I lied about my age and got a job: at a record store. You could do that then – I mean, I didn’t have driver’s license so they just had to take my word for it. In addition to spending all my hard-earned pay on records, I managed to come home with a cardboard stand-up for the Bruce Springsteen album, Darkness on the Edge of Town. I have to admit, I hadn’t yet become a fan and had to work backwards to discover Born To Run. Through the years, I’ve loved and sometimes not loved Bruce’s work, but I could never forget what he meant to me and the millions of others then and in later years as we wrested hope from his songs.
Springsteen is going to tour in early 2023, but I won’t be there. Tickets for the show are being sold at face value by Ticketmaster for over $5,000. Yes, you read it right. My colleague Charles R. Cross and I discussed what betrayal feels like to true blue fans, and how the artist may not recover from this misstep.
Our whole conversation will be uploaded as a podcast soon but until then you may read my views and some reporting, including parts of a conversation with Donna from Bruce Funds, a grassroots organization that provides Springsteen fans in need with access to tickets. As my friend Suzee said, Bruce may want to consider offering separate shows to the one percent, then open the doors for several other nights to the rest of us.
As for that Darkness stand up: I’m happy to say I sold it on eBay for a pretty penny some time ago.
Filed under: Arts and Culture, rock 'n' roll, 99 percent, Bruce Springsteen, on account of the economy, ticket prices, Ticketmaster
