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September 29, 2016- by Steven E. Greer, MD
I pre-ordered Bruce Springsteen’s autobiography, Born to Run, and got it the other day.
I have Springsteen albums but have not been a huge fan. I have never seen him in concert. This is partly because I knew nothing about him.
His book is very well written. He is a great writer. The sentences flow well, almost like song lyrics in complete sentences.
His memoir is very enlightening to me. He grew up in poverty in New Jersey, but his hard-working Italian mother kept the family going as his Irish father (with a Dutch name of Springsteen) fell into deep depression. Bruce reveals that he has suffered from the blues most of his life as well.
Elvis, then The Beatles, were Bruce’s inspiration. He was only six or seven years old when he saw Elvis on the Ed Sullivan Show. Elvis inspired his mother to rent him a guitar, which he could not play and gave up. About eight years later, he took it up again after seeing The Beatles, and the rest is history.
As these icons of Rock ‘n Roll get into their late 60’s, they are writing their memoirs. The Pete Townshend autobiography is quite interesting as well.