Will we understand Bruce Springsteen’s value only when he stops singing?

And therefore not one came out, not two (which anyway …), but well Seven new albums by Bruce Springsteen. All together, in a single return. Oh my God, “new”: they are discussed in a drawer for different reasons, by the desire to be in the family – the fateful nineties, in which between 1993 and 2001 the boss published just only work, The Ghost of Tom Joad – with the children then young to a ready soundtrack but who has not found outlets in the cinema (it also happens to the best, to be commissioned to be commissioned and stay with the match in hand); It’s all in Tracks IIa box with songs, in short, lost on the street, where The oldest are demo of the golden age between Nebraska (1982) e Born in the USA (1984)but it comes until 2010.

It is the second part of the Tracks Which in 1998 had begun to discard the archives in search of ideas, but with a different symbolic value: at the time Springsteen had a future in front, today he is 75 years old and, ascertained that he will remain on tour, on stage, until he canHowever, he must deal with the time, as in the case of the Peptic Ulcer who in 2023 had forced him to postpone concerts. This is not the testament, but a little melancholy you breathe, all right, counting that The opportunity to recover these projects was Lockdowntherefore a situation of general vulnerability and, as regards it, a stop to the live, for years the true and only lifeblood of the house for years.

So much so. Clear, they are not all masterpieces: there are albums that it is clear Because they have never been published – or that they would need several more retouches, that for a matter of high fidelity there have been no – and others absolutely up to the myth. Something works as a historical testimony, such as the tests of transition between Nebraska And Born in the USAmore often the feeling is that shades are added without obviously ever surprising, or changing the cards on the table. There is, here, an unpublished Springsteen here. So why publish it?

Let’s put it this way: Tracks II is a Gift to fansbut for the dimensions and imprint of this relationship, between him and the public, It is a gift to all music. To life. Those who love the boss – and are millions, also in Italy – often does it in one way religiouslike a cult, something that, to descend into the secular, looks like the organized cheering of the curves of football: trips and so on. And in fact flowers of thinkers, over the decades, have analyzed the phenomenon, with Even themed academic studies. It is living meat, of course. When, in 2023, he performed in Ferrara despite the flood that had hit Emilia Romagna the fans, at least by us, split between those who blamed the choice to proceed anyway, who defended it, who said that he didn’t knowwho who it could not fail to know. This is also love.

But he, Rocker singer -songwriter who made the story of the proletarian America, “of the last”, a question of representation and mutual correspondence everywhere – The merit, as well as a huge talent, is of the absence of rhetoric: Springsteen is the best possible United States, those that our grandparents dreamed of the war, in fact I hate Trump – has long been transcending all this dimension to transform into a sort of superhero of our times: spectacular concerts and three hours with the legendary and street band that they unite three if not four generations of enthusiasts (who has been to San Siro, in these days when the caravan has passed, knows it: there is no fashion that holds, let’s talk about one Larger Than Life), the intention of not giving up until the end, the mere fact of feeling a responsibility towards What is And to return it, again, to the public. Net of the passing time, today, today, the parable worker is not so to speak, as the fact that it embodies everything we would like to be that we look at it: who does not give up, who resists.

This is why Springsteen is enormous and precious. Continues to indulge in one generosity rare, with the risk – e Tracks II He witnesses it – to be even obvious, in being so constantly exceptional, abundant, faithful to himself. Not even the Rolling Stones, among many, are such cars live. In the last concerts it has inevitably appeared more fatigued, but not less shiny, concrete, content in some way to get your hands dirty. Thus, seven records fished out of who knows where they tell us that the sun has not yet set to his empire, on the contrary. But that when, sooner or later, inevitably, well, well, we will all feel much more alone. And then let’s not take it for granted.