Bruce Springsteen and me

(a photo is uploaded. please check her official site)

Did you watch my song medley with SMAP in SMASMA aired the other day? Did you enjoy watching it?

That song corner thing - I was told to give a title to it as they always ask the guests to think up any good medley title lately.

Well that's not the medley I made after all(lol), so I couldn't think of any good, nifty title at all!

So I ended up deciding it like "Well then I'll name it 'Bruce Springsteen Medley'!!" linking it with the topic of talk part.

How come

It has nothing to do with the medley itself

It's what you get when you do improvisation just too much

(The talk went started like, Kusanagi-san's leather jacket looked like Bruce Springsteen's, If I remember it right . . .)


But a good thing happened to me, on the other hand!

Thanks to the show I remembered I hadn't listened to Bruce Springsteen's songs for a long time, so I bought it at iTunes after I returned home!

I bought just one song, though . . .


It's the one I heard when I went to the movies with my parents in my childhood. It totally blew me away, and I thought for the first time in my life "OMG~! I'm totally blown away~!"

I rushed to the record store to buy the OST, Listened to it over and over again for a while, played the song on the piano alone by learning from what I heard, and always sang to myself after I remembered the lyrics.

It's the song called Streets Of Philadelphia.

The theme song of the movie called "Philadelphia," starring Tom Hanks and Denzel Washington.

That was a buzz movie, that swept a bunch of awards.

At that time AIDS was in its early stage becoming a severe social issue, so I think the contents of the movie was very shocking, as it described things such as the epidemic of misunderstanding about AIDS; prejudice and discrimination against AIDS patients.

I just checked and learned that it hit the screen in 1993.

That means I was 10 doesn't it?!

Awww!

Once again I realize that my parents are quite open to those things like "knowledge," "information" and "truth"~ (lol)

(They often took me together with them to banned-under-18 movies - they always claimed "There should be no problem if accompanied by the parents, huh?" every time the box office lady made a fuss(lol))

It was a movie that made me think it was good to watch it. Some time before that, I got shocked to learn that my fave Freddie Mercury died from AIDS.

What moved me more than the story, was the theme song!

Come to think of it, I was moved by "Streets Of Philadelphia" at the age of 10 (lol)

- Isn't that tough, huh ! ! ! (lol)

Well I'm pretty sure the people who have listened to it would understand me, but it is really cool song! It's a mature, low-keyed song(lol) The lyrics is like dark(lol)

(Both the movie and song became a huge hit, by the way)

I think I'm verrrrrrrrrrrrrrry much influenced by this song.

That beautiful evolution exquisitely mixing major and minor chords, beautiful enough to make me cry.

That synth pad, easy and tender like virgin Mother.

That way of movement of bass lines (or rather should I say, root sounds).

That view of the world, despairing but saving, badly-bruised but newly-born.

Put simply, beneficent.

For me that is the absolute element of music.


Its sound got to my heart with no fading at all and lyrics pierced me, though I listened to it after a long time.


Honestly, this is the only one song I took a listen to from beginning to end, among all Bruce Springsteen's songs ! (lol)

I just thought like, I'm okay with this one song I guess(lol).

That's why I didn't put him in my fave artist list.

But I love him very much.