By Anthony Stoeckert
IN 1975, Bob Dylan was a legend whose recent records left many of his devotees under-whelmed, and Bruce Springsteen was a critical darling desperate for a breakthrough.
That all changed with the landmark albums each artist released that year. Blood on the Tracks sparked one of Dylan’s many comebacks, and is widely considered to be one of his best records. As for Born to Run, that opus began Springsteen’s 35-year (and still counting) run as one of rock ‘n’ roll’s biggest stars.
They are two albums worth remembering, and that’s just what four acts will be doing during The Boss and The Bard, a celebration of both albums’ 35th anniversaries at the Unitarian Universalist Church in Titusville May 15.
The show, the last of this season’s schedule by Concerts at the Crossing, will feature the Kennedys, Anthony da Costa, Seth Glier and Betty Soo performing songs from each album, as well as Dylan- and Springsteen-inspired originals.
”If you want an example of why Bob Dylan is important, if you want an example of why Bruce Springsteen is important — or even why music is important — just listen to these records,” says Mr. da Costa, of Pleasantville, New York. “I can’t believe they came out in the same year.”
Mr. da Costa discovered Dylan (along with Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Hank Williams and others) through his parents’ record collection. His father was particularly fond of greatest hits compilations. When Mr. da Costa gave Dylan’s Greatest Hits a spin and heard “The Times They Are A-Changin’” he was hooked.
”I never heard music like that, so straightforward, so right in your face,” he says, adding how Dylan’s singing voice was unique, even odd. And there was that harmonica. It felt organic, and it was poetry.
And although Mr. da Costa was a generation or two removed from the ‘60s, he was able to relate to lyrics like “Come mothers and fathers throughout the land/And don’t criticize what you can’t understand.”
”I did not grow up in the same political climate, but I totally understood, or could somehow relate to what he was saying,” says Mr. da Costa, who is 19 years old and a freshman at Columbia University. “That’s the thing about this kind of music that really hits me, that people can relate to it, and it just felt like a song of the people… That song is timeless, just like most of the things that he wrote. You could play it now and it has just as much relevance, or just as little, whatever you’re feeling.”
Blood on the Tracks is about the politics of love. Assumed to be about the end of Dylan’s first marriage (which Dylan has denied), it’s an album to wallow in after getting your heart broken. Its impact has resulted in any album about relationships gone bad (Springsteen’s Tunnel of Love, Tom Petty’s Echo) being called that artist’s Blood on the Tracks.
”I think it’s a beautiful record,” says Mr. da Costa. “I don’t know exactly what he was going through at the time, but the songs are just beautiful.”
They also run a gamut of emotions. From the melancholy of “Tangled Up in Blue” to the bitterness of “Idiot Wind” and its biting line, “You’re an idiot babe/It’s a wonder that you still know how to breathe.”
”I just love that he doesn’t have any qualms about a line like that, it’s a cutting line,” Mr. da Costa says. “The dude knew how to write poetry and he often knew how to cut straight through your heart.”
Contrasting that epic is Dylan at his most vulnerable. “If You See Her, Say Hello” is a heartbreaker. Consider these lyrics: “If you get close to her/Kiss her once for me/I always had respected her for doing what she did in getting free/And though our separation, it pierced me to the heart/She still lives inside of me, we’ve never been apart.”
”You can go from a song like ‘Idiot Wind’ straight to the romantic in him,” Mr. da Costa says. “You hear songs like that and you think, It’s OK if I’m writing about heartbreak.”
In 1975, Springsteen was singing about love from a younger man’s point of view on Born to Run’s opening track, “Thunder Road,” which Mr. da Costa will perform during the concert. That album, Springsteen’s third, was a mixture of singer-songwriter traditions and robust production (of the album’s title track, Springsteen said he was trying to be Roy Orbison singing Bob Dylan produced by Phil Spector).
For all of the production, the songs on Born to Run work well when performed acoustically. That’s especially true of “Thunder Road” lyrics like “Don’t turn me home again/I just can’t face myself alone again,” with their mix of hope of desperation.
”Bruce has this ability to take all the possible emotions you can feel when in this kind of new love,” Mr. da Costa says. “He’s got a way of writing real uplifting songs about the trials of love, and the total thrill of it. I get such a rush when I listen to songs like ‘Thunder Road’ — and it’s a beautiful song with a beautiful melody.
”That song just comes together beautifully, and he paints a picture that makes me want to be in that piece of Americana. I want to be in that moment right there. I don’t know anybody who can write about being an American in love like Bruce Springsteen.”
The Boss and The Bard concert will take place at the Unitarian Universalist Church at Washington Crossing, 268 Washington Crossing-Pennington Road, Titusville, May 15, 8 p.m. Tickets cost $25; 609-510-5278; www.concertsatthecrossing.com