Springsteen pulls back curtain on Super performance

I came late to Bruce Springsteen, so my perspective on the artist is somewhat skewed. Fans who have been with him from the beginning have experienced him in two phases. The first was as ascendant rock star who was guarded and reserved. The second, which we’re still in, is as superstar in stasis (or decline) who is effusive, lighthearted and funny.

It is the latter Springsteen who is on display on the Boss’ web site now. He has penned (typed?) a Super Bowl Journal, chronicling his performance there during halftime with the E Street Band. It’s an illuminating, entertaining and entrancing look behind the scenes of the biggest show of the year.

He discusses his choice of footwear, his pre-concert jitters (described at “Lord Don’t Let Me Screw the Pooch in Front of 100 Million People”) and the performance itself. He talks about things ridiculous — the now infamous (though completely overblown) “crotch shot” caused by overshooting the end of the stage on a knee slide (“Too much adrenalin, a late drop, too much speed, here I come Mike…BOOM”) — and sublime — “Since the inception of our band it was our ambition to play for everyone. We’ve achieved a lot but we haven’t achieved that. Our audience remains tribal…that is predominantly white. On occasion, the Inaugural Concert, during a political campaign, touring through Africa in ’88, particularly in Cleveland with President Obama, I looked out and sang “Promised Land” to the audience I intended it for, young people, old people, black, white, brown, cutting across religious and class lines. That’s who I’m singing to today.”

And at the end of one of the biggest nights of his career, he’s just another working guy blowing off steam once he gets home: “By 3 am, I am back home, everyone in the house fast asleep and tucked in bed. I am sitting in the yard over an open fire, staring up again into that black night sky, my ears still ringing…’Oh yeah, it’s alright.’”