Resistance Song for Day 40 - "My Hometown" by Bruce Springsteen

Songwriter Bruce Springsteen.

Day 40 - "My Hometown" by Bruce Springsteen

       As Tip O'Neill (1912-1994) was wont to say:  "All politics is local."
    
      It may be that everything we need to know about a person can be discerned by asking how they define "home".  Some can live in their own house for decades but "back home" and "my hometown" can still mean the place they grew up, a thousand miles away, especially if their parents still live there.

     For many, the term is fleeting, as Ojibwa comedian Shingoose would relate sardonically:

 When I was a boy, my father took me to the top of a hill overlooking our reservation.  He would spread his arm out to encompass this stretch of land and announce:  "Son, one day...none of this will be yours!"

       Others take a philosophical view:

      The confused hero of "In the Shade", Jim McGuire, finds himself prematurely at the pearly gates.  St. Peter is willing to taxi Jim back to his domicile if he can point the way.  Jim gives an address.  Heaven's guardian rolls his eyes and suggests that Jim begin with his planet of residence.

     "Earth," Jim replies.  "Hang a right at Jupiter, and we're there."

St. Pete:  "Which Earth?" 

Jim:  "Milky Way."

St. Pete:  "Which Milky Way?"

Jim:  "Say what?"

      Pearly Pete explains infinity.  Toss a die an infinite number of times;  how many fives will you get?  An infinite number.  Anything that exists must have been a possibility--a face on that die.  So, stretched across the infinite, how many of anything is there?  Again, an infinite number.

      As the questioning continues, Jim realizes that he may never be able to describe or see his universe, his galaxy, his solar system, his planet, his home.  Indeed, with no family and few friends, he can't even describe what "home" entails.

      After hours of despair, Jim finds an answer:  "I am here.  Only one of those Earths is missing a Jim McGuire.  Please, take me there."

      Before disappearing, and before Jim wakes up in his bed, the angel smiles, nods and says:  "Yes.  That is how you find it.  That is what it is.  Home is the place that is missing you."

      Other impressions are more personal:

      In "Love is a Weakness" Kemla tries, in her farewell speech, to explain to her lover (who knows nothing of her illness) how much she has adored him:

"You showed me home
is a person
not a place."

New Jersey governor Chris Christie.

      Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen (born September 23, 1949) rose from poor beginnings.  He's a student of Pete Seeger, an advocate for LGBTQ rights, and a supporter of Barack Obama.  Suffice it to say his Governor's admiration for Bruce Springsteen is not mutual.

     "My Hometown", from Bruce's 1984 megahit "Born In the U.S.A." album, is bittersweet nostalgia of a Middle American town experiencing racism, violence, unemployment and despair.  This was a time when so many of us had only one hometown. 

      There's a reason we call this guy "The Boss".  His duets (e.g. "Thunder Road" with Melissa Etheridge , "Tougher than the Rest" with wife Patti Scialfa, "Born to Run" with John Bon Jovi, and the unlikely "Come Together" with Axl Rose, to name only a few) are especially charming. 

      We'll be hearing more from Bruce in this series.

Lyrics:

I was eight years old and running with a dime in my hand
Into the bus stop to pick up a paper for my old man
I'd sit on his lap in that big old Buick and steer as we drove through town
He'd tousle my hair and say son take a good look around
This is your hometown
This is your hometown
This is your hometown
This is your hometown

In '65 tension was running high at my high school
There was a lot of fights between the black and white
There was nothing you could do
Two cars at a light on a Saturday night in the back seat there was a gun
Words were passed in a shotgun blast
Troubled times had come
To my hometown
My hometown
My hometown
My hometown

Now Main Street's whitewashed windows and vacant stores
Seems like there ain't nobody wants to come down here no more
They're closing down the textile mill across the railroad tracks
Foreman says these jobs are going boys and they ain't coming back
To your hometown
Your hometown
Your hometown
Your hometown

Last night me and Kate we laid in bed
Talking about getting out
Packing up our bags maybe heading south
I'm thirty five we got a boy of our own now
Last night I sat him up behind the wheel and said son take a good look around
This is your hometown

     I only wish this video were of better quality: