I'm currently reading Bruce Springsteen's autobiography, Born to Run. It is going through me like an electric current, like exuberance, like sex and joy. I will likely not read a better book this year. Perhaps it is no surprise that Bruce writes so well, tells a story that is anything but the cliched celebrity rise, fall and redemption. Bruce is one of the finest storytellers America has produced. Reading this book I find myself thinking about how important storytelling is. The rock and roll of present day (really, since the 90s) has largely moved away from telling stories, becoming something more abstract and more inward-focused. Which is fine--I love many, many bands that do this--but we need stories.
Rock and roll saved me. Stories saved me. Music has always been my church. Stories my passion. I have all this I want to explain to you. Let's have a beer, I want to talk. But we can't, not tonight. We are separated by this technology. We are living in darkness.
This is a one and only draft. This is not a story. This is the only story.
Jesus I'm tired. I can't tell a story, not today. So I will let Bruce tell it:
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