Bruce Springsteen – VH1 Storytellers Review

Legendary performances can be found in these VH1 performances. Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson once joined up to play out one another’s hits. It’s a beautiful occasion underscoring the creative spirit and how an overlapping interest in one another’s work leads to new discoveries. A wonderful listening experience built on the community that comes through musical exploration. Bruce Springsteen offers a slightly different entry into his music. He performs songs from across his wide-ranging career as a chance to share with the audience his origins, his influences, and what comes next for the legendary frontman. Recorded in 2005 and staying true to the style Springsteen has kindled in those soft-spoken studio moments, VH1 Storytellers is a charming occasion that puts The Boss into the spotlight. He revels in the chance to perform there, without The E Street Band backing him, he sounds somewhat vulnerable. But the strength of his voice carries him the whole way through.  

His opening performance of Devil’s and Dust has the thrill of Bob Dylan about it. An acoustic guitar, a harmonica, and all the control lies in Springsteen’s hands. It’s a marvel of a performance that gets to the core of his protest work. Springsteen may have the rock and roll stylishness, but his music, at its core, is often a commentary on the world around him. The shortcomings he spots is the cornerstone of his latest works. Devils and Dust is no exception to that. Every song is given an explanation afterwards. Springsteen’s story time is often longer than the song itself, and it’s interesting to hear from the source what these songs mean and how they came together. Comments on the ideals of America, the hope that still runs through the streams now almost dried up yet still flowing, it’s what Springsteen muses on the whole way through his VH1 Storytellers stop-off. “Fear is a powerful thing,” he says. His work over the last twenty years has been an antidote to that fear.  

He provides as much with the likes of Blinded by the Light, Nebraska, and The Rising. Springsteen is keen to not just rattle off his songs and allow them to speak for themselves. He strums away, breaking down in great detail what his songwriting process is, how he pulls from the potential of the everyday. It contextualises a lot of what listeners love about Springsteen. This VH1 Storytellers performance is stronger as an understanding of his songwriting and scope as an artist than it is a straight performance. Springsteen has always been a well-spoken songwriter, but here he seems to be in top form and keen to explore the meaning and variations of his songwriting with an even keener audience. What becomes clear is that the meaning of these songs often comes to Springsteen, and his audience by extension, long afterwards.  

What Springsteen showcases here, and it’s the beauty of hearing Thunder Road and Waitin’ On a Sunny Day, is that the meaning is a feeling before it becomes a fully-formed thought. Putting together those thoughts in a tangible manner is what works best for him, and his proven track record for songwriting means we would do well to listen in. Truth and beauty is what presents itself in the best of Springsteen’s work, and his jovial back-and-forth with an interested audience is the extra thrill needed to get this piece over the line. “A minor masterpiece,” he says of Blinded by the Light. It’s poking fun at himself, but he isn’t far from the truth with it. Having a story time section after each song helps Springsteen pursue the core meaning of these VH1 Storytellers performances. He succeeds with this one.