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Simon & Schuster
November 2014
On Sale: November 4, 2014
46 pages
ISBN: 1501103857
EAN: 9781501103858
Kindle: B00N377UWI
Hardcover / e-Book
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Fiction
When Bruce Springsteen was a little boy, he learned the
story of Brave Cowboy Bill, about a pure-hearted little
cowboy. It was the first of Bruce’s Western loves, which now
range from John Ford movies to Mexican music to Native
American art. Each of these inspirations, plus what he’s
learned as a man and a rock ’n’ roller about how to combine
whimsy and wisdom, were stations on the way to Outlaw Pete,
a modern legend of a criminal who starts out in diapers and
confronts the roughest edges of adulthood. It’s one of the
most ambitious and original story songs Springsteen has
written—rhapsodic and harsh, a meditation on destiny, filled
with absurdities but not for one second of its eight minutes
exactly a joke. It’s an elaborate musical drama, weaving
into a single tapestry several styles of rock and an
orchestration reminiscent of a Morricone soundtrack. Outlaw Pete is an adult book, illustrated by Frank Caruso,
who drew and painted its pages. Caruso does more than
illustrate the song. His approach, immaculately detailed,
simple when it needs to be, parallels Springsteen’s blend of
absurdity and meditation. The questions about destiny remain
unanswered, as they must be, but they’re also brought into a
different kind of focus. Details that pass by almost
unnoticed in the lyrics become central. Reading and listening have rarely so superbly complemented
each other. The result becomes the most intense kind of
artistic collaboration, a vision shared. But I’m not trying to start anything, so buy it, don’t steal
it, OK? —Dave Marsh
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