Waking up in a world that somebody else owns

[eye_of_a_cat]

I think I just got the Bruce Springsteen thing.

Not, that is, the reason women want to marry him (still puzzling) or the reason he's popular (never puzzling). The Bruce Springsteen Thing is the anger, annoyance, or intermediate level of grumble, that incredibly rich Bruce can sing first-person songs about being poor. I used to scoff and roll my eyes at this on the dual grounds that a) it's unfair to trap people in some bizarre cycle of negative-success, where if his songs about poor people are good enough for people to make them popular then he shouldn't be allowed to sing them, and b) the world does not need any more songs about how existentially horrific it is to be a famous rich white man. (See: Randy Newman's 'It's Lonely At The Top'. See also: What's Wrong With 'Goodbye Yellow Brick Road', viz. "you, Elton John, have a plough. That you are going back to.")

Anyway, so. I didn't get the Bruce Springsteen thing until 11.21pm last night, when I was listening to 'Car Wash', in which a woman works a low-wage dead-end job in guess where, and it contained the following lines:

"Well, some day I'll sing in a night club
I'll get a million dollar break
Some handsome man will come here with a contract in his hand
And say 'Catherine, this has all been some mistake.'"

I still stick to my guns re: unfair fame cycle and no more rich-kid angst, but, um. Bruce, draw a line before you get to singing about poor people whose impossible dream of escape involves a multi-million dollar record deal, would you?

Comments

[kiaforrest.livejournal.com]

I realize, of course, that it's no shame to be poor. But it's no great honor either! So, what would have been so terrible if I had a small fortune? Tevya, in Fiddler on the Roof says this - before he breaks into song, his longing to be a Rich Man. His honesty of expectations of what "a Rich Man's Life" was like still makes me smile. At first, he can't even fill in all the blanks - Ya ha deedle deedle, bubba bubba deedle deedle dum. All day long I'd biddy biddy bum. Ya ha deedle deedle, bubba bubba deedle deedle dum. If I were a biddy biddy rich, Yidle-diddle-didle-didle man. But, he figures it out, the difference is perception of others, when your rich they think you really know. and he's OK with that. :grin:

The rich part is Not "the sweetest thing of all" only the time it might buy you.

I think most of these songs are fairy tale replacements. By the time you're a teen and heading toward that hill you eventually climb over - whether you want to or not - you can't really Believe in "million dollar contracts: it was all a mistake, you ARE the prince/ princess" - but you can mock yourself, the desire to regain a little of that nugget of IF when you sing/ hear the music. Frankly, many of us Are destined to 'get by' for our entire lives. We know it, find humor and joy where we can, and work a bit harder to make sure everyone has shoes & underwear and count That as our 'success' - a pleasing tune to hum or belt out along the way is comforting, even as we mock ourselves with the fantasy.... As John Prine sings: "It's a big ole goofy world."