Old Glory

...on the occasion of my tenth Springsteen gig....

I never liked Bruce Springsteen. The lumpy bar-band groove, the gruff vocals, the snare reverb—that, if I listen carefully on winter evenings—I can still hear forty-two years later. A rifle shot echoing in waves through the chill air. I didn’t understand back then, but that was the whole point. “Born in the U.S.A.” put me off Springsteen. I was fifteen.…