Missing the Point

In this review of "Devils and Dust" from The Observer, the reviewer does the usual trick of making something up and then skewing the writing to reflect it.

He's trying to create a nice black and white picture, in which Springsteen once wrote optimistic songs about cars and girls, and now writes pessimistic songs about death and loss.

But look back at his oevre, and he was always writing pessimistic songs about death and loss, losers - the characters in the songs were always kidding themselves, even in the midst of their optimism. What else is Jungle Land, Born to Run, Thunder Road, Incident on 57th Street. As for Darkness on the Edge of Town, hello? Have you been listening? Where's the optimism on that?

God. How do these people get work?