At Bruce Springsteens selvbiografi har fått tittelen Born To Run overrasker vel nøyaktig ingen, men åkkesomattedeter så kommer den i salg 27. september, og vi gleder oss. Ordentlig. Bruce Springsteen har gjennom utallige intervjuer og sceneopptredener i en 40 års tid vist seg å være en reflektert og klok mann, og når han over 528 sider skal fortelle om livet sitt mellom to stive permer, er det bare nødt til å bli spennende lesestoff.

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Nå har han akkurat «lekket» forordet til Born To Run, og det gjengir jeg derfor her. Det er ikke lange forordet, men det antyder at vi har en spennende og personlig fortelling foran oss. 27. september, altså. Read on:

FOREWORD

I come from a boardwalk town where almost everything is tinged with a bit of fraud. So am I. By twenty, no race-car-driving rebel, I was a guitar player on the streets of Asbury Park and already a member in good standing amongst those who “lie” in service of the truth . . . artists, with a small “a.” But I held four clean aces. I had youth, almost a decade of hard-core bar band experience, a good group of homegrown musicians who were attuned to my performance style and a story to tell.

This book is both a continuation of that story and a search into its origins. I’ve taken as my parameters the events in my life I believe shaped that story and my performance work. One of the questions I’m asked over and over again by fans on the street is “How do you do it?” In the following pages I will try to shed a little light on how and, more important, why.

 Rock ’n’ Roll Survival Kit
DNA, natural ability, study of craft, development of and devotion to an aesthetic philosophy, naked desire for . . . fame? . . . love? . . . admiration? . . . attention? . . . women? . . . sex? . . . and oh, yeah . . . a buck. Then . . . if you want to take it all the way out to the end of the night, a furious fire in the hole that just . . . don’t . . . quit . . . burning.

These are some of the elements that will come in handy should you come face-to-face with eighty thousand (or eighty) screaming rock ’n’ roll fans who are waiting for you to do your magic trick. Waiting for you to pull something out of your hat, out of thin air, out of this world, something that before the faithful were gathered here today was just a song-fueled rumor.

I am here to provide proof of life to that ever elusive, never completely believable “us.” That is my magic trick. And like all good magic tricks, it begins with a setup. So . . .

BTR1