Brokaw & Bruce: Springsteen on the Sixties

More from "NBC Nightly News" anchor Tom Brokaw's documentary, "1968" on the History Channel tonight, based on his latest book, Boom! Voices of the Sixties: Personal Reflections on the Sixties and Today. Here he interviews Bruce Springsteen, who explains how the music of the 60s is "in my body, it's in my soul - it will never leave" and his own sound was influenced by 60s acts like the Byrds, the Beach Boys, the Animals....and Bob Dylan:

"I've met Bob Dylan a few times. He said, 'Hey man, let me know if there's anything I can ever do for you.' Anything you can ever do for me? It's been done."

Watch the clip below, followed by Brokaw's description of the hippie-infested Haight-Ashbury area of 60s San Francisco, which he observed from a distance as a young tie-wearing square. Aw. No free love for Tom! We do, however, know from his book that he wasn't a total square: "Yes, I smoked a little pot. I even inhaled." Groovy, man. Tune in and turn on at 9 p.m. tonight!

See Jon Stewart talking about the influence of the Smothers Brothers here and watch the "1968" trailer here.

Comments

[easyrider1969]

08:06 AM on 12/11/2007

RFK and MLK were murdered and their killers allowed to go free and prosper. Killed by the same forces as JFK less than 5 yrs. before. Wall St. loved it. Their kids got out of service...lived at different life than the rest of us, like Brokaw.

[SD61]

11:38 PM on 12/10/2007

Great stuff, Tommy Brokaw.

[geobushono]

12:47 PM on 12/10/2007

The 60s were the best.......BRUCE deserves a MONUMENT in DC....on second thought, he deserves a monument in every town, village, city and crossroads in America.

[Kungfublood]

12:43 PM on 12/10/2007

Years ago I was at a friends house for the first time and saw a picture in a frame on the wall of a guy I did not know so I asked who is that guy? Me friend replied yeah right! ha ha ( as if i was joking )there was a short pause and he said that's the boss! After a bit of cogitation i replied you have a picture of your boss on your wall? He could not believe that I did not know "the Boss ". I on the other hand was glad that I would have recognized Helen Merrill's photo if it had been displayed.

[Ann Handley]

12:29 PM on 12/10/2007

It was a great documentary -- whether you were around, or weren't, or are too young to remember it. (I'm in the last category.) There are some interesting parallels to today's political climate, as Brokaw suggested.

Which made Tom Smothers's quote particularly poignant, when he said of the '60s vs. today: "I miss the optimism."

[BillyCioffi]

09:57 AM on 12/10/2007

Your remarks are condescending and myopic.
Springsteen is accurate. Than again you had to there. If you weren't you' have to be a little envious. For all the chaos and bad there was an excitement and a lack of cynicism that most later generations can only wonder about. A sense that hings could be better. Sign me happy to have inhaled. My one argument with Obama is his lack of understanding for he period.
He talks of fighting old battles but in truth you cannot stop fighting them because... so far a lot of the bad guys have won. Look at the jerks and squares who are runnin things now. Hey Earth Nixon won! So did W ! Chaney???that should tell us something and it isn't good.

[DumbDad]

09:47 AM on 12/10/2007

The single most lied-about year in the single most lied-about decade in the history of the world. Ever since '68 the American people have been in retreat from what their stated ideals would have meant, lying to themselves about everything. Brokaw is a professional reciter of such lies.
The biggest force here and abroad in 1968 was students who had read BOOKS. Show me three of those now.

[twitch1956]

09:24 AM on 12/10/2007

P.S. to my post. I love Tom Smothers. So did my dad and still does... one of the only things we agreed on... besides Kennedy being the greatest President.

My dad cried when Martin and Bobby were killed. It scared me so badly. I had never seen my father cry.

God Bless America. Bring the troops home from this war. Seems like nothing has changed but the music.

[twitch1956]

09:19 AM on 12/10/2007

1968... I was thirteen and loved every song played on my little am/fm transistor radio hanging from the handle bars of my schwin. I remember all that was going on.. every evening Walter Cronkite told us what was important. I even named my two turtles Huntley and Brinkley. Dad had us read the front page of the newspaper everyday because we all sat down together at 6 pm for dinner and he wanted his children to know what was going on in the world. More than one meal ended in screaming (him) and tears (me) (the young hippie liberal) running from the dining room. Heated discussions included "the war", "Johnson" "marijuana" "gay rights" (they werent called gay yet) JANE FONDA, Native American rights, etc etc...

Good times... good times. My dad is still alive (81) and I am 51 and love him. The greatest generation vs the hippie/flower children.... What a time to be alive.

[poorotis]

10:00 PM on 12/09/2007

1968. What a fucking bummer year that was. I was only eight years old then, but i remember what a bunch of bad news the year consisted of-except for the music, thank God: 1968 was the first year more rock albums than singles were sold.