Gerald D'Cunha

  “It’s not the the time in your life, it’s the life in your time.” Bruce Springsteen   T he Monday blues are here, again; and, I have been trying to chase them away by listening to my favourite performer Bruce Springsteen’s songs. In fact, I had been watching many of his performances right through yesterday… and, today, here I am watching this one over and over again…   E ver since this song –‘Treat Her Right’ – was first recorded by Roy Head in 1965, more than twenty well-known artistes have performed the same, adding their-own distinct touch. I have watched the original version by Roy Head, the one by Tom Jones, and the one in the 2019 movie ‘Once Upon a Time in Hollywood’… But, none of them had succeeded in chasing my blues away as the endearing version by Bruce Springsteen did. Everything about this stage performance is so lively, so spontaneous, and so simple yet compelling... that, there is something about it one cannot describe in words. Just as Bruce hims...

“After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music.” Aldous Huxley T hanks to the lockdown, I have been able to watch scores of Bruce Springsteen’s music videos. His songs and music are the ‘Stories of Life’ as Jon   Stewart said in Bruce’s honour at the Kennedy Center (2009). Listen to Jon … As per the tradition, earlier that day, President Obama had hosted a small party at the White House. In his speech, he had said, “I am the President; but, he is The Boss’ (referring to Bruce’s famous music album. Listen to Obama: ‘Stories of life’ and ‘He empties his tank’ – yes, these are powerful image-words about the life and work of Bruce Springsteen. His songs are the stories of hard life, the life of the underdogs – you and me… Simple, straight and forceful. Perhaps, that’s the reason why you see so many li’l kids, young men and women and elderly at his concerts – his ‘empties his tank’ for them… ‘through the...