The University of Jyväskylä English Department 2009
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The University Of Jyväskylä English Department 2009 Workin’ On a Dream: The American Dream in the Lyrics Of Bruce Springsteen, 1995-2009 A Pro Gradu Thesis by Heidi Girén [email protected] Jyväskylän Yliopisto, Humanistinen tiedekunta, Englannin laitos Heidi Girén Workin’ On a Dream: The American Dream in the lyrics of Bruce Springsteen, 1995-2009 Pro Gradu –tutkielma Syyskuu 2009 123 sivua, yksi liite Tässä työssä kerron, miten Bruce Springsteenin musiikissa tulee esille American Dream, amerikkalainen unelma. Olen jakanut työni neljään eri ydinkappaleeseen: työ, uskonto, luvattu maa ja Manifest Destiny. Nämä kuuluvat amerikkalaisen unelman merkitykseen. Käsite alkoi muodostua, kun Kolumbus ”löysi” Amerikan vuonna 1492. Eurooppalaiset ajattelivat, että uusi mantere oli Jumalan antama Luvattu Maa. Siirtolaiset lähtivät kohti USA:a uskoen olevansa valittu kansa. Uskonnolliset arvot ovat siksi yksi osa amerikkalaista unelmaa. Uskonnollisia viittauksia löytyy Springsteenin kaikilta albumeilta. Mutta hän ei moralisoi tai tuomitse. Hänen henkilöhahmonsa eivät elä ihanteellista kristityn elämää. Usko ja Jumala ovat osa ihmisten arkea. Toisinaan uskokaan ei riitä ja edessä on traaginen loppu. Springsteen tuo esille myös vanhatestamentillisen käsityksen perisynnistä ja Kainin merkistä. Springsteenin henkilöt ovat pääasiassa tavallisia duunareita. Joskus he joutuvat työttömiksi ja elämä muuttuu vaikeaksi. Amerikkalaisen unelman mukaan USA:ssa on mahdollista nousta köyhyydestä rikkauksiin, jos vain tekee tarpeeksi töitä. Springsteen kuitenkin kuvaa tosielämän kovuutta. Silti vielä nykyäänkin jotkut menevät Amerikkaan paremman elämän toivossa. Perinteinen siirtolaisunelma paremmasta maasta on yhä olemassa. Amerikan lännen maisemat ja valtatiet ovatkin vapauden ja mahdollisuuksien symboleja. Springsteen kuvaa kuinka siirtolaiset haaveilevat Amerikasta ja pitävät sitä upeana maana. Mutta sitten kun he saapuvat USA:n, niin todellisuus onkin kovaa. Se että amerikkalainen unelma ei ole totta kaikille kansalaisille on saanut Springsteenin ottamaan kantaa poliittisesti. Hän kannatti Obamaa presidentiksi ja toivoo, että nyt amerikkalaiset tekisivät yhdessä töitä, jotta USA olisi parempi maa. Springsteen ei ole kannattanut Vietnamin, Korean, eikä Irakin sotia. Hän kertoo sodan turhuudesta ja hänestä Irakin sota on virhe kuten Vietnaminkin. Hän ei pidä sotien syitä ihanteellisina, vaikka amerikkalaisia onkin lähetetty vapauttamaan kansoja ja tuomaan demokratiaa. Manifest Destiny on käsite, joka viittaa siihen, että Amerikalla olisi erityinen tehtävä levittää vapautta maailmassa. Keywords: Bruce Springsteen, the American Dream, rock, folk, work, religion, Manifest Destiny, Promised Land, America, born in the U.S.A. CONTENTS 1. INTRODUCTION………………..…………..…………………………………..5 2. AMERICAN MUSIC…………….…………...…………………………………10 2.1. History…….……..……………………………………………10 2.2. Folk Music……………………………………………………11 2.3. Rock‟n‟Roll………..…………………………………………..15 2.4. The Music Business…………………………………………18 3. BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN.………..……………………………………...……..20 3.1. Life….…….……………………………………………………20 3.2. Albums.....................................………………………………..24 4. THE AMERICAN DREAM ……………………………………….…………35 4.1. The Historical Origins of The Dream....................................35 4.2. Definitions.................................................................................40 5. WORK…………………………….……………………………………………44 5.1. Workin‟ That Hard Line – Work On Earlier Albums....…44 5.2. No Home, No Job, No Peace, No Rest……………………46 6. RELIGION…...…………………….…………………………………………..57 6.1. All That Heaven Will Allow - Religion before 1995 ……...57 6.2. Come On Up For The Risin‟!………………………….……60 6.3. Faith Just Ain‟t Enough……………………………….……74 7. THE PROMISED LAND………….…………………………………….……80 7.1. American Land…..…………………………………………...80 7.2. The West……….……………………………………………..85 8. MANIFEST DESTINY……………..……………………………………….…93 8.1. Who‟ll Be The Last To Die……………………………….…93 8.2. American Skin…………………………………………….…100 9. CONCLUSION…………………………………………………………….…108 10. BIBLIOGRAPHY…………………..…………..……………………………113 10.1. Primary Sources……………………………………………113 10.2. Secondary Sources….……………………………………..115 10.3. Picture Credits.............……………………………………118 11.APPENDIX: Albums…………………………………………………….....…119 ABBREVIATIONS BITUSA = Born In The U.S.A. BTR = Born To Run D&D = Devils & Dust DOT = Darkness On The Edge Of Town GFA = Greetings From Asbury Park, New Jersey GTJ = Ghost Of Tom Joad HT = Human Touch LT = Lucky Town SS = Seeger Sessions TL = Tunnel Of Love WOD = Working On a Dream WFW = Wings For Wheels: The Making of Born to Run 5 1. INTRODUCTION I got my first Bruce Springsteen CD for Christmas in 2003. It was The Essential (2003), three discs of Springsteen‟s music. The discs cover Springsteen‟s career from the 1970s to the 2000s. One of the things I found appealing in his music were the cinematic American settings. For example, “Thunder Road” opens like a scene from a movie, and the song is one of Springsteen‟s rock classics from the 1970s that still moves people today. It holds a promise of a better life. The idea for my Pro Gradu came from the course “Ballads And Oral Tradition” (Smith, 2007). In the course we looked at traditional ballads and their elements. We also gave presentations and wrote essays about folk singers. I did mine about Bob Dylan‟s album The Times They Are A-Changin’ (1964). At the end of the course I started to think about what makes someone a folk singer, because Bruce Springsteen had released some folk albums and even his rock records seemed to have similar elements to those that came up in the course. Folk singers had an important role in the society of their time as social commentators, and I find that also Bruce Springsteen‟s records are significant reflections of contemporary America. Springsteen is often seen as a representative of the American Dream and positive American values also in Europe. After his concert in Tampere 2nd of June 2009, Finnish magazines praised Springsteen‟s intense show and found that one reason why he is so successful is that he represents the kind of Americanness that also Europeans admire (Kostiainen, 2009). The American Dream and the ideals that the country represents still exist in the minds of people. In this paper I will show how Springsteen‟s lyrics reflect the Dream. Springsteen‟s latest album is actually called “Workin‟ On a Dream”. I chose it as a title of this thesis because it sums up my idea in many ways. Springsteen is often seen as a working-class hero and he sings about those who are not doing well. He finds that Americans should work together to make the American Dream real for all the citizens. Springsteen also still keeps 6 working hard on his music even though he has been a succesful artist for years. The title also aptly describes my experience in writing this thesis. There are many publications about Bruce Springsteen. Kähkönen (1995) has actually written her M.A. thesis about the same topic as me. Her title is Promised Land: The American Dream In The Lyrics of Bruce Springsteen. As she did hers in 1995, I will focus on the albums released in 1995-2009. However, Springsteen has released two albums of his greatest hits during this period and of course I will not analyse the songs that have already come out before 1995. He has also released two albums, Tracks (1998) and 18 Tracks (1999) which contain his old songs that have now come out for the first time. I will not include these in my analysis because even though Kähkönen has not analysed these, they have similar themes as Springsteen‟s earlier albums, and Kähkönen has already covered those themes. I view Springsteen‟s music in the context of contemporary American society, and his other albums during the period of my analysis contain plenty of material for this research. I will, however, critically refer to Kähkönen‟s analysis to give a brief overview about the American Dream on Springsteen‟s records before 1995 and to show how Springsteen‟s views have developed. Also Nevakare (1990) has written about the artist. She analyses Springsteen the man on the basis of his lyrics. She draws conclusions about his personality and life from the songs without making any distinction between the singer and the characters. To me an analysis of Springsteen‟s personal life on the basis of his lyrics might be quite speculative unless one knows the man personally. Nevertheless, the albums might reflect his personal opinions and where he is at in life at that particular moment. But in my view he tells stories and creates characters that reflect the America of their time. Pirttijärvi‟s (2005) thesis is “I believe in the promised land”: the teachings of the Bible and Christian values in the song lyrics of Bruce Springsteen. She shows the biblical roots of some lyrics. Her paper helps us to understand Springsteen‟s songs better, especially if one does not know the Bible well. 7 Pirttijärvi‟s analysis helped me see how sin and the inherited “ties that bind” are present in Springsteen‟s lyrics. Also I have a chapter about religion, but my approach is different from Pirttijärvi‟s. She analyses Springsteen‟s songs from the beginning of his career in relation to the Bible, whereas I will only focus on his latest albums and my findings are more spiritual than biblical. In addition to these publications, there are several books written about the singer, most of them biographies. Springsteen‟s main biographer is Dave Marsh, who has released three books about the artist (1979, 1987, 2003). Also Sandford (1999), Humpries and Hunt (1986)