American Song
American Song is a podcast that traces the origins and development of American - and ultimately world-wide - forms of modern musical entertainment. Over time, we will trace every major genre from its origins through the current day.American Song looks at the development of our music through the lens of social, political, and economic changes that were occurring in each case, and we'll feature the most important musicians in each genre.Every episode is chock-full of the music we love and where possible, we include archival interviews so you can hear about, in the actual words and voices of these great musicians and singers, the motives and passions that drove their creativity.
American Song
Bruce Springsteen and the American Reckoning: Part One - Freehold to Cherry Hill
We start the episode in 2025, at Springsteen's show in Manchester, UK where he makes a landmark statement about America's "leadership" before we flash back to his formative years.
A cramped house in Freehold. A father smoking in the dark kitchen. A kid staring at the radio like it’s a way out and a way in. In Part one, we meet Bruce not as a legend, but as a working-class American kid learning early what struggle, pride, and community look like. As we follow him into those early Jersey bar gigs and up to the Cherry Hill shows, we start using his story as a counterexample to our current politics: a picture of American life rooted in responsibility, neighborliness, and the refusal to quit on your own town.
Music in This Episode: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band
Land of Hopes and Dreams
Growin' Up
Baby I*
It's Hard to Be a Saint in the City
Spirit in the Night
Rosalita
* Bruce's first teenage band, The Castiles.
Archival Interviews
Mark Maron
Howard Stern
Rick Rubin and Malcolm Gladwell
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