It’s the new Bruce Springsteen movie currently streaming on Disney + and Hulu.
I just finished watching the movie and it certainly shows some interesting views on a number of subjects. Here’s my cut on it.
The beginning of the movie showed a very poor upbringing and what appears to be an abusive father. What I liked about the writing of his second album Nebraska, is that he used a lot of different sources for his material. The movie showed him looking through microfilm records, thick novels, watching TV shows and numerous other sources. He traveled back to look at his childhood home and all the other places that held memories for him, both good and bad.
He ended up writing the songs all alone in a secluded house by a small lake. It portrayed him as the artist simply trying to get away from everything to concentrate on creating the art that he believed in. The songs were complex, folk-like and delivered with an acoustic guitar, vocals and a harmonica. They were recorded using a low-tech 4-track cassette recorder. Later in the studio he was frustrated with the engineers making the songs sound different than his original demo. Some of the (folk-inspired) songs were released on the Nebraska album in 1982, and the remaining songs (studio recorded), were released on the Born in the USA in 1984, launching Bruce Springsteen’s career.
Toward the end of the movie it was clear Bruce was battling some issues with depression, but he started getting the help needed to deal with it. The emotion he put into his songs was the real deal and I would recommend the movie as a must see. It’s a great watch for any songwriting and performing fan out there.