Tuesday 6 March 2012

Thunder Road...

Pastel on Paper, A3 size

‘It’s a town full of losers, and I’m pulling out of here to win’…so sings The Boss on his classic song, 'Thunder Road'. This recent pastel really reminded me of Springsteen and his world of highways, cars, girls, escapism, and those battles to hold onto your dreams against the stark realities of life. He brings his vision so vividly to life across albums like ‘Born To Run’, ‘Darkness On The Edge Of Town’, and ‘The River’ etc. (For me however, that world is evoked so potently and brilliantly on the collection of never previously released songs that makes up the ’18 Tracks’ album). I’d like to think my drawing had something of the bleak beauty and dark heart of ‘Nebraska’, but let’s not get carried away…

Bruce’s new album, ‘Wrecking Ball’ is out this week, and proves that that at 62 he’s more than just a contender, he’s still, without doubt, The Boss, on what is an angry and political record. Many of the songs possess an Irish rebel song flavour that reminded me of ‘The Wire’ and those drunken barroom scenes where all the cops used to hang out…The writers of The Wire were all big fans of Bruce, which may come as no surprise…

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