Pop Culture
Culture Senator writes book on Springsteen songs
The Hamburg Senator for Culture Carsten Brosda in his office. photo
© Christian Charisius/dpa
Hamburg’s Senator for Culture, Carsten Brosda, is also an author in addition to his political activities. His fourth book revolves around songs by Bruce Springsteen, among other things. But he doesn’t really want to meet him.
Hamburg’s Senator for Culture Carsten Brosda (SPD) has been working intensively on songs by the musician Bruce Springsteen for several months. “I’m currently writing a book in which, among other things, I’m trying to explain political values with songs by Springsteen. That works surprisingly well,” said the 48-year-old of the German Press Agency in Hamburg.
He’s been writing the book for a long time, but it’s far from finished. It is scheduled for release in fall 2023. “That’s also my plan. But that’s only possible in the gaps that you have.” But if they don’t come up or if he doesn’t have any inspiration, then it just doesn’t go any further. “I don’t do it full-time and can sit down at my desk in the morning and stay there until 2 p.m., like some others can do. I don’t write a line between 8 a.m. and 2 p.m. I write between 11 p.m. and 1.30 a.m. – and that It also depends on how the evening at the theater was before.”
In general, the book is an attempt “to search for narratives in books, songs, films, plays and other works of art that are all around us, which are not ostensibly political at all, but which of course contain political ideas within themselves”. It’s about meaningful stories that are told everywhere, but not necessarily interpreted politically. Such stories, which can also educate a community, are often found in Springsteen’s songs. “You can explain freedom with Bruce Springsteen, for example. There’s an immediacy of emotion when you listen to ‘Thunder Road’. It works great.”
Brosda does not necessarily want to meet the musician Springsteen personally, who will also perform in Hamburg in 2023. “That’s always the classic question. Do you really want to meet one of the people you have a fanboy moment for? Or isn’t it better to live with the illusion that they are the way you imagined them to be? ” He doesn’t have the compelling need to meet him. “If that somehow came about, I certainly wouldn’t say no.” Springsteen speaks for him through the works he has created. “And some of those are great stories.”