I was a college freshman in the fall of 1975. There were new experiences everywhere (get your mind out of the gutter, you reprobate). Saturday Night Live premiered that season, and I watched the notorious "Bass-O-Matic" skit on a snowy 17-inch black-and-white TV.
Another cultural phenomenon occurred that fall--a rock star was on the cover of both Time and Newsweek (those were newsmagazines, for the younger crowd. They came in the mail once a week and reviewed the past week's events. They're mostly gone now). One of the articles quoted a writer for Rolling Stone who famously said "I have seen the future of rock and roll".
All this praise for a little-known singer from New Jersey who had released his third album only weeks before. But the product lived up to the hype, and all of us ran out to buy that third record. We hadn't heard anything like it--raw, fingers on the pulse for young people, more poetry than what we were listening to at the time.
43 years later, Born to Run still resonates. And today's destination for the Time Machine is the opening track from that record. "Thunder Road" set us up for the rest of the album, with imagery of Saturday nights cruising small-town streets, and the pursuit of love. Take a ride...
That rock critic who was so effusive in his praise of Springsteen? Jon Landau, who became Springsteen's manager. Perhaps he was a bit self-promoting? Just a thought...
See you Monday (9)...
Pete
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