The unseen star of Springsteen’s film
The show: Bruce Springsteen: In His Own Words The moment: The psych evaluation
Over images of cars cruising night streets, we hear Bruce Springsteen address a concert audience. “I had this habit,” he says. “I used to get in my car and drive through my old neighbourhood in the little town I grew up in.”
He says he did it late at night, three or four times a week, for years. Finally he went to a psychiatrist. “I said, ‘Doc, what am I doing?’ ” Springsteen continues. “He said, ‘I want you to tell me what you think you’re doing.’ ” The audience chuckles.
Eventually the doctor tells Springsteen, “Something bad happened, and you’re going back thinking you can make it right again.” Springsteen agrees: “That’s what I am doing, going back to see if I can fix it.” The doctor says, “Well, you can’t.” Then Springsteen launches into the song, “My Father’s House.”
The unseen star of this documentary, based on Springsteen’s recent autobiography of the same name, is his father, who dominated young Bruce, and was later diagnosed with bipolar disorder.
Springsteen admits that in many of his songs, he constructed a persona based on “a vision of my pop as a transcendent figure, my greatest foe and greatest hero.” He even dreams about his dad watching him on stage.
OK, it’s not the most complex psychological puzzle ever unravelled. But Springsteen’s music is transcendent precisely because it plumbs the frustrations and yearnings of the common man. His best songs are three-minute shrink visits for fans unlikely to visit a real psychiatrist, and he’s their hero/healer. Bruce Springsteen: In His Own Words airs periodically on HBO and anytime on mobile devices via TMN GO. Johanna Schneller is a media connoisseur who zeroes in on popculture moments. She usually appears Monday through Thursday.