June 2020

It’s Saturday night here in Wangaratta. Covid 19 has kept us indoors. Truth be told, I probably wouldn’t be going out anyway, such is my state of mind now at 56 and with a few health issues thrown in, partying is a long gone pursuit. Not that I have become a wowser in late middle age. It’s rather, I like being at home.

My partner Cass will often pick the film or doco we may watch. As a matter of fact it is always her choice. It’s not that I don’t get to pick, it’s probably a bloke thing, like I can’t be bothered. She more often than not has good taste, I’ll get to see things that I wouldn’t look at in a million years. If I don’t get engaged, and my timeframe for that is admittedly short, to bed I’ll trot, usually a good audio book awaits my ears.

Tonight’s DVD is a movie called Blinded By The Light, It’s a cracker. It is a 2019 British film directed by Gurinder Chadha of Bend it Like Beckham fame. It was inspired by the life of journalist Sarfraz Manzoor and his love of Bruce Springsteen. A comedy-drama that captures themes that are still relevant today. The music is mostly Springsteen and the lead role is well played by the actor Viveik Kalra. The plot revolves around Sarfraz Manzoor’s teenage experience of discovering the Boss and how his words and music impacted him.

I, too, had a moment of discovery, as many of Springsteen’s songs are featured throughout the film. It was a bit of an eye and ear opener. Not that I haven’t heard some of those songs before but I wasn’t really listening at the time.

In the late 1970s and throughout the ‘80s the blues and some selected country was what I listened to. Anything that was a hit with my peers never grabbed me. I remember my older brother had a Bruce Springsteen album in his collection, probably Born To Run. He seemed to have a lot of records back then, being a member of the long gone Australian Record Club. He also had some David Bromberg records; I would warm to those.

Bruce Springsteen was popular, perhaps that’s why I never took time to listen. He has covered a lot of ground in the 50 odd years of  performing and writing songs. He has always been authentic, I just never tuned in until tonight.

Thank you Cass.

 

Stereo Story #534


Discover more from Stereo Stories

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

Luke R Davies and the Recycled String Band won the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia Folk Recording Award 2013 for their album Not A Note Wasted. A Wangaratta musician, Luke joined The Stereo Stories Band after seeing them at the Newport Folk Festival in Melbourne in 2014..