For You
- The New Bruce Springsteen Book (Edited by Lawrence Kirsch)
by Anthony Kuzminski
.
I've always been devotional and obsessive
fan when it comes to music. Merely having the released albums has never
been enough for me for certain artists. For the chosen few, I go over the
deep end and need to have everything. One of the artists I follow
religiously is Bruce Springsteen. While he was amongst the first artists
whose albums I bought, my addiction to his music didn't get the best of
me until college. By this point, Springsteen had dismissed the E Street
Band, had won an Oscar for "Streets of Philadelphia" and was largely hibernating
while still being among the world's most respected artists. I can't even
pinpoint my exact watershed moment, but if I remember correctly, I felt
an enormous void in my life and was continually looking for answers in
films, books and music. One day, while perusing a used CD store, I magically
found all of Springsteen's albums that I had not yet bought on CD. I snapped
them all up and later that day while listening to the dark, desolate and
hopelessness of the characters on Nebraska, something snapped. I
can't even properly express what happened, but I felt as if there was someone
out there who understood me, my feeling, my emotions and my struggles.
As the disc spun its way towards a conclusion, it reinvigorated me and
provided me with a "reason to believe". From there I went on to collect
every B-side and bootleg I could get my hands on. Listening to the album
cuts wasn't enough. I needed to hear the alternate and live versions that
would one day validate my traveling hundreds and sometimes thousands of
miles to be touched and inspired by this music. When you really love a
certain artist, you find live versions of songs that have that extra bite
that will leave a small scar on your heart. When you go back and eventually
listen to the studio cut, in your head you can hear exactly where the crowds
roars and voices congeal in a perfect concert moment. Ever since then,
I've been compulsive when it comes to Bruce Springsteen and even though
my devotion has waned in recent years, I still consider him an integral
part of my musical experience.
 Through
the years, I've read almost every book written about Springsteen. Some
are great and many are not. Over time, I've even become cynical when I
hear about new books. In the last few years, there have been a plethora
of coffee table book releases in the Springsteen world including Greetings
From E Street, the Born To Run: The Unseen Photos and Dave Marsh's
Bruce Springsteen On Tour: 1968-2005. Each one in itself is a gorgeous
work of art that will glisten on your polished coffee table. However, if
you only have those three, then you still are missing the ultimate Bruce
Springsteen keepsake ;For You. When I heard about this book a year
ago, I dismissed it thinking I didn't really need yet another glorified
coffee table book. I was wrong
.dead wrong. For You takes the reader
on a magical, mystical and poignant journey through forty-years of Bruce
Springsteen's life. It's a time machine to the past where tickets were
once $7, the E Street Band was a boy's only club, Steve Van Zandt looked
like a member of Jimmy Buffet's band and most of the members of the E Street
Band could have begun their own television show-"Stashin'". I wasn't impressed
with the book, I was bowled over.
Something no press agent, record company
or management firm will ever wrap their heads around is the concept of
fanaticism. They may think they get it, but in reality, they don't.
To truly understand a full blown junkie music fan, you have to be one.
Die-hard fans are always vocally ardent about their devotion, but Springsteen
fans are in another realm all unto themselves. So why was I deeply cautious
about reviewing For You? All I could think about was "does the world
really need a new Bruce Springsteen book"? Don't get me wrong, I love the
man as much as anyone, but as I grow older I often question these types
of projects. In recent years some of these books have been nothing more
than exercises in pretention. I often find myself wondering if they are
birthed out of greed, capitalism, ego or pure passion? Now that I hold
For You in my hands, I can confirm there's nothing but unbridled
passion in all of its 205-pages.
 For
You (available exclusively at: www.foryoubruce.com) was worked on meticulously
for a two-year period and is a self-published book limited to 2,000 copies.
No, that is not a typo, two-thousand copies. Editor Lawrence Kirsch had
a monumental undertaking choosing from 1500-stories which were submitted
and tracking down and obtaining the 400 photos eventually used for this
project. If this wasn't enough, he had very ardent and strict rules; only
scans from original negatives and slides were considered. I don't know
anyone who would hold a book to standards this high today in the age of
internet scans and cell phone photos. I'm glad he did, as For You
is staggering in its detail, vastness and variety of concert shots. Kirsch
dug his heels in, shot for the moon and the stars while putting this book
together and succeeded wildly. It's an awe-inspiring book that should be
on your book shelf even if you aren't a Springsteen fan because it would
convert you without hearing a note of his music; it's that impressive.
It encompasses every Springsteen tour in detail (organized by decades)
and has over 400-pictures. The book contains 200 stories from fans explaining
why this music and this band mean so much to them. The good news for fans
is that the largest section (close to 70-pages) is the 1970's and many
of these photos I didn't even knew existed and let me tell you, they are
a sight to behold. They range from epic concert poses to random softball
games where someone was fortunate to have a camera on hand. The 1980's
is a close second in coverage with 53-pages dedicated to the decade and
even the most current decade has a whopping 50-pages dedicated to it. You
see pictures of Bruce with assorted musicians through the years including
John Eddie, Southside Johnny, Jon Bon Jovi and Neil Young.
 The
difference between For You and most other books commissioned by
the artists themselves is that there wasn't a 4th quarter release or special
anniversary being exploited dictating the contents or the constraints of
it. The book is held together by passionate and resourceful fans whose
main objective was to provide fans with the best damn book possible. Saying
that Kirsch succeeded would be saying that Born in the USA was a
semi-successful. For You is a photographic passage through forty
years of Bruce Springsteen's career. The photographs are not just revealing
and are more than mere images, but part of a larger story of just not Springsteen's
life, but many fans as well. The detailed anecdotes make the pictures jump
off the page and come to life. For You provides a better history
lesson of who Bruce Springsteen is better than any album, DVD or book has
done to date.
 Most
self-published fan driven books can be cringe inducing and just flat out
embarrassing in their devotion for the artist or sloppily executed which
is not the case here. While there is zealous admiration for Springsteen
and his music, the book is an epic visual storytelling time machine that
encourages you to hop on for a ride down thunderous roads to simpler times
for a journey through the heart of darkness where the fans feel so close
and intimately personal with Springsteen like he's an old college buddy.
As I paged through For You I thought of how far I've come in my
own life journey since that desolate day where I listened to Nebraska
repeatedly. This book took me back to a time where a new world was opened
to me. This book is not just a fine addition to your collection, but is
essential for any Springsteen fan. It is a treasure trove of pictures and
stories that will not just take you for a ride down memory lane, but will
leave you with an impenetrable sense of hope much the same way you feel
cruising down the highway and having "Thunder Road" blast from your speakers
with the wind in your hair. When was the last time the written word did
that?
For You can be bought at this
link
Anthony Kuzminski is a Chicago based writer
for the antiMusic Network
and his daily writings can be read at The
Screen Door and can be contacted at thescreendoor AT gmail DOT com.
Rating:
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