ABSTRACT
In a televised interview, Sweden’s rock journalist Per Sinding-Larsen asked Bruce Springsteen about the prevalence of mothers and sons on his then most recent full-length album release, 2005’s Devils & Dust. Larsen’s line of inquiry was astute; on no other album or set of songs by Springsteen is the presence of the mother so strong. Springsteen, at first, made a joke of it: “I don’t know, maybe it was just time it came along,” he said, chuckling (Springsteen, “On his Mother”). Certainly, his joking comment made reference to the great weight that he has given to fathers in his work and the relative lack of attention he has, in contrast, given to mothers. Indeed, fathers have always been a strong presence in Springsteen’s work: “Independence Day,” “Adam Raised a Cain,” “Factory,” and “Walk Like a Man,” to name only a few, are stories that ponder the relationship between fathers and sons as a means of understanding masculinity, tradition, and self-identity. In contrast, songs by Springsteen that revolve around mother-child relationships, have been minimal.
