Rolling Stone reports that on November 2, 2019, Bruce Springsteen will “guest program” Turner Classic Movies. Springsteen picked his two favorite classics which he will discuss with Ben Mankiewicz. His choices are 1956 the John Ford/John Wayne classic Western The Searchers (airing at 3:30 pm EST) and Elia Kazan’s 1957 masterpiece A Face in the Crowd (airing 5:45 pm EST).
The interview segments were shot in advance in Springsteen’s home studio in New Jersey. Among other things, Springsteen explained how his songs are tied to the movies. “I write in character, and to write like that you need to gather so much cinematic detail, constantly filling the songs with images, images, images, geography, little character traits, things very similar to scriptwriting, really.”
He also explained how the 1973 Terrence Malick movie Badlands and the 1955 thriller The Night of the Hunter influenced his songwriting on Nebraska. “The thing they have in common is they’re both twisted fairytales,” says Springsteen. “Even the score in Badlands had, I believe, glockenspiel — was very fairytale-ish. I took that sound picture and made a record of it.”
But after his Turner appearance and the premiere of his Western Stars film (echoes of the 1945 classic Under Western Skies), he is set to make his annual appearance at the Stand Up For Heroes veterans benefit at the Hulu Theater at Madison Square Garden on November 4th. A month later, on December 9th, he’ll perform alongside Sting, John Mellencamp, Eurythmics, Ricky Martin, Shaggy, and James Taylor at the 30th anniversary Rainforest Foundation Benefit at New York’s Beacon Theater.
