The Wild, the Innocent and the Luton Shuffle

Blinded by the Light (2019) is kind of like another one of Gurinda Chadha’s films, Bend It Like Beckham. East Indian in England feels out of place, finds some aspect of popular culture to love against the wishes of family, and finds meaning and way to fit in. In Beckham, it was football. Here, it’s Springsteen.

Viveik Kalra is a Pakistani teenager growing up in suburban Luton. He’s a bit of an introvert, writing lyrics for his best friend’s band. The funny thing about a movie about Springsteen is, it is set in 1987, so he starts out into Pet Shop Boys and a-ha. But he meets Sikh at high school who turns him onto the Boss. His friend thinks Springsteen is for his dad’s generation, but Karla listens to the lyrics and and it opens up his world.

The rest is pretty predictable, but sweet - and it’s filled with Springsteen’s music. It’s based on a true story, and I guess Springsteen was touched enough to license a big chunk of his catalog. Now, I’m going to drop any pretense of reviewing the film and just talk about my love for the Boss.

The summer of 1974, when I graduated from high school, was defined for me by two songs: Little Feat’s “Dixie Chicken” and Springsteen’s “Rosalita”. The next year, he played my college, and I got to see him for the first (and sadly, only) time. This was just before he got on the covers of Time and Newsweek (the Time article was written by the uncle of the woman who is now Ms. Spenser - hope that isn’t a conflict of interest). That summer, every dorm and frat had at least one speaker in an open window playing one of his albums, usually “Born to Run”. That was pretty annoying - you know how it is when the obscure artist you love gets popular. Then “Darkness on the Edge of Town” came out, and I just preferred his faster, more snappy stuff. So I mostly like the first three albums.

But I never felt like he lost it, or sold out (although “Dancing in the Dark” has some pretty corny 80s electronic drums). He might not have inspired me the way he did that Pakistani kid in Luton, but I know how he feels. Tramps like us, baby we were born to run.