<VV> Boss & Fender skirts (NO CORVAIR BUT LOTS OF GM!)

[Alan and Clare Wesson]

Just got home - concert was great! Here is a brief summary of replies to 
what people said:

a) I like his music, not his politics or his self-importance (which I agree 
not only exists but is increasing). There again, it seems to be a feature of 
many Hollywood stars nowadays (cf. DiCaprio, Paltrow et al). And I can't 
boycott every film that comes out of Hollywood. Yes, he has a problem in 
that he is a blue-collar socialist type, and the current liberal fashion is 
for latter-sipping centre-left technocrats - but that's his problem, not 
mine. I just like the music, like I said.

b) There is no funny-smelling smoke at Boss concerts. If you haven't been to 
one personally you won't realise it, but there is hardly anyone there under 
the age of 50. And they are VERY respectable, but rather middle-class and 
sandal-wearing. I took a pic with my Blackberry at the last one I went to, 
and the most notable thing about it is that over 50% of the heads in front 
of me in the crowd are bald...

c) Most of his fans (me included) have been following him since Born to Run 
in 1975 (O.K., I came on board in 79, so I have only been listening to him 
for 30 years). That's why we are all so old. I was introduced to him by a 
friend who lives in Mountainside, NJ - she was on an exchange trip to our 
university in 1979, and became my wife's best friend there. She introduced 
us to this son of Jersey and his music, and although she moved on to Michael 
Jackson a few years later, we never made that trip with her. We still visit 
her whenever we are near Mountainside, though.

d) The reasons I liked his music then and like it now (he is still singing a 
lot of the 70s stuff) are twofold: a) he sings about driving around the USA, 
which is what I like doing; b) he sings about American cars, which are what 
I like (Rick Norris got my favourite Boss tune wrong - it's not Born in the 
USA but Racing in the Street, with Cadillac Ranch a close second).

The video to I'm on Fire shows him under a Camaro (supposedly working on it, 
but I think not...) and driving a T-bird - a bit corny I know (skip the 
first minute), but it's very old (1985), the song is great - and cars are 
cars:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LigOJstIDk

Here's the first verse of Racing in the Street:

I got a sixty-nine Chevy with a 396
Fuelie heads and a Hurst on the floor
She's waiting tonight down in the parking lot
Outside the Seven-Eleven store
Me and my partner Sonny built her straight out of scratch
And he rides with me from town to town
We only run for the money got no strings attached
We shut `em up and then we shut `em down

So there you have it - the reason I like the Boss is because he sings about 
American cars and driving them. Especially Chevs.

Cheers

Alan

P.S. And better still, as far as I know, he hasn't bought a Prius! As his 
followers are largely working class, blue-collar guys, he has to be very 
careful about being too overtly green and latte-sipping, so although he is 
Obama's ambassador on earth, I haven't heard him making any anti-car 
statements, for fear of alienating his core supporters. And he certainly 
sang a lot of the old car-related songs last night, even if he hasn't 
written any new ones for a while...