The original title is Renegades: Born in the USA. Along the way, we lost Renegades. Lost in translation ? Editorial decision. Renegades, in French, sounds like thugs, almost bandits from Lucky Luke. However, we lose the rebellious spirit in the intention. Not innocent, all that: everything is loaded these days. At full barrel. We suppose that by limiting ourselves to Born in the USA, all is said. That attaching Barack Obama, the first African-American president of the United States, to Bruce Springsteen, Iwo Jima-style standard-bearer of the American dream in ruins, constitutes in itself selling content. Better still, a promise, a real meeting, a conversation between people of good will.
And the point is, we get it all. And more. Much more than the simple verbatim of the gossip, discussions, laughs, analyzes and comments that were used to build in 2020 a podcast in eight episodes (with Renegades in the title). We obtain what, generally, accumulates dust in the radius of literary correspondence: hours and hours of intelligence, lucidity, humor, stories and history between two eminent figures of the political, social and cultural landscape. . Try to imagine Trump and Ted Nugent. Sarkozy and Johnny? Kennedy and Sinatra, maybe. And again: we would have told them no.
Beautiful book, well filled
Song lyrics (quotes, manuscripts), hand-annotated speeches, iconography chosen from personal archives, audio broadcasting gains in context here. And in beauty: the workmanship is at the same time of the best taste, grand chic AND magnificent. The fellows in Corvette Stingray, in two black and white pages, we can linger there. What do this “hawaii-born mixed race black guy” and this “white guy from a small town in New Jersey” have in common, Obama asks at the outset? Not much a priori. If not that they are friends. Since 2008. No, they haven’t done the 400 blows. They are allies. Different and the same, because Americans. “Each in our corner, we are working on the same building,” Bruce tells Barack (they are familiar, they refer to each other in this translation).
The look of each on the other is revealing. In common, necessary tools according to Obama, “narcissism” … and “megalomania”. Bruce adds, “… the megalomania of believing that you have a voice that deserves to be heard by the whole world. But on the other hand, you also need tremendous empathy towards others. “Obama adds:” It’s difficult to manage. You start with the ego, but then, at some point, you become a vehicle for the hopes and dreams of others. “
Each one probes the other on its origins, its foundations, the stages of awareness. Springsteen lived through the race riots of the late 1960s in Asbury Park, Obama was emerging from his paradise archipelago, outsider by the relative poverty, privileged in his values, transmitted by his mother, who never stopped telling him “why it was lucky to have this magnificent brown skin”. Springsteen, him, breaking with his father, wanted only to get out of his nowhere. He still lives nearby, though. “There comes a time when you’ve accomplished all the personal reinvention you can get, you need to plant a flag,” Obama comments.
Unanswered questions
The companions park the Corvette. Page 80 of the 320 of the book, the question which was at the base of the podcast project is finally asked (by Obama): what is “fundamentally American”? Is there an American “identity”? Bruce talks about the “hand over heart” flag salute at St. Rose’s (Catholic) School in Freehold, Barack of the “Space Program”. The reverse side of the coin and historical reminder, both talk about Vietnam, Watergate. Then compare their tastes in music. Barack appoints Joni Mitchell and Miles Davis. Bruce brings up doo-wop and R’n’B on local radio, the Stones, the Beatles, Dylan, James Brown and Motown. They come together in gospel. President Obama sang Amazing Grace, Springsteen remembers it like all of us. And Let’s stay together Al Green once at the Harlem Apollo, Bruce points out. We had challenged Obama, we learn.
The anecdote always leads to a broader subject. In the resonance of the stories, the friends think aloud, sometimes return to the field of their respective common places, but not too much. Barack and Bruce are really trying to understand their lives better, getting as close as they can to their beloved America. The point is, they don’t really get there. There is no way to circumscribe this complex and monolithic country at the same time. The “melting pot”, even if brewed for a long time, is not soluble.
In the end, there are two fathers, two spouses, the road in a Corvette, but the American dream remains porous, fragile. For only answer, a new question. Obama: “How to tell a new unifying story about the country that is faithful to our ideals, while making an honest inventory, recognizing our shortcomings? Perhaps taking inspiration from this book.