Confessions of a Fanboy

After another marathon conversation with 11, I’ve decided to begin my morning revisiting Bruce Springsteen’s Devils & Dust. We were discussing some discussion threads he’d viewed and participated in on Backstreets and paused.

“Do they really hate Magic that much?” I asked as I exhaled a stream of smoke from the artifact of my disgusting, newly reacquired habit.

“In a word, yes,” 11 replied. “I hate to oversimplify things, but they don’t like it.”

I don’t understand that. I don’t understand how a Bruce Springsteen fan could not like that record. From there, 11 began outlining some of the other records that seem to get trashed by BruceFan. One of them is Devils & Dust.

I thought about that for a moment.

“I like enough of Devils & Dust enough to not hate it, but it’s not my favorite,” I said. “I like ‘Devils & Dust.’ I really like ‘Long Time Comin’.” That bit about getting ‘birth naked and dancing on the grave‘* is some quality shit. I like ‘Leah.’ ‘Silver Paolomino’ and ‘Black Cowboys’ don’t do much for me. I don’t like ‘The Hitter’ or ‘Reno.’

“Other than ‘Reno’ for all the reasons we’ve previously discussed, I’m all about me some Devils & Dust,” 11 answered.

After I hung up with 11, the subversives got a hold of me. “The enemy of my enemy is my friend,” I muttered. If BruceFan doesn’t like Magic and they don’t like Devils & Dust and I do like Magic and I don’t like BruceFan, maybe I need to revisit Devils & Dust and see if there’s more to it than I initially thought.

That brings us to this morning. I’m listening to Devils & Dust again with hopeful anticipation. I hope a new song from this record jumps out at me and worms its way into my soul. I could give the finger to BruceFan one more time and tell him, “You better be ready for me in Atlanta, fuckers! I’m going to be the asshole shouting for one more from Magic!” If this little experiment goes well, I may be calling for “Maria’s Bed” while he’s at it.

This is my definition of being a Fanboy. I actively want to like these songs. I won’t claim to like something I don’t, but I never listen to a record hoping to hate it. I sometimes expect to hate it, but I don’t want to hate it. I’m a Springsteen fan who actually likes Springsteen music. There are songs I don’t like and will never like, but I’m always on the lookout for one more to add to my list.

*Iguana Glen Boyd over at BC Magazine had some poignant words about what “Long Time Comin’” means to him. You should check it out.

Filed under: Tags: Bruce Springsteen, Musical Musings and Random Ramblings