Bruce Springsteen has always been a stand-alone artist in the world of rock and roll. While he’s played with many talented and famous musicians throughout his career, Zach Carothers, bassist for the Grammy-winning band Portugal. The Man, says that Springsteen’s demeanor has always felt singularly effortless. As Carothers puts it, “He’s the most famous guy I’ve ever seen in blue jeans.”
His admiration for Springsteen began at an early age. “My parents had a really killer record collection. … I remember going through just looking at all those pictures and [Springsteen] was just different from The Beatles or Janis Joplin or Led Zeppelin or Jimi Hendrix. [They all] looked insane and super fashionable with all this crazy stuff,” remembers Carothers. “This was just a guy, in a white T-shirt and blue jeans. That’s pretty badass,”
Years later, Carothers found himself playing alongside Springsteen at Asbury Lanes, a venue in New Jersey. “It was incredible to see him in such a small, intimate venue. The crowd there and everywhere in America [was] just eating out of his hand,” recalls Carothers. As a musician of more than 25 years, Carothers has met, and played with, many legends during his career, but there are few that stand out so significantly against the others. “Some people you see, and you can tell instantly that they’re legends, and it’s plain as day why they are,” he comments. This kind of presence and authenticity, which Springsteen has honed, is what continues to inspire musicians, fans, and movie producers even decades later.
The film “Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere,” which came out this October, is based on Warren Zanes’ 2023 novel “Deliver Me from Nowhere: The Making of Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska.” It focuses on Springsteen’s 1982 album “Nebraska.”
This narrowed focus of the film came as a pleasant surprise to many fans. Charlotte Pener, a senior at St. Mary’s Academy, grew up listening to Springsteen’s music and attended one of his concerts as her first ever live show. “[I] thought it was interesting to see his love for that album and to focus on it, even though it wasn’t his most popular album,” explains Pener. She also felt that limiting the story to one era made the film more meaningful. “I think it allowed us to better get an understanding of him and his creative process [rather than it covering] his whole life, which I believe would’ve been too broad,” she says.
Carothers adds that this kind of structure in a film is fairly uncommon amongst biopics. “I’ve never really seen anything like that,” he says. “[It’s] super cool and a gutsy move by the studio and the director and the producers.” Ultimately, this gives more attention to detail. This structure truly allows a viewer to get a close up look into that time in his life, making the film feel more personal and intimate to the audience.
Although the structure and scope of “Deliver Me from Nowhere” may be creative and out-of-the-box, the slower paced plot and the specificity of the storyline may not appeal to all viewers. Not everyone wants to watch a movie written about an acoustic album they may have never listened to. Some people want a block buster for which they need no prior context.
Carothers makes the point that, although the film hones in on the one album and may not satisfy the attention span of some viewers, it sheds a brighter light on Springsteen’s creative process. “Albums are the things that last. They’re just a snapshot [of] the moment in somebody’s life and what’s going on then,” he says. You may not be getting the artist’s whole life story, but it leaves more room for character building, making the film more dimensional.
The impact of Springsteen’s career spans beyond his music. In “Deliver Me from Nowhere” the theme of mental health and his struggles with depression is consistently touched upon. It depicts Springsteen working through his complicated relationship with his alcoholic, sometimes abusive father. One of the final, and most impactful shots in the film is when Springsteen is in his therapist’s office and is asked the question “Why are you here?” causing him to break down in tears.
Mental health was not an openly discussed topic in the 1980s, when the events of the film were occurring. Seeing the world-renowned rock star sharing this difficult moment in a therapist’s office is tremendously humanizing and vulnerable. The stigma around the subject and expression of such emotion was persistent at that time, thus making the choice to include this scene in the film is incredibly impactful. This allows the film to be enjoyed both by fans, and by people who may not know Springsteen as well. It allows you to see the performer as someone like yourself.
Ultimately, “Deliver Me from Nowhere” shows us that Springsteen isn’t just a superstar, but also an abused son, struggling artist, and working-class man with big dreams. Carothers says it perfectly: “He’s just a man of the people, for the people.” Springsteen reminds us that greatness does not always come from glitz or glamour; sometimes all you need is a good pair of blue jeans.
