Talk About a Dream: The Essential Interviews of Bruce Springsteen by Unknown

wear this shirt, and these shoes. You go on stage and you feel good and right. I’m just gonna present myself as what I am, which is—basically, I’m dealing with basic people, and situations, and survival situations.
    You’ve not conceived “dressing-down” to contrast with the band? For instance, Miami Steve [guitarist] dresses up .
    I would like to wear a suit sometimes, now I think about it. For a while I didn’t wear jeans—I wore pants, other kinds of, like ah, you know,trousers, or whatever you call them. But I never really dressed up. Mostly because it’s hard to stretch, hard to sorta relax, hard to work.
    It’s like when you’re all dressed up and it’s … yeah, I’d like a suit, maybe, someday. Just for the hell of it. Like, those guys dress up, why don’t I?
    You wear a hat and sometimes throw one around in your act, but you didn’t have it here in Los Angeles. Why?
    No, I cut my hair short, and it didn’t fit right. Yeah, I used to have long hair a few weeks ago, and I cut it off. Hat just didn’t fit right anymore, so I didn’t wear it.
    Do you like seeing your picture in the paper?
    No.
    Why not?
    I don’t like pictures. I don’t like video tapes. It ain’t a natural thing. It’s weird, very weird.
    Do you read articles about yourself and the band?
    Sometimes.
    If they’re critical, how do you feel?
    There was a piece I read and the only thing that upsets me is the guy, whoever wrote it, couldn’t hear what was on the album. To me that was upsetting. Because I know what’s on there, because I died on the damn thing graduating! Like, everything I got is on there. I BELIEVE that record.
    It sorta upset me that he couldn’t hear what was on it. He was, like, complaining about it being repetitious. That’s a dumb comment, you know. It’s like, so what? That ain’t the point of the record, you know, and even if it is it doesn’t matter.
    I hooked into this one thing, wrote basically about the same thing, for a large part of the record. I dealt with this one thing. It was like a whole. The hardest thing I ever did in my life. I bled dry on that thing, groaning, conked out on the floor, half-dead on the street at six in the morning on the corner, you know, trying to walk uptown, trying to make it to my hotel room.
    I was staying for two months on it. And people lost themselves doingit. Conditions were so extreme. So I know what’s on that record, you know, and I stand by that record with my LIFE! I just believed in the damn thing, you know, 100 percent. So if somebody can’t hear it, I can’t help it. It’s my silver machine, or something
    Who’s your best friend? Do you have one? Or just a lot of acquaintances?
    I got some friends. The guys in the band are my friends. I got a girlfriend. That’s who I am with most.
    Do you plan to marry? Have children?
    No, I can’t do that, that’s for sure.
    Why?
    I couldn’t bring up kids. I couldn’t handle it. I mean, it’s too heavy, it’s too much. A kid—like, you better be ready for them. I’m so far off of that track, I’m so far out of line, that it would be disastrous. I don’t understand it. I just don’t see why people get married. It’s so strange. I guess it’s a nice track, but not for me.
    The spectre of Bob Dylan has been raised so many times you must be quite fed up with hearing his name in relation to your own career. But could you say how you view him?
    Dylan is great. A good rock ’n’ roller. “Like A Rolling Stone”—great song.
    At any point did you model yourself or any segment of your career on his?
    No, I’m not really into stuff like that. When he was big I was too young. I was 15, you know. In ’65 I was 15 years old, so I never got into it. I realised real quick that you got to be yourself. If you ain’t yourself, then what are you? You’re some crazy image, and it don’t make sense. I like Elvis, I like a lot of people. My first love! He was great.
    What was the first record you can remember