Scot and Jeff discuss the second part of Bruce Springsteen’s career (1980-2020) with Dan McLaughlin.
Introducing the Band:
Your hosts Scot Bertram (@ScotBertram) and Jeff Blehar (@EsotericCD) with guest Dan McLaughlin. Dan is a Senior Editor at National Review and you can find his work, well . . . here! Just click on that tab over there, it’s not hard to figure out! Find him online at @baseballcrank on Twitter.
Dan’s Music Pick: Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band
Maybe you had a brother in Khe Sanh fighting off the Viet Cong, but after forty years from 1980 onwards to the present day as we resume the second part of our Springsteen summer spectacular, Bruce is still there, and we’re all gone. Part Two witnesses Springsteen’s explosion from cult favorite, critical darling, and sometime-chart-entrant into The Biggest Musician Of The Eighties sweepstakes (it’s a four person standoff between him, MJ, Prince, and Madonna). From Nebraska to Born In The U.S.A. to Live 1975-85 (a five record set that entered the Billboard charts at #1) to the deeply personal Tunnel Of Love, Springsteen owned the decade like few other artists, and his retreat from that during the Nineties (and subsequent reclamation of both the E Street Band and the massive concert audiences from 1999 onwards) is only part of an incredibly complicated and rewarding story set out in musical form. Join us as we run through all of it — not just the albums, but the outtakes, the live performances, the archival releases, heck even the autobiographies — on this epic installment of Political Beats, bringing our survey of The Boss to a close. And after you’re done, assuming you’re the last one out, make sure to shut out the light.
Part Two of Two.