Bruce Springsteen’s Letter to You (Zimny, 2020)
I’ve just filed a piece for RNZ reviewing four recent music documentaries (will provide the link tomorrow when it has been through the rigorous editorial process) and I thought I should go back and have a look at another time I did this exercise – December 2020.
Apple TV+ had only just launched then and this film may have escaped your attention:
Springsteen’s new album, Letter to You, was recorded in a couple of weeks during the last US winter at his home studio in New Jersey. For the first time in years he reconvened the famous E Street Band to back him up and one of the pleasures of the subsequent documentary (Bruce Springsteen’s Letter to You) is watching the band’s effortless shorthand – mostly Bruce talking about how good it feels to collaborate and then giving them orders anyway.
Although the theme of the album (and the film) is mortality and loss, Bruce also talks a lot about “his band” and how good it feels to have them back. (Even though they are actually employees and therefore only make session fees on the records, Bruce looks after them when he tours, splitting the gate receipts equally amongst himself and the musicians. That’s their stipend.)
This time around, they all get an appearance fee for the movie as well as for the session, and that’s not the only example of Bruce trying to look after other people (while never giving up control). The inspiration for the album was the passing of his former bandmate George Theiss and Springsteen’s realisation that he was the last one remaining from the 60s Jersey rock and roll band, The Castiles, that gave him his start. In a post-credit sequence, Springsteen sits with his cousin Frank and plays a song he co-wrote with Theiss – a remembrance of his friend but also a gift of royalties to his family.
The film is directed by now-regular Springsteen collaborator Thom Zimny (Springsteen on Broadway) and it is photographed in a crisp black and white that reflects the frostiness outside. Other notable factors to consider include that the film sounds fantastic – for a long time Springsteen’s albums were not notable for that – and the sequence during the song “Last Man Standing” where the Boss’s long-time manager, co-producer and friend, Jon Landau is so moved he has to leave the studio and have a weep out there in the snow.
Where to watch Bruce Springsteen’s Letter to You
Worldwide: Apple TV+
