Copyright The Philadelphia Inquirer
Bruce Springsteen rocked the library — and he also gave a clue about his next musical direction. The Boss performed his classic “Thunder Road” at the Library Lions Gala held in the New York Public Library’s Rose Main Reading Room in New York City on Monday, Nov. 3. Springsteen, director Shonda Rhimes, novelist Louise Erdrich, writer Daniel Kehlmann, writer-musician James McBride, and author James Patterson were inducted into the NYPL’s Hall of Fame. Springsteen remarked that he had played fireman’s fairs, weddings, and bar mitzvahs, and in bowling alleys, pizza parlors, hockey rinks, and football stadiums in his career, but never a library, Vogue reported. “I have never played a (blanking) library!” Springsteen said. » READ MORE: Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Born To Run’ is turning 50. Is it the Boss’ greatest album? Preceding the performance, a video about the influence of libraries on the inductees was shown to the 500 in attendance at the black-tie event. “My town only had about 10,000 people, but there in the center of it was the library, and it was this place where the rest of the world was waiting,” said Springsteen in the video. “It gave me this greater sense of possibility… it was a sanctuary.” The Freehold Public Library is located at 28½ East Main Street. The Boss is shown using a library for research for his 1982 album “Nebraska” in the new biopic “Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere:” “As far as my own writing, what I did was put on my father’s clothes and I wrote in his voice — a very working class voice suffering through the post-industrialization over the past half century,” Springsteen said. “The writer is always at his best when he has something to push up against. And these days there’s a lot for an American writer to push up against in this country. so that’s what I’m inspired to do in the future.” Springsteen pushed up against the policies of the current occupier of the White House Trump during the E Street Band’s recent Land of Hope and Dreams tour in Europe, which included Springsteen’s statement of democracy where he called Trump administration “corrupt, incompetent and treasonous.” The statement, which were delivered in segments at every show, broke the Boss’ stance not to explicitly talk politics at his concerts. “People know where I stand for the most part, but l also wanted a space where people feel they can come and be with their neighbor regardless of what their particular political point of view is at a given moment,” said Springsteen prior to the European tour on the “Bruce Springsteen: Backstage and Backstreets” 2024 ABC News special. “But it’s difficult times. I certainly don’t know another time where fidelity to the Constitution was going to be something that was controversial.” Springsteen has written about the human condition in America largely through the eyes of the working class experience. Songs with a more pointed political message would be a new musical vein for the Boss. “Outside, all hell is breaking loose in the United States,” said Springsteen on Oct. 22 at the American Film Institute’s Opening Night Gala in Los Angeles on Oct. 22. You can see the performance above in this story. “For 250 years around the world, despite all the faults that we’ve had, the United States has stood as a beacon of democracy and hope and freedom. I’ve spent 50 years traveling kind of as a musical ambassador for America and I’ve seen firsthand the love and admiration folks around the world have had for the American of our highest ideals and despite how terribly damaged America has been recently, that country and those ideals remain worth fighting for.” The Boss was on stage following a screening of “Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere” at the fest. He performed “Atlantic City” and “Land of Hope and Dreams” “So I’m going to send this out, a prayer for America, our unity and No Kings,” said Springsteen before performing “Land of Hope of Dreams.”
