Bruce Springsteen mocks Chris Christie in song

http://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/jan/16/bruce-springsteen-mocks-chris-christie

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There's only one winner when the governor of New Jersey comes up against the state's favourite musical son. And it's never going to be the governor.

This week Bruce Springsteen appeared on Jimmy Fallon's NBC talk show to perform a rewritten version of Born to Run that took aim at Governor Chris Christie, following the revelation that Christie's aides had ordered the closure of some lanes on the George Washington Bridge, which connects New Jersey and Manhattan, to cause traffic jams in the Jersey town of Fort Lee, which sits under the bridge. The act was political vindictiveness: Fort Lee's mayor is a Democrat, and had refused to endorse the Republican governor for re-election.

The TV performance saw Fallon begin, dressed in the sleeveless-denim-and-bandana look Springsteen sported in the mid-80s, before the Boss – dressed identically – came out to take over. "Governor let me in, I wanna be your friend, there'll be no partisan divisions," the Boss sang. "You got Wall Street masters stuck cheek to cheek/ With blue collar truckers, and man I really gotta take a leak/ But I can't/ I'm stuck in Governor Chris Christie's Fort Lee, New Jersey, traffic jam."

Reading on mobile? Watch Springsteen on Jimmy Fallon here

The irony is that Christie is a devoted Springsteen fan, and has reportedly seen him well over 100 times. But as Jeffrey Goldberg reported in the Atlantic in 2012, when he attended a Springsteen show with Christie, he is always ignored: "At concerts, even concerts in club-size venues—the Stone Pony, in Asbury Park, most recently—Springsteen won't acknowledge the governor. When Christie leaves a Springsteen concert in a large arena, his state troopers move him to his motorcade through loading docks. He walks within feet of the stage, and of the dressing rooms. He's never been invited to say hello. On occasion, he'll make a public plea to Springsteen, as he did earlier this spring, when Christie asked him to play at a new casino in Atlantic City. 'He says he's for the revitalisation of the Jersey Shore, so this seems obvious,' Christie told me. I asked him if he's received a response to his request. 'No, we got nothing back from them,' he said unhappily, 'not even a "Fuck you."'

Indeed, in 2011 Springsteen wrote a letter to his local paper in New Jersey in 2011, criticising Christie's cuts to public services, saying "the cuts are eating away at the lower edges of the middle class, not just those already classified as in poverty, and are likely to continue to get worse over the next few years."

In the Atlantic article, Goldberg asked Christie how he would respond if the singer said: you don't understand me. "Just because we disagree doesn't mean I don't get him," Christie replied. "I get what he's trying to express and advocate for, I just don't agree that those are the most-effective policies for our government."

The pair's only moment of connection, thus far, came in the wake of Hurricane Sandy in 2012, when Springsteen recognised Christie's efforts to get the state back on its feet.

Fallon's programme has become Springsteen's favoured vehicle for comedy appearances. In 2012, he joined Fallon – who was impersonating Neil Young – for a performance of Willow Smith's Whip My Hair.

Reading on mobile? See Springsteen performing Whip My Hair with Jimmy Fallon here

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