Quoted from above: 1. Is anyone in the Springsteen camp willing to speak the truth to Bruce? I don't think so. I can't imagine Jon Landau really likes most of Bruce's output over the last 20 years or so, but is he going to risk the relationship? Dave Marsh isn't going to ruin a friendship, as well as his wife's financial position within the Springsteen inner circle. Perhaps they are too insular a group.

I think the fact that it appears nobody approached Bruce during the recording of this record and mentioned to him that he lifted a KISS lick for "Outlaw Pete" probably answers your question.

"The Wrestler" is, to me at least, beautiful. Maybe it's less so if one divorces the song from the movie, but still beautiful.

Is it not a truism at this point that the recorded output of older rock and rollers never measures up to that of their youth? Even if it's great, it competes with neither the excitement their arrival was greeted with nor the weight of nostalgia their seminal work carries. Is "Time Out of Mind" a more mature, weighty record than "Highway 61 Revisited?" More nuanced, wiser? Which do you listen to more?