Renegades

October 26, 2021
Renegades is based on the Bruce Springsteen and Barack Obama podcast, Higher Ground, a dialogue between two very famous but very different men. They did not so much interview each other as engage in conversation: conversations between friends who became closer over the years despite their respective fame and busy schedules. Now it has been transformed into a coffee table book featuring more than 350 photographs that range from intimate personal family portraits to all sorts of pop culture visual references. The two men met on the campaign trail in 2008. Soon, they started a friendship, and that relationship has continued over the years, rooted in long and honest conversations about music, race, money, love, family, masculinity, what it means to be an American, and other complex topics. They talk also about their similarities and their differences (such as growing up in Honolulu versus small-town New Jersey). Both consider themselves outsiders in their own way. Even readers who think they know everything there is to know about them might be surprised. Springsteen and cars are, of course, irrevocably intertwined; it is ironic, though, that he did not actually have a license or know how to drive until he was 24 ("Hitchhiked everywhere I went," he says). Meanwhile, Obama, early on, heard in Springsteen's music a "sense of emotional displacement." In addition to the photographs, the book contains examples of Obama's speeches lined with extensive handwritten notations and Springsteen's handwritten lyrics. Fascinating and supremely entertaining.

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December 1, 2021
A richly illustrated companion to the duo's podcast. It was Obama, writes Springsteen, who approached him with the idea that they host a podcast together. "Okay, I'm a high school graduate from Freehold, New Jersey, who plays the guitar....What's wrong with this picture?" Springsteen recalls. He overcame his shyness, fortunately, and the two came together in 2020 for a series of conversations that ranged from shared love for music and cool cars--at one point, the two flee Springsteen's spread for the beach, the Secret Service hot behind them, with Obama saying of the getaway car, "It's smooth, man. Smoother than I expected"--to pensive observations on the state of the nation and the world. Obama lets his freak flag fly, with enthusiasms over such things as the Average White Band, funky albeit all-White and Scottish, while Springsteen has frequent opportunities to take philosophical turns. "I believe that I am involved in a ridiculous but noble profession," he says, "and that music had an impact on me, changed my life, changed who I thought I was, changed who I became." Few of the world's problems were solved in the course of their discussions, but the authors point the way in such matters as positive race relations, an icon for which was Springsteen's friendship with late band mate Clarence Clemons, as witnessed on the cover art for Born to Run. The discourse is at its best when the authors turn into deeply hidden corners, as when they discuss being the sons of absent fathers, with Springsteen allowing that much of his working-class persona is borrowed from his: "My entire body of work, everything that I've cared about, everything that I've written about, draws from his life story." A summary of the book's spirit comes when the former president issues a call to action that's nicely rock 'n' roll: "Stir. Shit. Up. And open up new possibilities." A pleasure for fans of both Springsteen and Obama and a fine affirmation of true American values.

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