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CounterPunch
August
13/19, 2002
An Open Letter
to Bruce Springsteen
About the War on Terrrorism
by Gary Leupp
Dear Bruce,
First of all, let me express my deep
love and respect for you. I've been a fan of yours since the
1970s, when as a grad student in Hawai'i I heard "Factory"
over my car radio. Yes! I thought, this is the music we need.
My roommate had the "Born to Run" LP, and I played
it so much he finally just gave it to me. I still have it; it
skips in places, but of course I've now had the CD for years
so I just show that LP--and all those other Springsteen LPs,
right next to the Beatles and Dylan LPs--to my kids, as lovely
museum pieces.
I went to Japan to study, in 1981. I
bought the Japanese issue of "Born to Run," with katakana
all over the cover and a detailed Japanese-language commentary
and lyrics translation inside--even before I bought a stereo
for my apartment. Just wanted to have it there, in that little
space without furniture, linking my worlds of Japanese studies
and my American roots; I studied the Japanese lyrics, wondering
if the translator interpreted the songs the way I did. I especially
remember thinking about the translation of "Backstreets."
It wasn't clear to the translator I guess whether "Terry"
was male or female, and so the translation implies that the sense
of loss and betrayal relates to an adolescent male-male thing,
which kind of puts a whole different spin on the song than you
probably intended, but I won't go into that.
I confess that while in Japan I bought
a bootleg album ("imprimé en France") of one
of your concerts and stupidly sold it before coming back to the
States, and I only have a few tracks recorded on cassette. On
that album, the lyrics on "Point Blank" were very different
from the official recorded version. I think I liked them better,
actually, and when I accidentally erased that from my portable
cassette player, I hated myself for a while.
Another random memory. I remember talking
to friends in Japan about your performances in support of the
anti-nuke movement. This has particular relevance in the land
of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
I'll be there at your Boston gig in October,
with my twelve-year-old son. While I was trying to buy them over
the phone the day they went on sale, he raced downstairs and
said he'd been able to reserve them on Ticketmaster, but I needed
to confirm the order within five minutes. We just barely made
it.
Anyway, I love you, Bruce. You are the
Boss, more than the Dylan of our time, in my opinion.
But to get to the point. Last week I
received a latter from a young man in Spain. The letter was in
Spanish which is not one of my languages, but I could sort of
catch the drift of it. He'd apparently read some of my political
commentary about the "War on Terrorism" that has appeared
on CounterPunch and reappeared in Spanish translation on the
web, and he asked me to write up a criticism about your position
on the war. I was taken aback. I immediately replied (in English)
that the Boss, in my opinion, is a deeply sensitive and compassionate
man, and that while he doesn't speak all that clearly about politics,
he's definitely on the people's side, although sometimes his
stuff has been misinterpreted or misused. I mentioned how you
handled Reagan and all. For sure I defended you.
Basically what the youth was asking was,
how could the author of "Ghost of Tom Joad" and "41
Shots" (he mentioned those songs) tell Time Magazine
that he supported Bush's attack on Afghanistan? I had no answer,
since I don't routinely read Time, on account of it not
being a good magazine, and hadn't read the article to which he
referred. But surfing the net, I discovered that you were, actually,
quoted in the July 27 issue as saying "the invasion of Afghanistan
was handled very, very smoothly."
Bruce, I must respectfully disagree.
It was 41-shots magnified a thousand times. It re-empowered the
Northern Alliance thugs. It produced massive disorder, which
continues, and will get worse. It has probably killed over 4000
civilians, destabilized the region, and created more hatred for
the U.S. than existed a year ago. Response to Sept. 11 was handled
like the Bush administration handles most things: with extreme
crudity, and total lack of interest in human life (your own trademark
being precisely that interest, Bruce!) It pains me that you'd
lend your good name to support any of that shit. Excuse my language.
You study everything you write about,
you give attention to detail. Please give attention to Afghan
detail. (November 10: CNN reports at least 128 civilians killed
and a shrine leveled when allied planes bomb and destroy village
of Shahagha, northwest of Kandahar. Maybe those victims deserve
a song. And there are so many, many, many more examples.) Please
think about why and how al-Qaeda developed, and why the U.S.
was so damned eager to promote "jihad" against
the Soviets in the 1980s.
I've been listening to the "Rising"
CD and discussing it with friends. We agree, it's beautiful,
and there's nothing in it that promotes the war. (Some commentators
are disappointed that it doesn't.) It's what I hoped for. I'm
ashamed to say as I put it into the CD player I worried that
there might be something on it to validate the Spanish guy's
concern. But no, it's classic Bruce, and I think those of us
in the antiwar movement still mostly love you. But please, please,
think hard about what you say in relation to this ongoing, crazy,
limitless, global war that they're calling the "War on Terrorism."
I'm happy that you're not saying "it's
all about freedom" (like Paul McCartney), or singing "let's
roll" (like Neil Young). I'm hoping you won't follow the
path of John Steinbeck, who wrote The Grapes of Wrath (a
book which we both love) and then in his later years supported
the Vietnam War. I'm hoping you won't let "Rise Up"
mean "America United Against the World." You were born
in the USA, but also born in the world, and the world does not
want to see the Boss wave an imperialist flag while a government
of corporate crooks, psychos and religious fanatics prepares,
for no good reason, to send young American men and women to invade
Iraq.
To that, I hope you say, like you once
did to Lee Iacocca, when he tried to use you: "No thanks,
Mister."
Warm regards,
Gary P. Leupp
Gary Leupp
is an an associate professor, Department of History, Tufts University
and coordinator, Asian Studies Program.
He can be reached at: gleupp@tufts.edu
New Print
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Calling Scotland
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- They Never Booed Dylan!:
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August 14
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