Actually, since putting this Philly Creative Guide article together, which offers four object lessons in creativity drawn from Springsteen’s career, I thought of a fifth:

Viewing the familiar from a radically different perspective can offer unimagined rewards. In the late 1980s, Springsteen threw a hard curve ball to Tunnel of Love tour audiences waiting for the exuberance of “Born To Run.” Performing the song solo on acoustic guitar, the energetic thrill of escaping that “town full of losers” was replaced by a stark reality: What do the song’s protagonists do next? Though fans lost the thrill of an energetic set-closer, they gained a powerful new view of a familiar song. Or listen to his re-imaginings of decades-old songs like “Open All Night,” “Blinded By the Light” and “If I Should Fall Behind” on 2007’s Live In Dublin with the Seeger Sessions band. As one of my favorite Robert Hunter lyrics goes: “Once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right.” Sometimes creativity means forcing yourself to see the familiar from a radically new perspective in order to move forward … occasionally in ways you never anticipated in the first place.

This entry was posted on Monday, June 14th, 2010 at 8:12 am and is filed under Rants 'n' Such, Springsteen, This 'n' That.