Bruce Springsteen reveals romantic inspiration behind Jim Morrison’s ‘Road Diary’ quote

Bruce Springsteen has always been a master at mythologizing his own history, and his latest film “Road Diary” is no exception: it’s a tribute to the 50-year history of the E Street Band and their decades of tours, his 60-year friendship with the guitarist. Steve Van Zandt (who jokes about being officially named the E Street Band’s musical director after 40 years), the family ties between the bandmates, the group and their longtime manager Jon Landau , and other sentiments that are well known to fans and get a thorough and moving presentation in the Thom Zimny-directed film, a documentary of the band’s 2023 tour of North America and Europe.

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These issues were aired at length in a question-and-answer session following the film’s New York screening at the Museum of Modern Art on Tuesday night by Springsteen, Van Zandt, Landau and Zimny, but the most revealing moment went arrive when asked by moderator Jon Sykes of iHeartMedia why the film highlights a quote from a poem by Jim Morrison:

“O great creator of being

Give us one more hour to make our art

and perfect our life”

What Springsteen said about the quote itself was less interesting than the story that accompanied it, which involves a Doors concert in Asbury Park, New Jersey, on August 30, 1968, attended by Springsteen, the his wife Patti Scialfa and E Street Band bassist. Gary Tallent, but before either of them had met.

“Patti and I were at the same Doors concert in 1968 at Convention Hall in Asbury Park, New Jersey,” Springsteen explained. “I think Gary Tallent was there too. He was one incredible show and (he and Patti) did a funny thing three months ago: we went to bed early and said, “Okay, let’s redo the Doors concert.” So we went online and found the exact set they played in Asbury Park in 1968, and we put it all together and went to bed and listened to the Doors, 50 years later. Springsteen and Scialfa have been together for about 40 years and married in 1991, and as portraits of a marriage go, this one is pretty impressive.

After awwwww and cheers from the audience, he returned to the question. “So I was sitting on a Doors issue for a while and I came across this quote and I was like, ‘That’s really cool.’ now.”

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