provide a chorus of resonance to an outpouring of engaging, stirring, inspiring music sent during our recent times toward the many who hearken to the summons of a troubadour."
--Robert Coles, from Bruce Springsteen's America

People listen and reflect on their lives and on the words of Bruce Springsteen:

"He's a writer and a teacher; and he's a politician . . . urging people who stop and listen toward action. He's a born storyteller--a novelist who's out there holding up right and wrong, and drawing the line between the two."
--a businessman on "Born in the U.S.A."

"You can close your eyes and hear someone read his words, with no music, and you know it's him talking. . . . He speaks to you as if you were in the same room, and he's telling you something about life, and people, and what goes on with us, when we're working side by side."
--a woman on "Glory Days" and "Tunnel of Love"

"I've listened to Springsteen while I'm flying over America. . . . The time whizzes by--I'm in another world. . . . Actually, I guess I am on top of the world, sitting in that airplane, literally--but hearing Springsteen you go further up. Listening to him talk about the people left behind, the ones who are way down when it comes to dollar bills and jobs, you realize how lucky you are, having the life that's yours."
--a college student on "My Hometown"

"That's his great specialty, taking the measure of people and putting them . . . on the card table, giving them a close look-over. . . . He's out there . . . taking in what's going on for us folks here in this America."
--a policeman on "American Skin (41 Shots)" and "Johnny 99"

"He's up there on the heights of American storytelling with those lyrics."
--a schoolteacher on "The E Street Shuffle" and "Nebraska"

From the Hardcover edition.

The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Children of Crisis offers a unique vision of musical legend Bruce Springsteen and the influence of his music on both the lives of ordinary Americans and on the American literary tradition, examining the meaning of Springsteen's lyrics and profiling "The Boss" as a poet within a larger social, cultural, and philosophical context. Reprint. 26,000 first printing.