Springsteen’s new album and single are titled Devils & Dust. You can hear the track over AOL Music or if you’ve got iTunes you can download it for 99 cents. I did that because I’m trying to get a feel for it to see if I’m going to buy the album/DVD combination.

Once upon a time it would have gone without question that I’d buy a new Bruce album. I still remember almost falling asleep one night just after I’d turned 14 and “Born to Run” came blasting through the earplug connected to the AM/FM radio I had “hidden” under my pillow. For a city kid…it was as if someone had reached inside and grabbed all the longing, all the alienation, all the music of the street and piped it into my head all at once.

I can’t find anything about the rest of the album, but if it’s like the title track, think “Ghost of Tom Joad” vs “Born etc..” I don’t like Bruce when he’s trying to be artsy, trying to be Woody Guthrie, trying to teach me something…especially when there’s a lot of harmonica involved. That’s on me…when I was in high school I worked a sound board for a folk coffee house on Saturday nights. I heard too much of that. I start to convulse when a harmonica solo starts…no matter how good it is.

And from all indications the DVD was shot in black and white…and it’s grainy.

Sigh.

I didn’t buy “Nebraska,” didn’t buy “Ghost,” and I probably won’t buy “Devils & Dust.” I’m guessing the critics will love it. It will be called powerful and deep. Bruce will be hailed once again as the minstrel of our generation. I’ll miss it because that’s not the Bruce I need. You see, I’m still waiting for the next power chord. I want to hear him on his big blocks of wood that he uses for guitars, I want Clarence backing him up with the saxophone and Max on drums. I want Nils, Stephen and him to have an electric guitar free for all. I want a rock’n’roll revival not a folksey sermon. Guess it’s just not my turn.