Bruce Springsteen IS Bill Cosby

Yesterday, while contemplating the fact that I am truly getting closer to a self-understanding that will blow away all my other self-understandings AND while confronting, for the first time in my driving life, an actual constantly flashing check engine light, I came to a realization. I was listening to Bruce Springsteen's Blinded By The Light and was struck by the resemblance between Springsteen's vocal delivery in that song to Bill Cosby's clenched-jaw-schticky cranky old man dialect. I think Bruce was actually impersonating Bill in the studio on that 1971 afternoon. Or maybe it was nighttime.

Bill wasn't a grumpy old man in '71 but his stand up routine was decidedly grumpy. And funny. He was famous for his comedy and acting, famous enough that the fledgling singer-songwriter from New Jersey would mimic the Cos in an attempt to draw fans to something familiar on his first album.

Listen to the first few verses of Bruce's original recording (unavailable online as far as I can tell) and you'll see what I mean.

Interestingly, their lives have paralleled each other in significant ways:

1. Although Bill is older than Bruce and began his career earlier, they both were beloved figures in the 1970s and continue to be to this day. Who doesn't love the Jello dude? What's not to love about the Dancing in the Dark guy? Bill and Bruce currently have respected old man and respected middle-aged man status, respectively.

2. They both reached their commercial peak in the mid-80s - Bill with his seminal show, Cosby, Bruce with Born IN the U.S.A. #1 album/flag/ass on the cover thing. I preferred The River but then I'm known as an iconoclast.

3. They could arguably be considered spokespersons for their slightly different generations.

4. They each have made one colossal mistake: With Cosby, it was Leonard Part 6. With Springsteen, it was when someone told him it was okay to whisper and half-speak his vocals on the acoustic songs when they should have been telling him to throw in some Cos-esque overenunciation.

5.Each has performed a controversial action in the last few years: Bill made some famous comments about pound cake. And Bruce discusses the horrified reactions his fans have when they see him in strip club parking lots in VH1's Storytellers, referenced here.