It was 2008, and another term of Republican rule remained a cruel possibility. Then, Bruce Springsteen — the year's second-highest grossing touring act — led a supergroup that included Billy Joel through a hope-inspiring "Born to Run" at a fundraiser in New York City in October. The Boss then introduced "the next president of the United States," and Barack Obama took the stage to a roar of cheers. "I just told Michelle backstage that the reason I'm running for president," said the then-candidate, "is because I can't be Bruce Springsteen."
Danny Clinch
Bruce Springsteen
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Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band: Sunday, September 13. BankAtlantic Center, 1 Panther Pkwy., Sunrise. Show begins at 8 p.m. Tickets cost $39 to $100 through
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Rock stars typically make for pretty shitty role models, especially for politicians. But after years of deftly supporting pro-proletariat officials, Springsteen positioned himself as a worthy Obama ally.
It's tempting to dismiss Springsteen's endorsement of the president as conveniently populist. But then you're discounting the sly liberal stance the Boss maintained through the Reagan, Bush, and Dubya years.
Springsteen's first true political statement couldn't have come at a less opportune time. On November 4, 1980, Ronald Reagan ran a dirty tricks campaign and trounced Jimmy Carter. Springsteen performed the next night at Arizona State University and told the crowd: "I don't know what you thought about what happened last night, but I thought it was pretty terrifying." That ostensibly minor statement marked Springsteen's first step down a path of adroit liberalism unmatched by any pop star before or since.
The Boss bravely followed his first number one, 1980's The River, with 1982's Nebraska, the most brutally honest and haunting American protest album since Woody Guthrie's 1940 classic, Dust Bowl Ballads. In 1984, Reagan's re-election team attempted to use "Born in the U.S.A.," a song about the deplorable treatment of Vietnam vets, as a campaign rallying cry. But Springsteen refused to be the Gipper's boy.
By the summer of 2004, George W. Bush divided the nation like no president in modern history. Springsteen, in middle age, had become more comfortable in his speech-making. But instead of pontificating onstage, he voiced his opinion on the New York Times op-ed page with the stirring "Chords for Change" piece published August 5, 2004.
Then, at the 2006 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, the first major Crescent City event post-Katrina, Springsteen delivered a stirring performance of musical mastery and raw emotion. "I saw sights I thought I would never see in an American city," he said. "This is what happens when people play political games with people's lives."
Most recently, it's impossible to determine what role — if any — Springsteen played in getting Obama elected last year. But there's not a single American rock star who has so elegantly championed the working-class ideal of compassion, and who has acted in a dignified manner we could only hope for in our elected officials. That's why Reagan wanted the Boss — and Obama smartly received him with open arms.
