"Certainly tolerance and acceptance were at the forefront of my music"
About this Quote
Springsteen isn’t bragging about being “nice.” He’s staking a claim about what his songs were doing underneath the denim-and-guitars surface: building a moral community for people who rarely get invited into one. “Tolerance and acceptance” reads like civic vocabulary, not rock-star romance, and that’s the point. Springsteen has always treated the three-minute song as a kind of small-town public square, where misfits, workers, immigrants, veterans, and the quietly queer can be seen without being turned into a punchline or a tragedy.
The wording matters. “Certainly” signals defensiveness, as if he’s answering a familiar charge: that his music is too macho, too white, too nostalgic for a mythic America. He’s pushing back by reframing the mythology. In Springsteen’s best work, the flag isn’t a prop; it’s an argument. Born in the U.S.A. got misread as triumphalism because it sounded like a chant. His insistence on “acceptance” is a reminder that the chorus was always carrying a bruise.
“Were at the forefront” also quietly corrects the way we flatten political art into slogans. Springsteen’s tolerance isn’t a PSA tacked onto a riff; it’s embedded in narrative empathy: the way he writes characters with dignity even when they’re cornered, the way the E Street Band’s communal roar makes belonging feel physical. Contextually, it’s a late-career self-audit from an artist watching culture wars harden. He’s saying: the mission statement was there from the beginning, even when people only heard the drums.
The wording matters. “Certainly” signals defensiveness, as if he’s answering a familiar charge: that his music is too macho, too white, too nostalgic for a mythic America. He’s pushing back by reframing the mythology. In Springsteen’s best work, the flag isn’t a prop; it’s an argument. Born in the U.S.A. got misread as triumphalism because it sounded like a chant. His insistence on “acceptance” is a reminder that the chorus was always carrying a bruise.
“Were at the forefront” also quietly corrects the way we flatten political art into slogans. Springsteen’s tolerance isn’t a PSA tacked onto a riff; it’s embedded in narrative empathy: the way he writes characters with dignity even when they’re cornered, the way the E Street Band’s communal roar makes belonging feel physical. Contextually, it’s a late-career self-audit from an artist watching culture wars harden. He’s saying: the mission statement was there from the beginning, even when people only heard the drums.
Quote Details
| Topic | Equality |
|---|
More Quotes by Bruce
Add to List
