S4L: This question for you is posted by a pretty cool Mother who lives near Sheffield. She asks, "My daughter has decided to drop out of school. Should I be worried?"
AB: Some people assume that I am quite anti-education because of my song 'No Surrender' from the 'Born in the USA' album back in the 1980's. The opening lines from the song go like this:
"We busted out of class had to get away from those fools
We learned more from a three minute record than we ever learned in school"
But I'm not anti-school at all. Education is good to have but sometimes it's not for everyone and it shouldn't be forced upon a child when they reach a certain age. Sometimes we have to just let them go and find their dreams. In my song 'Better Days' it begins with a statement of discontent at where a persons life is at that moment in time:
"Well my soul checked out missing as I sat listening
To the hours and minutes tickin' away
Yeah, just sittin' around waitin' for my life to begin
While it was all just slippin' away.
I'm tired of waitin' for tomorrow to come
Or that train to come roarin' 'round the bend"
The character in the song is fed up with waiting for the dreams to begin coming true and is determined that something is going to be done about it. Teenagers are rarely satisfied with where they are at. They seem to think like my song 'Thunder Road' that where they are is a "town full of losers and I'm pulling out of here to win." But life is a journey for them as it is for us and I'm sure that she will come to that place where she sees that "dreams will not be thwarted" and she'll find her place in a "land of hope and dreams" (from the song 'Land of Hope and Dreams').
S4L: Should she be worried at all?
AB: She wouldn't be a good mother if she didn't worry. In my song 'Jesus was an only Son', the mother, Mary, prays for her child:
"Sleep tight, my child, sleep well
For I'll be at your side
That no shadow, no darkness, no tolling bell,
Shall pierce your dreams this night."
And at the end of the song, the child, Jesus, says to his mother,"Mother, still your tears/For remember the soul of the universe/Willed a world and it appeared." In other words it's going to be alright.
S4L: This one is from a chap called Eric, I have no idea if you can answer this one, it's a bit like stump the band time!
AB: I like the sound of this already. Bring it on.
S4L: Why does my wife own 28 pairs of boots but only ever wears the same 3 pairs? She has 4 pairs of black thigh high ones............ i've never seen her wear , must stop upsetting her I suppose."
AB: Well, the first thing you wanna stop doing is upsetting your wife, there's no song reference for that it's plain old common sense.
Secondly, in the words of my song 'All That Heaven Will Allow' (which is not a restriction on how many pairs of boots she has!):
"Rain and storm and dark skies
well now they don't mean a thing
If you got a girl that loves you
and who wants to wear your ring
So c'mon mister trouble
we'll make it through you somehow
We'll fill this house with all the love
all that heaven will allow"
So ultimately it doesn't matter how many pairs of boots she has, if she wears your ring then you got the deal signed, sealed and delivered, as Stevie Wonder might sing.
All song lyrics are by Bruce Springsteen and can be found at his website.
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