What is a poem? What isn’t? Are poets meant to be forlornly writing in moleskin notebooks, poor and unappreciated in their lifetime? Or are they supposed to be national heroes, writing poems for inaugurations, anniversaries or moments of historical relevance? Are they supposed to poke fun at powerful people, or make comment on current affairs? Or are they supposed to be… rockstars?
You may remember that musician Bob Dylan was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2016: “for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition”. Leonard Cohen is also famous, not just for his timeless songs (‘Hallelujah’ anyone?) but also for his poetry. Folk singer Joni Mitchell, in her popular song ‘A Case Of You’ wrote: “I remember that time you told me, you said/”Love is touching souls”/Surely you touched mine, ’cause/Part of you pours out of me/In these lines from time to time”. Take the melody away and it sings itself. Read it aloud. Listen to yourself. Stunning.
And, of course, I’ve not even mentioned Hip-Hop and its incredible legacy and effect on popular music and culture today. Just last week, boxing superstar Anthony Joshua recited Tupac’s Changes at a protest in Watford: I see no changes all I see is racist faces/Misplaced hate makes disgrace to races/We under I wonder what it takes to make this/One better place, let’s erase the wasted. The sophistication and intricacy in the rhyming here is incredible. How amazing also to think that 22 years after it was first performed it’s still relevant. Enduring words.
The poet/rockstar I want to share with you today is someone I discovered for myself in my late 20s: Bruce Springsteen. He’s an American musician from New Jersey who tells incredible stories in his songs. In the song (or poem) I’m sharing today, he’s imagining a conversation between a young man and women, just after their high school graduation, having to make the big decisions about what they’re going to do with their lives. Do they take a risk and leave what they know behind for the chance greater glory? Or do they play it safe and stay home? I listened to it again recently and thought about the students reaching the end of their time with us at FHS and the kind of decisions that they’ll be making about their lives. It’s a time rich in possibility, but it’s also a scary time. A time when the safety, familiarity and routine of your life is disrupted entirely.
Writers often try to reflect upon the events or situations that mark the border of childhood and adulthood. Is it the first time you feel alone? The first time you fall in love? The first time you defy your parents? The first time you feel in danger? The first time you live away from home? In ‘Thunder Road’, Springsteen proposes that it’s the time you ditch your innocence, step out of your comfort zone and go and find out what’s happening around the corner. He urges his female companion Mary to ‘trade in these wings for some wheels’. Angel’s wings are a clear symbol of innocence, and the wheels of a car often represent escape, adventure, or danger (think Grease). There’s plenty of religious allusions here too: Mary, redemption, faith, crosses, praying, a saviour, the promised land… ‘Thunder Road’ is a hymn to busting out, breaking free, and growing up. It’s an anthem to youthful excitement, potential and ‘the chance to make it good somehow’.
Interestingly, in a recent book, Springsteen said that despite writing plenty of songs about leaving your home town to see the world, he still lives within 10 miles of his childhood home. He also revealed that he wrote this song, which describes him behind the steering wheel and zooming away, at least a couple of years before he learned how to drive!
I’ve included the video underneath if you’d prefer to listen to it. Turn the volume up. Climb in.
Thunder Road
The screen door slams,
Mary’s dress waves.
Like a vision she dances across the porch as the radio plays.
Roy Orbison singing for the lonely,
“Hey that’s me and I want you only”.
Don’t turn me home again, I just can’t face myself alone again
Don’t run back inside Darling, you know just what I’m here for.
So you’re scared and you’re thinking that maybe we ain’t that young anymore.
Show a little faith there’s magic in the night.
You ain’t a beauty but hey you’re alright
And that’s alright with me.
You can hide beneath your covers and study your pain,
Make crosses from your lovers, throw roses in the rain,
Waste your summer praying in vain for a saviour to rise from these streets
Well now I’m no hero, that’s understood.
All the redemption I can offer girl is beneath this dirty hood
With a chance to make it good somehow.
Hey what else can we do now?
Except roll down the window
And let the wind blow back your hair?
Well, the night’s busting open
These two lanes will take us anywhere.
We got one last chance to make it real,
To trade in these wings on some wheels.
Climb in back,
Heaven’s waiting down on the tracks.
Oh come take my hand.
We’re riding out tonight to case the promised land.
Oh Thunder Road, oh Thunder Road, oh Thunder Road.
Lying out there like a killer in the sun.
I know it’s late we can make it if we run.
Oh Thunder Road, sit tight, take hold
Thunder Road.
Well I’ve got this guitar and I learned how to make it talk.
And my car’s out back if you’re ready to take that long walk
From your front porch to my front seat.
The door’s open but the ride ain’t free.
And I know you’re lonely
For words that I ain’t spoken.
Tonight we’ll be free.
All the promises’ll be broken.
There were ghosts in the eyes of all the boys you sent away.
They haunt this dusty beach road in the skeleton frames of burned-out Chevrolets.
They scream your name at night in the street.
Your graduation gown lies in rags at their feet.
And in the lonely cool before dawn you hear their engines roaring on
When you get to the porch they’re gone
On the wind
So Mary, climb in.
It’s a town full of losers.
I’m pulling out of here to win.
