Back at RT in 2012, Molly O'Keefe and I got to talking at the bar (like you do) (no, really, that's what you do at RT) and she told me she had to leave the convention early because her husband had scored tickets to see Bruce Springsteen live, and, well, yeah, she had to leave early. Because… Bruce.
As y'all know, I live in Jersey, and I spent every summer here as a kid. Springsteen is… well, he's Jersey. To quote Jon Stewart, another person from Jersey, when Springsteen was part of the Kennedy Center Honors program:
“I am not a music critic. Nor historian, nor archivist. I cannot tell you where Bruce Springsteen falls in the pantheon of the American songbook. I can not illuminate the context of his work or his roots in the folk and oral history traditions of our great nation.
But I am from New Jersey, and so I can tell you what I believe, and what I believe is this:
I believe that Bob Dylan and James Brown had a baby. Yes! And they abandoned this child, as you can imagine at the time…interracial, same sex relationships being what they were…they abandoned this baby by the side of the road between the exit interchanges 8A and 9 on the Jersey Turnpike.
That child was Bruce Springsteen.”
So when O'Keefe emailed me some weeks back and said she'd been thinking about the intersection of romance and Springsteen, two things she loves, and had an idea for an essay, and would I perhaps be interested in reading it, I said, “Well, duh.”
What follows is O'Keefe's essay – and stay tuned for a giveaway at the end.
Main Street and Thunder Road: The Intersection of The Romance Genre and Bruce Springsteen
Molly O'Keefe
I was introduced to the music of Bruce Springsteen when I was six, the year my brother got The River double tape set for Christmas. Listening from my room (a glorified hallway outside my brother’s door), I didn’t understand the adult and deeply conflicted nature of the song: Is a dream a lie that don’t come true or is it something worse? but still, recognition thrummed inside me.
I liked this.
Years later when I got my hands on Outlaw, Elizabeth Lowell’s fantastic Silhouette Desire, the same recognition thrummed.
I really liked this.
Thinking about it, despite the different mediums, I like romance novels and Springsteen in nearly exactly the same way, for the same reasons. It’s an easy argument that they share a multitude of themes:
Sex:
At night I wake up with the sheets soaking wet
And a freight train running through the
Middle of my head
Only you can cool my desire
(I’m On Fire)
Faith:
You use your muscle and your mind and you pray your best
That your best is good enough, the Lord will do the rest
(Rocky Ground)
Community:
Familiar faces around me
Laughter fills the air
Your loving grace surrounds me
Everybody's here
(Mary’s Place)
Loneliness and Alienation:
You been hurt and you're all cried out you say
You walk down the street pushin' people outta your way
You packed your bags and all alone you wanna ride,
You don't want nothin', don't need no one by your side
(The Ties That Bind)
Redemption:
I'm ridin' hard carryin' a cache of roses
A fresh map that I made
Now I'm gonna get birth naked and bury my old soul
And dance on it's grave
(Long Time Comin’)
Love, hard-won, naked, raw, vulnerable, violent and honest:
And it's not that nursery mouth that I came back for
It's not the way you're stretched out on the floor
'Cause I've broken all your windows and I've rammed through all your doors
And who am I to ask you to lick my sores?
And you should know that's true
I came for you
For you
(For You)
The characters in romance novels pop up in Springsteen songs – the blue collar, hard-working dreamer. Men with debts no honest man can pay and women with their killer graces and secret places. And his songs, no matter how gritty and dark, are almost always hopeful.
Perhaps because of all the shared themes, characters and the love, sex and hope filter Springsteen uses to tell his stories, I shouldn’t be amazed when Springsteen and the romance genre draw the same criticism.
I think the real intersection between Springsteen and romance is the perception that both are simple or perhaps too earnest, repetitive in theme and bombastic in delivery. The fact that both are tremendously popular make them easy targets.
In a recent article in the New Yorker, David Remnick (quoting rock critic Tom Carson) asserts that Springsteen didn’t think music was a tool of rebellion against conventional society but the means with which it is redeemed.
To me this means Springsteen is holding a constant and diligent mirror up to remind us of the best of ourselves.
I believe this is exactly what romance does, why it’s popular and why it’s so important.
To say romance is escapist (something I’ve often said) sells the power of the romance novel far too short. That it’s mommy porn is patronizing and offensive. A small-minded, elitist effort to explain something that is emotional, sexual and wholly feminine.
Romance, like Springsteen is a mirror showing us the best of ourselves.
Romance burrows deep into the familiar, the mundane, the day-to-day to find new, transformative and heart-breaking ways to remind us of what should be important in our lives: forgiveness, laughter, pleasure, honor, love and family.
Springsteen takes that private reading experience and fills an arena, making the argument that those things are just as important in the wider world.
Both Springsteen and romance validate the sacrifices and choices we’ve made to be wives, mothers, husbands, fathers, feminists, friends, caregivers, soldiers, crusaders, readers and believers.
Listening and reading we can all be reassured that we’re human, we’re flawed but we’re beautiful.
This next part is ridiculous, trust me I understand: but I feel like I know Springsteen and he knows me. His songs speak to my heart and his stories are about people I grew up with and walk beside.
And wouldn’t you know, I feel the exact same way about Laura Kinsale, Susan Elizabeth Phillips, JR Ward, Cecilia Grant, Sherry Thomas, Jill Shalvis – my list goes on.
This last year my husband and I went to a bunch of Springsteen shows. For my husband there is simply no better live band and while I agree, I also find myself experiencing the very same spectrum of emotions that I experience reading a great romance novel. I’m joyful, turned on, moved to tears, utterly satisfied and when the lights come up, just like turning the last page on a great romance, a little better than when I started.
I finished reading O'Keefe's essay when she sent it to me, sitting with my chin on my hand, and thought, “Well, yeah.”
Molly wants to give away a copy of Springsteen's biography, which, awesome, but she also has a book coming out at the end of the month, too. So she's offering up 10 copies, digital or print (winner's choice) for ya'll. One winner will receive both the Springsteen biography and a copy of Crazy Thing Called Love, and nine additional winners will receive a copy of Crazy Thing Called Love, in either print or digital.
All you have to do is tell us something you love as much as romance – or as much as Molly loves romance and Springsteen music. I'll choose 10 winners randomly at noon eastern time, Friday 11 January, 2013
Standard disclaimers apply: open to international residents. Must be 18 years of age or older and possibly wearing a bandanna. Do not taunt happy fun ball. Close cover before striking. Do not iron while wearing.
I think we learn a lot when we understand what is important to us – and important to others. Thanks for sharing this, Molly. Good luck, y'all!
The only thing I like as much as romance is my computer. When I’m not reading (or working), I’m on my computer. And then I’m usually reading about books. 😀
My dog…hands down. I’d sacrifice all of my books for him in a heartbeat.
Umm history and romance that focuses on differences in culture or upbringing.
http://sveta-randomblog.blogsp…
I love my crafts as much as I love romance novels. I can create beauty or humor or naughtiness or just plain fun. I can create things now one has ever thought of before and I can follow a pattern and still have something wonderful.
Thank you for this essay, I loved it!
This seems like a bit of a cheat but I love novellas as much as romance. In South America they’re a huge market, and the best ones generally last about six months. My favourites are Alondra (1995), Corazón Salvaje (1993), Rubi (2004), Alborada (2006) and Palabra de Mujer (2007)
I love them because they represent the best of people to me; the music is beautifully done and moving, the details especially in the period pieces are exquisite and ever since I was a little girl I fell in love with love by watching the parade of gentlemen, misunderstandings, and old-fashioned romance on my screen. If I could I’d do nothing all day but curl up with my ereader and take breaks watching my novellas.
I agree on Springsteen! So much so that a couple years ago I compared him to a romance novelist on my (slightly abandoned) blog … my short musings aren’t as carefully thought out as Molly’s, which are excellent, but I did compare him to Diana Gabaldon and Kathleen E. Woodiwiss.
http://dscribwomen.blogspot.co…
My husband and the monsters (the kids) but that’s a given so I’ll go with chocolate cake, handbags/purses, TV’s Hart of Dixie, Community and Happy Endings, chocolate cake and lazy sunday mornings in bed with the monsters and hubby.
What do I love as much as romance? After not being able to be around horses for many years (raising kids), I recently started volunteering at a therapeutic riding center. I lead horses around while an instructor and another person help a disabled child or adult to learn skills and muscle strength on the back of the horse. I come home smelling like a horse, with pictures in my head of smiling children. What can top that?
I was an ESL teacher in Taiwan for a number of years, just after I finished undergrad. I left the field due to burnout, and went to library school, were I discovered the romance genre. I would say that one thing that warms my heart as much, and in similar ways, to a great romance is that when a student “gets it,“from after struggling with a concept. With both, we’ve seen the effort and the doubt and the hard work, and the moment of success comes, and what can be sweeter?
I would say I love music as much as romance. They can both bring you into the world they are creating when you find a song or a story that you enjoy.
There’s very little I love as much as romance, to be honest. It’s the one genre where (unless you’re reading Nicholas Sparks or someone like that – and I don’t consider him a “romance” author, really) you are virtually assured a happy ending. I get enough terrible news in real life – if I’m going to spend the time to read something, I want to feel good at the end of it, like for that brief span of time, life has some hope, not be reminded of how crappy life can be all the time.
However, I would like to be entered in the contest, so I suppose the thing that gets me closest to that feeling is singing. If you’re singing a good song, for a few minutes you’re transported away into that lovely place that your imagination accesses in romance novels, only it’s interactive because you control the notes, rather than an author.
Molly I read the Springsteen bio over Christmas and loved it. Okay, I love him, too, and have been to a bunch of his concerts over the years, and two shows on his current tour. What do I love as much as Springsteen and romance? Coffee. Can’t do without any of them.
I love tea. It is a full fledged addiction just like romance novel reading. Even better, I can combine the two by drinking tea as I read! Win win!
I love swimming as much as romance. The feel of the water on your skin, being totally immersed in it. The feeling of flying and then hitting the water when you dive. I love to float on my back, out past the breakers, letting the waves push you. Or lying in the middle of a pool or lake with your eyes closed, completely zoning out the outside world.
My husband. My cats. My E-reader, because that’s where I read all of my romance, and most of my other books.
Springsteen is by far the best live artist I’ve ever experienced, although Lady Gaga was also an experience.
I love football as much as I love romance. It’s war, with myriad rules. I’m captivated for six months a year, and I wait the other six months to experience it again.
The other loves of my life: My husband. Bruce Springsteen.
Besides my family which is a given, I enjoy watching the major tennis tournaments on tv.
Thanks for a fun post! I love my family, friends and my dogs 🙂 I wish that I had more time and money and I would love to be a foster mom for my local shelter. That’s a goal that I want to work toward.
Besides my husband/kids my kindle is about the only thing I love as much as romance. I don’t go any where with out it. It is like another part of me.
Travel is my first and best love. I’m happy to go anywhere and I can always entertain myself in a new place. Just getting into a car or walking into an airport makes me happy as I imagine all the possibilities.
I love History. It constantly amazes me about the events & people that brought us to this point in time.
That was a great essay. Broooooooooce! Seriously, the man gives a hell of a live performance – by far the best live shows ever (and the best audiences).
I don’t know that I have the same affective response to this as I do to Bruce, but poetry? I love the shit out of poetry. It makes me feel things I don’t understand, and then I can’t stop thinking about it.
Scrolling down at speed, I saw the word ‘football’ and KNEW it was you, Julie in Duvall, without even checking … ha!
I kept thinking about this essay last night, which is a testament to both Molly O’Keefe and Bruce, and realized I had even framed a Springsteen concert ticket in a collage I gave to my husband for our first married Christmas. We went to two concerts while we were dating, and they were both epic (to quote my kids). I even had to get special permission to take a night off from pre-deployment training to go to one of them. My commander was wildly jealous, but happy to let me off. Bruce has that kind of pull.
Re the collage: I took four big drawer handles and a bunch of ephemera like tickets, letters, and photos to a frame shop. The shop “framed” the stuff in two identical rectangles, and then mounted the handles on the left and right, and voila, two custom breakfast-in-bed trays. We always get to look at our much younger selves and remember all the fun we had courting whenever we eat off trays. Kids are intrigued that Mom and Dad did all those things too.
Urban Fantasy and Grimm’s fairy tales. Chocolate. Musicals. Coffee. Silly socks. Bright copper kettles. And warm, woolen mittens. Brown paper packages tied up with…wait, it’s supposed to be MY favorite things. Sorry, got a little carried away, there. (Did I mention musicals?)
I love knitting, although I would still rate romance first!!!
There are three things that I love as much as Molly O’Keefe loves Springsteen and romance novels. They are my dog, Mia, who is about to undergo surgery to remove a malignant tumor from her side, music, and General Hospital (yes, the soap opera).
We got Mia on April 30, 2011. She is a rescue dog and a Southern Belle—she’s from Tennessee and was either abandoned or lost her family during the tornados down there a couple of years ago. She was just 2 months old when we got her, but she was already charming everyone she met; she greets everyone who comes into the house with one of her toys, usually a stuffed duck or moose. I have to admit that she is totally spoiled, so spoiled that she even eats at the table with us sometimes. When she was diagnosed with cancer earlier this week, the entire family (even members that haven’t met her) was sad. No one had the money for the surgery and we thought that she was going to have to be put to sleep, but then my cousin, who is only 19, offered to pay for it with the money she won from a lawsuit against McDonalds. It turned out that the surgery was much cheaper than we thought it would be, so my aunt was able to pay for it instead. Hopefully, after the surgery she will be fine, but finger’s crossed.
Music is my first love. I remember listening to my mom’s old records as far back as when I was 2 or 3 years old—my favorite was Doo-Wah-Diddy by Manfred Mann (even before Full House killed it). I read a book a few years back about how we all have anchors that keep us sane and for me music is my anchor. No matter what is going on in my life, music can cheer me up—a lot of my favorite songs come from the summer of 1995 (when I was 8 1/2) because that was the year my mom was in the hospital and all I wanted to do was listen to music. When my cousin got sick in 2001, music was there for me again, just as it was after 9/11 and more recently Hurricane Sandy.
Last is General Hospital. I’ve been watching it since my mom came home from the hospital in 1995. I was just shy of 9 the first time I remember paying attention to it less than a week after my mom came home. I still remember the first scene—Jason Quartermaine being brought into the hospital on a stretcher because he was thrown from his brother, A.J.‘s car, and suffered a serious head injury. I was captivated. It didn’t take long for me to be pulled into the show, and over the next few years the characters (especially Liz, Lucky, Emily, and Nicholas—the 4 Musketeers) became my friends, my only friends. That is the same way I felt when I started reading romance novels when I was 15 and I think it is my background in watching soaps that helped me ease into romances when all of my friends (few that they were) thought that they were trashy.
I love dance this much.
I love ballroom, classical ballet, modern, jazz, …. I love to watch and I love to dance. For me it is a space of magic, and of communication between performer and audience. Dance communicates stories, emotion, connectedness between people and their environment. It is an interpretation of music and life and a reflection of reality and dreams….
Right, don’t get me started on dance. It never ends
Hey Mia – kick cancer’s ass for us, ok? And please let us know how Mia does with the surgery! Fingers crossed for all of you.
Country music, especially the older singers (Conway, Hank, George, George, Tammy, Patsy…same range of emotions as romance novels. Sigh).
Thanks. The vet says that she is likely to be okay because it is more than likely the least dangerous form of cancer. Hopefully, we’ll have some news to share by Monday or Tuesday.
I loved this essay—it perfectly describes this vague idea I’ve had over why I’ve been *craving* romance novels lately. I think spending too much unproductive time on the internet (specifically, Reddit) has given me an overdose of mean-spirited and misogynistic douchebaggery. Romance novels are the antidote—it helps me imagine and envision the best when I feel like my brain and my mood have become mired in the worst. Or something like that!
I love going to the theater as much as romance—plays and musicals both! There’s something about being in an audience that makes theater something you experience, rather than something you just watch.
My grandson who I have raised intermittently over the years. He and his mom (and step-dad) are now doing very well. He is a polite, intelligent ten year old.
I also love working with babies which, lucky me, is what my job is. Very much love it.
Though I can certainly understand the appeal of Springsteen. I like his music a lot, too.
I love chocolate. Politics. Family. And cheese, as my handle suggests.
I’m On Fire is just amazing. Loved Brucie when he first released Born to Run, and still do!
I love Bruce Springsteen just like Molly! I’ve always loved the story-telling lyrics he writes and he has some great lines as Molly has shown 🙂
I love paranormal romance as much as romance
My four sisters when we all get together. No one knows me as well or can puncture any pomposity like a sister. We laugh at each other and support each other.
I love bird watching, and there’s something romantic about it, probably the birdsong.
I was worried if I commented I might throw off the randomizer winner thing. but I have to say – Mia!!! Oh Mia. Fingers crossed for a full recovery.
Thanks to everyone who shared their awesome stories and all their loves. Thank you.