Bruce Springsteen troubadour of the highway

USA Today (Society for the Advancement of Education), August, 2004

During the past three decades, Bruce Springsteen has become one of the most beloved and respected artists in American popular music, inducted into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame, and recognized in numerous Grammy Awards. Known for his intense concern for all aspects of his work, from songwriting to recordings to concert performances, the New Jersey native also brings the same attention to the visual presentations of himself and his sound.

Almost all of the images in this exhibition were taken for Springsteen's presentation and promotion of his work; they act as artistic parallels of the singer's musical imagery, though not as illustrations of it. His fans may recognize some familiar images from records and CDs, but many never have been publicly on display. Photographs by artists Annie Leibovitz, Frank Stefanko, Joel Bernstein, David Gahr, David Michael Kennedy, Lynn Goldsmith, Edie Baskin, and David Rose will be on view. In addition, there are 41 shots from "The Ghost of Tom Joad" series, taken by Bruce's sister, professional photographer Pamela Springsteen.

"From 'Thunder Road' to 'The Ghost of Tom Joad' and at every point along the way, Bruce Springsteen has employed images of cars and the highway as central features of his music," writes Colleen Sheehy, curator of "Springsteen--Troubadour of the Highway."

"While these images are conventions in rock 'n' roll, Springsteen mines them more consistently and with more depth and complexity than any other ... artist. His restless characters are on the move, sometimes on the hustle, and often on the run. Speeding off to the edge of town, down the New Jersey Turnpike, or across the desert, their physical movement matches their psychic and spiritual searches. Like so many ... film directors and authors, Springsteen uses the American landscape as the canvas on which he inscribes his characters' journeys.

"While his highways are getaway routes, they are counterpoised with fixed points on the map, whether that be a character's home, workplace, or the fabled boardwalk at Asbury Park, the New Jersey beach town immortalized in 'Born to Run' and '4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy),' among other songs. Over the course of [his] career, he has expanded his view from the New Jersey towns and New York City of his youth to take on the entire expanse of the nation, moving into the Midwest, the South, and the West...."

"Springsteen," continues Sheehy, "once told rock critic and biographer Dave Marsh that he felt invisible until the age of 13, when he stood behind his first guitar. Cars and guitars function in parallel ways in Springsteen's career and music. Both are vehicles of visibility and liberation. 'Well I got this guitar and I learned how to make it talk,' he sings in 'Thunder Road,' as he urges Mary to take 'the long walk' from her porch to his car. 'And I swear I found the key to the universe in the engine of an old parked car,' he sang in his great paean to adolescence, 'Growin' Up,' one of the first songs he performed in his 1972 audition for Columbia Records legend John Hammond. Certainly in Springsteen's visual record, the number of photographs of the singer in, on, or next to cars is second only to images of him on stage with a guitar.

"Springsteen loves cars and loves to drive, so his musical motif is not only a trope but also something rooted in his own life, seen in many images in the exhibition, as in Joel Bernstein's photograph of Springsteen driving his truck and in Lynn Goldsmith's shot of the leather-jacketed singer behind the wheel of his 1960 Corvette. The photographs of Springsteen with his many cars hold particular power and appeal because they resonate with a host of references from American music, film, and television history.

"A cool car gets you noticed, whether you're Elvis with his pink Cadillac, Kookie on '77 Sunset Strip,' James Dean in 'Rebel without a Cause,' or, like Springsteen, a working-class guy from New Jersey. In Frank Stefanko's 1978 photograph of the tousle-haired singer leaning on his Corvette, Springsteen echoes the young James Dean, and in Annie Leibovitz's photograph of Springsteen sitting in his Cadillac convertible, looking over his shoulder, he could be Dean or Montgomery Clift."

"Springsteen--Troubadour of the Highway," which features more than 70 original photographs, is on view at the Newark (N.J.) Museum through Aug. 29.