*-LET'S GET THIS OUT OF THE WAY RIGHT OFF: ON THE SUBJECT OF RONALD REAGAN, TAKE A BRIEF SIDESTEP HERE.BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN'S management and record company declined comment when President Reagan quoted lyrics by The Boss at a campaign stop in New Jersey.
But over the following weekend, in two long and rambling raps between songs at Pittsburgh's Three Rivers Stadium. Springsteen told the crowd he didn't think the President had been listening to his music, and criticized the administration as being a presidency for the privileged.
"It's a long walk from a government that's supposed to represent all the people to where they are today,'* Springsteen told the crowd. "There's something wrong out there where there's a lot of stuff being taken away from a lot of people and given to people who don't need it. There's something really dangerous...We're slowly getting split up into two different Americas."
Springsteen said he wondered what Reagan's favorite album was and said he doubted it was Nebraska. Introducing Johnny 99, about an unemployed steelworker on a shooting spree, Springsteen said, "I don't think he's been listening to this one." Springsteen then dedicated The River* to the rank and file of local steelworkers' union.*
(text of undated Georgia Straight article)
*-LET'S GET THIS OUT OF THE WAY RIGHT OFF: ON THE SUBJECT OF RONALD REAGAN, TAKE A BRIEF SIDESTEP HERE.
THAT CLARIFIED, I HAVE TO INCLUDE THIS FOOTNOTE BECAUSE I MUST ADMIT A GAP IN MY MEMORY ABOUT WHAT DISCLOSURE OF THE 1978 DOCUMENTATION IN MY "INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC WORK...ON A DIRECT BASIS" FOR THE WORLD'S CHILDREN MAY IN FUTURE REVEAL.
WHAT I DON'T RECALL IS WHETHER AFTER BRUCE AND I MET FOR THE FIRST TIME IN 1978, I MADE A SUBMISSION TO HIM SUBSEQUENTLY IN THE PREPARATIONS--THAT INCLUDED THE BEATLES, JACKSON BROWNE, AND MORE--ON BEHALF OF THEN-UNITED NATIONS SECRETARY-GENERAL DR. KURT WALDHEIM, FOR SOMETHING LIKE "LIVE AID" FOR THE NEXT YEAR'S "UNITED NATIONS INTERNATIONAL YEAR OF THE CHILD".
I HAVE TO EXPLAIN FURTHER HERE THAT I AM VERY CERTAIN THERE IS A 1978 STATEMENT TO WALDHEIM TELLING HIM THAT ISRAELI SOURCES HAD CAUTIONED ME THAT THEY WERE INVESTIGATING WHETHER HIS WORLD WAR II RECORD INVOLVED HIS BEING A NAZI PARTISAN.
I RECALL TELLING HIM THAT ONE BOND I HAVE SHARED WITH MY FATHER SINCE MY TEENAGE YEARS IS THAT I TOLD HIM THAT IF I WERE HIM WHEN HE WAS A TEENAGER, I WOULD HAVE DONE EXACTLY THE SAME THING THAT HE DID AS IS SUBSTANTIATED BY WHAT YOU FIND IF YOU TAKE A BRIEF SIDESTEP HERE.
GIVEN THAT DOCUMENTATION WAS SUBSEQUENTLY DISCOVERED CONFIRMING THAT HE WAS BRIEFLY AN AUSTRIAN NAZI AROUND THE TIME MY FATHER WAS BEING WOUNDED FIGHTING THE NAZIS OVER EUROPE, I TRUST THAT "ALL OF US" UNDERSTAND WHY I DON'T CARE IF ANYONE ELSE ON EARTH--HOWEVER MANY WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION HE MAY HAVE--OBJECTS THAT I WANT THIS KNOWN.
IF YOU TAKE A BRIEF SIDESTEP HERE, YOU UNDERSTAND THAT IN FUTURE, BEFORE I PUBLISH MY POETRY BOOK, I WILL HAVE TO ACQUIRE A COPYRIGHT PERMISSION FROM BRUCE FOR THAT QUOTE FROM "THE RIVER"...THE SONG THAT HE QUESTIONED, AS NOTED ABOVE, HAD THEN RECENTLY BEEN ON THE TURNTABLE OF RONALD REAGAN.
REGARDING MY FRIEND'S COMPASSION FOR THE "RANK AND FILE OF [THE PITTSBURGH] LOCAL STEELWORKERS' UNION," PLEASE TAKE YOUR NEXT FOOTSTEP HERE TO CONSIDER MY COMPASSION FOR FREE TRADE UNIONS...IN RAISING THIS TERM OF REFERENCE FROM 1988.