The Boss – This Generation’s Frank Sinatra? [POLL]

It’s totally subjective, but that’s the way I see it.

Thousands and thousands of baby boomers and some gen X’ers have gone to see the Boss multiple times in multiple venues.

And I ask myself, “…why!”

Is it the “everyman” quality he’s perfected since the early 70’s?

Is it the lyrical content of each and every song he’s written and performed over the years?

Is it the magic he brings to each and every show night after night.

Actually a piece out of an industry publication we’d recently gotten from our esteemed boss and Brand Manager sums it up nicely:

In a piece called “Listen to the Boss”, an industry expert points out what makes Bruce Springsteen so special, and likens it to what we as broadcasters do on a daily basis.

If I may quote:

He, among other things, creates a different set list every night. There’s always a game plan in place.

He continuously creates new music and performs it.

He never looks as though he’s having a bad show. It’s his passion. Bruce loves performing.

When you’re at a Bruce concert, he makes you feel as though you’re a part of it.

And just like a fine wine, he gets better with age.

Now I’m sure the same could be said of just about any artist…but I don’t know of too many that have affected a generation much the same way Bruce has affected the baby boomers the way Frank Sinatra has affected “the greatest generation”.

And that importance was chronicled in the 1998 book by Pete Hamill, Why Sinatra Matters.

In this review from the NY Times

CHRISTOPHER LEHMANN-HAUPT
 writes of the author’s assessment of the importance of the “Chairman of the Board”.

There was the music, yes, but there was so much more, he says. ''Through a combination of artistic originality, great passion and immense will, he transcended several eras and indirectly helped change the way all of us lived.''

In what follows, Mr. Hamill traces the essential threads of Sinatra's turbulent life, gracefully knitting them into his own memories of growing up in an era when the singer's yearning voice was always in the background, especially in the middle of the night ''when he tells the bartender that it's a quarter to 3 and there's no one in the place except you and me.''

Everything went into his music, Mr. Hamill argues. For all the fame of his exploits, Sinatra is essentially his music. As he refined his extraordinary technique, he ''slowly found a way to allow tenderness into the performance while remaining manly.'' When he ''finally took command of his own career, he perfected the role of the Tender Tough Guy and passed it on to several generations of Americans.'' Mr. Hamill concludes, ''That is one reason why he continues to matter; Frank Sinatra created a new model for American masculinity.''

And you might just be able to say the same for another Jersey native…playing tonight not far from where Frank was born and raised.