Okay, I’m not a big fan of Springsteen. In fact, I don’t own one album by him (and considering all the albums I own, that’s saying something). I think this goes back to 1984 when I was discovering my love of Depeche Mode just as America embraced “Born In The USA” and Bruce and all that. One of these days I look forward to truly discovering Springsteen and diving into his music. 

This morning I read a review of his latest album (the Chicago Tribune gave it two stars). But the thing that really fascinated me was the album-by-album ratings that the reviewer went through. He went through all of Bruce’s albums and rated them out of four stars. And as usual, I enjoyed going through the list. 

Ratings like this for any artist always get my attention. 

I love to see not only opinions on the works of any artist (whether they’re a writer, a musician, or a filmmaker), but I love to see when those works came out. How long did it take this rock star to make the newest album? Why did they not release anything for five years, then come out with two albums in the same year? When did their “legacy” album (or book or movie) come out? 

I love seeing lists like this because I learn things from them. For every artist that matters, there’s something that completely misses the mark. There’s the work that really, truly goes outside the box. There’s the defining work. There’s the underrated one. 

And yes, egotist that I most certainly am, this act causes me to reflect on my own work. 

I always like to imagine someone down the road rating my novels like this. “Gun Lake: two stars, ambitious but overdone, blah blah blah”. I would like to think that I could do this on my own, but I’m certainly not able to see the forest for the trees. I’m still building my career, and hopefully, God willing, my most meaningful and “defining” books have yet to be written. I can still look at my own works and see their faults as well as their unique traits. 

I love seeing artists taking chances, evolving, risking, changing. Most great actors get a chance to do a variety of roles. Most great directors have a variety of movies. Even musicians can change and morph. But writers–that’s a tricky thing because of the industry. You can’t be as varied as an author. You can certainly grow and take chances and change, but not in the way actors and directors and musicians can. 

I’d love to think that somewhere down the road, I’ve got that four-star book in me. And that the one-star and two-star rated books that I’ve done so far (and okay, maybe that three-star story) have all paved the way for that four-star review. And it will make sense, too. People can see the list of books and say, wow, it took him a while, and he certainly had his share of misses. 

When I see directors like Spielberg with a movie like 1941 or musicians like the Boss with an album like “Human Touch” I think–hey, every single artist strikes out from time to time. But that’s what being an artist is all about. It’s about trying something and then releasing it out to the public. And then, eventually, trying again. 

And if you’re brave enough, you try for something bigger and something better each time.