There are fan events, and then there are events where someone who was actually on the inside walks into the room and starts connecting dots while the rest of us take notes. This is the latter. After the November 15 screening of Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere at the Crandell Theater, rock musician, scholar, and author Warren Zanes will appear in person to talk about the man, the myth, the machinery, and the fine-grained art of making songs that shape public consciousness.
Zanes isn’t just another theorist in the cheap seats. He lived rock and roll, first as guitarist for the Del Fuegos—one of the sharpest American rock bands to ever flirt with the big leagues—then as a solo artist. He later became one of the genre’s most lucid chroniclers, writing with empathy, precision, and an insider’s allergy to mythmaking for mythmaking’s sake. His book on Springsteen (the source text for the new biopic) is less tabloid fever dream, more blueprint: a nuanced study of creativity, identity, ambition, contradiction, and craft. Beyond the stage and page, Zanes teaches songwriting at New York University, where he has the unenviable task of explaining to the next generation what makes a song matter long after its first listen. Expect insight, candor, and stories that make the behind-the-scenes feel suddenly obvious in hindsight. Bring questions that leave scorch marks. Copies of Zanes’s book will be available via Chatham Bookstore and on site. Presented in partnership with Chatham Public Library and Chatham Bookstore.
