Groovin' At The Grove" - "Born To Run" by Bruce Springsteen

Waking up at the crack of dawn for the Barnes & Noble autograph signing of  “Born to Run” , an explosively successful event held at the Grove on October 3, 2016, was oddly like getting on-line for tickets to the best rock concert in the world. I woke in total darkness from my cozy bed in Topanga, flew down Pacific Coast highway like Mario Andreotti, and scored a free parking space inside Park LaBrea. Off to a good start.

It's now 4AM, so out I went, on my "Meandering for Magic" adventure. To quote a line from Bruce, “Everybody form a line”, inspired me to join the 1100 other admiring fans coming well prepared for temperatures ranging from 50 to 90 degrees. I slugged coats, ponchos, food, and God forbid, please don’t let me forget my IPhone to take my picture with Bruce, when we began to cascade around The Grove, not once, but twice, before meeting the Rock God himself. 

The real adventure began as the sun came up and we were given wrist bands to the sigh of relief that we would make it inside to buy the signed book. Yeah! This was the spirit of being a true Springsteen fan, helping each other pass the time by holding places in line for much-needed breaks into the Old Farmers Market, before finally making it into the Holy Land, Barnes&Noble.

Miraculously, when we were finally ushered inside the palatial third floor around hour Ten, it all became worth it. There he stood, taller than I remember upon our first meeting ten years ago, which ended in him kissing me. Here I was, back for more, finally awaiting the moment I step up to the podium to have the exquisite :30 pleasure of meeting my Jack Kerouac, Elvis Presley, and George Gershwin hero, combined into one middle class poet warrior Rock God.

It's now Hour Ten, and I look like crap, exhausted, and can only manage to smile stepping on the podium beside him and whisper, “I’m a Stockton C Wing Cafeteria Girl”. INSTANTLY, Bruce smiles back, as it was one of the first New Jersey colleges the band played transforming our meat and potatoes hall during the day, into the House of Hell Raising at the night. “Oh yeah?” A question, as well as a right of passage at the same time, looking down at me as some past ghost from my Big Italian Family, seeing into each other’s Catholic souls the shared commonality of East Coast roots far away from the glitz of Hollywood. I stood frozen under his gaze. He’s tall, I’m short. He’s a God. I look like I’ve had no sleep.

“Yup…” I smile. That’s all I wanted - for him to know in those simple words strung together, I am a true Jersey Girl. I am the one you wrote about. I am the one who danced all night till Three AM at Stockton College C Wing cafeteria, waitressed summers Down The Shore, and indulged in romantic interludes behind the Beach Bar watching the sun come up on Brigantine beach, completing the magic with an "Early Riser" breakfast special at some Jersey diner.

Tan and relaxed, Bruce seemed very happy to be meeting fans, so approaching the fleeting moment right before the camera “clicks”, I whisper… 

“I love you”. Which by the way, now weeks later, I CAN’T BELIEVE I SAID.

There was a moment between us. He looked into my eyes and said, “I love you, too”. It doesn’t get any better than that. I was now free go to Heaven with his smile on my face. Only, it didn’t end there, as I discovered the photo was overexposed! I ran back frantic to the manager showing him the picture and he let me through. Bruce recognized me instantly, and cracked a solid Jersey smirk, winking slyly at the deer in the headlight look in my face, as I approached the podium, once again, slightly humiliated.

“She’ baaaack…What happened?” Just like my Dad would say, or my older hunk cousins I had a crushes on but were so taboo to think of in that way, I stood stunned to take in his voice - so familiar. Driving around New Jersey at  in my vintage 67 Mustang, listening to him sing to me as I drove my girlfriends to parties, it was like a siren luring me into deep waters of Home I forgotten how good it felt. It’s amazing connecting with someone you respect, admire, and consider a personal hero, politically, professionally, poetically, and profoundly, New Jersey. Born in the USA.

Bruce Springsteen is one of the most evolved souls on the planet and “Born To Run” is his most prolific work, exposing himself to the adoring fans and contemptuous humanity we all submit to in the end. It's his testament to rebellion, breaking free from constraints, finding your inner voice and learning how to listen to it. Bruce writes with a profound verbosity about living on the edge of reality and defining your own way, poetically stringing together a would be run-on sentence into a work of art, a higher calling only he understood to work through and now share.
“Born To Run” is not just a testament to rebellion, breaking free from constraints, finding your inner voice and learning how to listen to it, but a profound personal statement on living on the edge of reality and defining your life own way. The way he strings together ideas, is like several strands of pearls, a run-on sentence of complex imagery, creating a masterful inner monologue requiring you to descend into the holy depths of his soul and crawl back out on your knees of gratitude for his insight, showing us all the way out. "Born to Run" is not just brilliant, it's a portrait of an artist's life who redefines life on his own terms.  Amen to the Church of Bruce.