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On May14th, Bruce Springsteen will be at the Times Union Center in Albany, NY. Springsteen has just released his new album “Working on a Dream”. Tickets for the concert will be $97 and $67 with the Albany arena seating a maximum of 17,500.
In April 1976, while attending Colgate University, I saw Bruce Springsteen along with 4,000 other fans at their hockey arena, Starr Rink. My ticket was approximately $5. As an aside, Springsteen played his usual array of “Tenth Avenue Freeze Out,” “Jungleland,” and “Rosalita.” Needless to say, this was a concert to remember and in hindsight the beginning of a budding music legend. By the way, the price of a gallon of gasoline averaged $0.60 per gallon during 1976.
Let me preface the balance of this column with the statement that Bruce Springsteen is my favorite musician. I am however, tired of being lectured by entertainers, sports stars and celebrities of all nature on how I should think and vote. Springsteen through his music and his off-stage statements has positioned himself as the defender of the “little guy” causing, in part, companies like ExxonMobil to continually defend itself against the title of “destroyer of the environment and bastion of corporate greed.”
Now to the crux of this article, if a gallon of gas had appreciated in lockstep with one Springsteen concert ticket (16 fold over the same time frame), we would be paying almost $10 for one gallon of gas. Why is it that Americans rarely complain about the private jets that entertainers use or the tens of millions of dollars that movie stars command? Why is it that we listen attentively to what these people say as if we were listening to our priest, reverend or rabbi but reject, almost entirely, all that our political and business people espouse.
Many times we get caught up in greed and American capitalism. Certainly executive compensation has been insane and certainly there has been unethical and downright illegal deeds done by corporations. However, there has been an immense amount of greed emanating from the “artistic community.” We think that this is hypocritical as many of these artists wax eloquently about how the rest of us should live our lives. Also, ironically, the media, rarely rails against the cost of Demi Moore’s latest movie or Bono’s latest concert.
Our thoughts are succinct. I’ll pay for the move/concert and you keep your political views to yourselves.