# How did Springsteen write such mature and experienced songs at such a young age? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 29, 2008, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-springsteen-write-such-mature-and-experienced-songs-at-such-a-young-age/435481 "2008-01-29T18:42:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Subterraneanus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a183cd/32.png) [@Subterraneanus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Subterraneanus)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2008, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-springsteen-write-such-mature-and-experienced-songs-at-such-a-young-age/435481/41 "2008-01-31T01:28:24Z")
[QUOTE=Wee Bairn] For deep songs at a very young age, see Apple, Fiona. 🙂 [/QUOTE] No thanks. ---
**Author:** ![Leechboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9fc348/32.png) [@Leechboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leechboy)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2008, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-springsteen-write-such-mature-and-experienced-songs-at-such-a-young-age/435481/42 "2008-01-31T01:37:14Z")
The answer of course is that he didn’t. There’s no way someone that young an uneducated could write something that mature. His songs were all ghost written by either Christopher Marlowe or an educated aristocrat like Francis Bacon. Sorry, couldn’t resist seeing a parallel. ---
**Author:** ![Astroboy14](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/df705f/32.png) [@Astroboy14](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Astroboy14)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2008, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-springsteen-write-such-mature-and-experienced-songs-at-such-a-young-age/435481/43 "2008-01-31T03:04:23Z")
Wow. To each his own, I guess… ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2008, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-springsteen-write-such-mature-and-experienced-songs-at-such-a-young-age/435481/44 "2008-01-31T03:23:56Z")
Very enigmatic. Care to elaborate? ---
**Author:** ![Ellis\_Aponte\_Jr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@Ellis\_Aponte\_Jr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellis_Aponte_Jr)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2008, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-springsteen-write-such-mature-and-experienced-songs-at-such-a-young-age/435481/45 "2008-01-31T04:02:58Z")
Not to derail the thread, but Laura Nyro had written “Wedding Bell Blues,” “Stoney End,” and “And When I Die” by the age of 19. Not only three deep songs, but three songs that would become top 10 hits by three different artists several years later. ---
**Author:** ![Not\_A\_Tame\_Lion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/e36b37/32.png) [@Not\_A\_Tame\_Lion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Not_A_Tame_Lion)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2008, 7:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-springsteen-write-such-mature-and-experienced-songs-at-such-a-young-age/435481/46 "2008-01-31T07:12:05Z")
Also from “Blinded By The Light”: _Well I unsnapped his skull cap and between his ears I saw a gap but I figured he’d be all right_ If that’s not a perceptive take on the way it is in this world (especially beyond the SDMB), I don’t know what is. ---
**Author:** ![Jolly\_Roger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/91b2a8/32.png) [@Jolly\_Roger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jolly_Roger)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2008, 8:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-springsteen-write-such-mature-and-experienced-songs-at-such-a-young-age/435481/47 "2008-01-31T08:45:25Z")
[QUOTE=John DiFool] Not to mention the things Kate Bush was doing in her late teens/early 20’s… [/QUOTE] Ah, Kate Bush, my unrequited love. ---
**Author:** ![Leechboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9fc348/32.png) [@Leechboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leechboy)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2008, 9:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-springsteen-write-such-mature-and-experienced-songs-at-such-a-young-age/435481/48 "2008-01-31T09:29:30Z")
[QUOTE=silenus] Very enigmatic. Care to elaborate? [/QUOTE] Sorry, very poorly thought out reference to the [Shakespeare Authorial Question](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shakespeare_authorship_question) Never press reply if you haven’t slept enough. ---
**Author:** ![E-Sabbath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e19adc/32.png) [@E-Sabbath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-Sabbath)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2008, 11:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-springsteen-write-such-mature-and-experienced-songs-at-such-a-young-age/435481/49 "2008-01-31T11:27:01Z")
> [@The Boss](#): > > Wizard imps and sweat sock pimps, > interstellar mongrel nymphs > Rex said that lady left him limp. > Love’s like that (sure it is). If you think this doesn’t make sense, you don’t remember the 80s. Think about a Jersey sidewalk in the bad side of town, with 1980s fashion. Sweat sock pimp? Remember the old fad for track suits and my-my-my Adidias? And the ladies of negotiable affection, in the toxic neon outfits? And the kids breaking into cars and lifting radios in nothing flat? ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2008, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-springsteen-write-such-mature-and-experienced-songs-at-such-a-young-age/435481/50 "2008-01-31T14:48:14Z")
[QUOTE=Leechboy] Sorry, very poorly thought out reference to the [Shakespeare Authorial Question](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shakespeare_authorship_question) Never press reply if you haven’t slept enough. [/QUOTE] You, I got. 😃 My comment was directed at **Astroboy14**. My guess is he doesn’t like Bruce and can’t understand why anybody else does, but that’s just a guess. ---
**Author:** ![Astroboy14](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/df705f/32.png) [@Astroboy14](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Astroboy14)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2008, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-springsteen-write-such-mature-and-experienced-songs-at-such-a-young-age/435481/51 "2008-01-31T16:57:13Z")
[QUOTE=silenus] You, I got. 😃 My comment was directed at **Astroboy14**. My guess is he doesn’t like Bruce and can’t understand why anybody else does, but that’s just a guess. [/QUOTE] Not at all! It just struck me while reading the thread how it seemed that pretty much everyone either thought that Bruce was a genius, or a drooling moron… with very little in between. Lots of posters whose opinions I respect, with such a polarity of opinions about this particular topic… I am somewhat surprised, that’s all. Whether I myself like Bruce is irrelevant, as I doubt I have established my (non-existent) musical credentials sufficiently on the SDMB that people would say “there! Astroboy has spoken! The debate is settled.” 😉 That’s why I didn’t mention my like or dislike. FTR, however, no I don’t much care for Bruce. Whether I understand why other people do is, again, irrelevant. If something speaks to you, then it speaks to you. Having said all that: after Pink Floyd, all is a wasteland! 😛 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-springsteen-write-such-mature-and-experienced-songs-at-such-a-young-age/435481.md?page=2)