"Is Springsteen Worth the Hype?"

Thanks to Google, you can see Paul Nelson's classic article, "Is Springsteen Worth the Hype?," in its original Village Voice appearance. Reading it takes a little bit of navigation: what actually begins on the issue's last page (95 in its Google incarnation), continues and concludes on page 94 in the paper (93 in Google).

And while the piece, written back in 1975 when Bruce was just on the verge of becoming the legendary performer he has become, is well worth reading (or rereading), it's important to note that it's incomplete. Paul himself apparently decided to remove a revelatory passage about Springsteen and David Bowie before the article went to press. (The full, unexpurgated piece appears in Everything Is an Afterthought: The Life and Writings of Paul Nelson.)