Cut your hair....and the emotional manipulation of the Springsteen entity.
I always hated getting my hair cut as a child. It was a male rite of passage, a ritual of the civilization. The trip to the barbershop, rifling through the stacks of comic books and sports magazines. I always felt naked and violated after getting a haircut. My parents were imposing what they wanted on my body and I didn't want it. When you go to prison, they cut your hair. When you join the police or military, they cut your hair. When you enter the corporate world, you must cut your hair. Girls always wanted you to have a haircut. In some ways, it showed that they could dictate control over you. Native peoples did not cut their hair. I have not cut my hair or shaved in over 13 years.
https://dirtybennywrites.blogspot.com/2024/02/legendary-locks-can-hair-act-as-sixth.html
Remember the deceptive Presley entity...luring manKIND into cutting their hair, embracing the military, and accepting injections. Never forget!
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I remember when I was in training and about to take my oral Board exams in Kentucky, the residency director told me that I should consider cutting my hair. He was a hard ass Vietnam era drill sargeant. We got along as he noted how focused, determined, and disciplined I was. I could tell that it was a difficult issue for him to bring up with me. He told me that you don't want to stand out in anyway. He was telling me this for my own good. I went out and got a crewcut that same day. He smiled when he saw me the next day.
I passed my Boards the first time with no issues.
The following "story" that Springsteen repeatedly told during his tours exacerbated the inherent friction between father and son, especially regarding haircuts. It is emotional manipulation of the audience to the max, as this one was expert at doing. He sounds like he's just telling a story off the cuff. I took the bait hook, line and sinker. But he told the same story over and over with the emotional music in the background, pacing the story to lure the listener.
In my annual desktop tidy up, I came across this transcription of mine of Bruce Springsteen’s preamble to the live version of The River on the Live 1975-1985 box set. I can’t remember if I had help, but I don’t think I did (and a quick Google tells me not).
Hiya doin’ out there tonight? That’s good, that’s good.
This is ah… When I was growing up, me and my dad used to go at it all the time over almost anything. But, ah, I used to have really long hair, way down past my shoulders. I was 17 or 18, oh man, he used to hate it. And we got to where we’d fight so much that I’d, that I’d spent a lot of time out of the house; and in the summertime it wasn’t so bad, ‘cause it was warm, and my friends were out, but in the winter, I remember standing downtown where it’d get so cold and, when the wind would blow, I had this phone booth I used to stand in. And I used to call my girl, like, for hours at a time, just talking to her all night long. And finally I’d get my nerve up to go home. I’d stand there in the driveway and he’d be waiting for me in the kitchen and I’d tuck my hair down on my collar and I’d walk in and he’d call me back to sit down with him. And the first thing he’d always ask me was what did I think I was doing with myself. And the worst part of it was that I could never explain to him.
I remember I got in a motorcycle accident once and I was laid up in bed and he had a barber come in and cut my hair and, man, I can remember telling him that I hated him and that I would never ever forget it. And he used to tell me: “Man, I can’t wait till the army gets you. When the army gets you they’re gonna make a man out of you. They’re gonna cut all that hair off and they’ll make a man out of you.”
And this was, I guess, ’68 when there was a lot of guys from the neighbourhood going to Vietnam. I remember the drummer in my first band coming over to my house with his marine uniform on, saying that he was going and that he didn’t know where it was. And a lot of guys went, and a lot of guys didn’t come back. And the lot that came back weren’t the same anymore. I remember the day I got my draft notice. I hid it from my folks and three days before my physical me and my friends went out and we stayed up all night and we got on the bus to go that morning and man we were all so scared… And I went, and I failed. I came home [audience cheers], it’s nothing to applaud about… I remember coming home after I’d been gone for three days and walking in the kitchen and my mother and father were sitting there and my dad said: “Where you been?” and I said, uh, “I went to take my physical.” He said “What happened?” I said “They didn’t take me.” And he said: “That’s good.”
Instinctually repulsed by this clown dwarf from the get-go with his "Boss" moniker and fake-ass "working-class" angle, but did like "Born to Run" and "Downbound Train" As a long-hair, I can relate, thank you. The local "community" station still promotes his latest recycled garbage like he's someone of import. The stupidity, it hurts!
ReplyDeleteThanks very much for your comment. Do you think he wrote this music? I found it odd that he got lost in his own songbook searching for the lyrics and chords for Thunder Road on his own song in the above VH-1 video. Best regards, db.
DeleteI would imagine most have not the slightest clue how to write music or lyrics
DeleteThat is my guess as well. It seems the debut album is channelled or gifted. Afterwards, on subsequent LPs, the song quality often goes downhill markedly. Thanks for you comment, db
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