After listening to Bruce Springsteen for years, and finally attending his first Springsteen concert, Rabbi John Moscowitz reflects on the profoundly religious message embedded in his music:
Springsteen’s music inspires his fans to think about life’s serious matters, all the while making us want to dance. He shies away neither from irreverence nor from religion; he knows that each has its place and purpose.
Often he puts the two together. In “Tenth Avenue Freeze Out,” one of his signature songs, Springsteen gyrates across the stage while regaling his . . . jazzed-up audience of how he went from lonely boy to fulfilled rocker “when the Big Man [Clarence Clemons, his late soul-brother sidekick] joined the band.” Evangelical style, he proclaims, “Take me to the river, wash me in the water. . . . I want to throw a rock-and-roll baptism, a rock-and-roll bar mitzvah. . . . I want to go to that river of life and hope and faith and transformation.” And then his kicker, another zing to the heart, in case you weren’t paying attention: “I want to go there with you because I can’t get there by myself.” . . .
It’s not just that Bruce (you just want to call him that) brings the energy of the old-time preacher to every concert; he fills his songs with religious imagery and language, and suffuses them with an understanding that life’s a tough road to travel, but hope is real, and redemption is available for everybody. He gets loneliness and love, his own included, among other polarities of the human condition. When he sings, we feel the Boss knows what’s in our hearts. And we feel more tied to one another: the guy in the row in front of us begins as a stranger and leaves a friend.
Read more on Jewish Journal: http://www.jewishjournal.com/opinion/article/why_this_rabbi_likes_the_boss