Walk Like a Man: Coming of Age with the Music of Bruce Springsteen

209 Pages·2011·4.03 MB·English

by  Robert J. Wiersema

W
i
a life in fourteen tracks e ª Wiersema gives us one man's Boss,
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s served up the way it should beÐ
e
m obsessive, penetrating, and rapturous.º
a joel selvin
as he enters his sixties, Bruce Springsteen remains a paragon W
of all that is cool and right. He’s a genuine voice of the people,
a
an elder statesman who has inspired generations of bands.
There are dozens of books about the Boss, so what’s left to say? Noth- l
ing objective, perhaps. But when it comes to music, objectivity is k
highly overrated.

Walk Like a Man is liner notes for a mix-tape, a frank and funny l
Coming of Age
blend of biography, music appreciation, and memoir. Best-selling i
k
novelist Robert Wiersema grew up with Springsteen’s songs, from with the Music of
his own working-class youth on through dreams of escape, falling e Bruce Springsteen
in love, and becoming a father. His book tells the story of a man

becoming a man (despite getting a little lost along the way), and of a
Walk
the man and the music that have accompanied him on his journey.

M
“Walk Like a Man gives us one man’s Boss, served up the way it
should be—obsessive, penetrating, and rapturous. Wiersema is no a
critic, but an articulate every-fan who taps the Springsteen zeitgeist
n like a
as it radiates from the music into his own life.”
joel selvin, Senior Pop Music Correspondent, San Francisco Chronicle
MC
“Walk Like a Man is about growing up, getting old, and being lucky uo
sm
enough to have a treasured soundtrack to make sense of it all.” ic oing Man
ray robertson, author of David and Moody Food f B o
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$21.95 n
www.greystonebooks.com
Cover design by Peter Cocking
Cover photograph by Terry O'Neill/Getty Images
Printed in Canada on fsc-certified paper Robert J. Wiersema
Distributed in the U.S. by Publishers Group West
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Walk
like a
Man
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Coming of Age
with the Music of
Bruce Springsteen
Walk
like a
Man
Robert J. Wiersema
d&m publishers inc.
Vancouver/Toronto/Berkeley
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Copyright © 2011 by Robert J. Wiersema
11 12 13 14 15 5 4 3 2 1
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or
by any means, without the prior written consent of the
publisher or a licence from The Canadian Copyright Licensing
Agency (Access Copyright). For a copyright licence, visit
www.accesscopyright.ca or call toll free to 1-800-893-5777.
Greystone Books
An imprint of D&M Publishers Inc.
2323 Quebec Street, Suite 201
Vancouver bc Canada v5t 4s7
www.greystonebooks.com
Cataloguing data available from Library and Archives Canada
isbn 978-1-55365-845-0 (pbk.)
isbn 978-1-55365-846-7 (ebook)
Editing by Barbara Pulling
Copy editing by Pam Robertson
Cover and text design by Peter Cocking
Cover photograph by Terry O’Neill/Getty Images
Printed and bound in Canada by Friesens
Text printed on acid-free, 100% post-consumer paper
Distributed in the U.S. by Publishers Group West
We gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the Canada
Council for the Arts, the British Columbia Arts Council, the
Province of British Columbia through the Book Publishing Tax
Credit, and the Government of Canada through the Canada
Book Fund for our publishing activities.
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For Peter, Greg, and Colin
Blood brothers against the wind...
And for Derek
Missing. Missed.
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Walk
like a
Man
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Now I’ll do what I can
I’ll walk like a man
And I’ll keep on walkin’
bruce springsteen, “Walk Like a Man”
“Meaning is a communal cocktail.”
bruce springsteen, Mojo magazine, 2010
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