How much of the book was stream-of-consciousness, and how much was carefully crafted?
Things were shaped, rewritten, pulled out, added. Certain passages were written as things were happening, others were reminiscences of things exactly as they transpired, some with changed context, some completely made up. The glory of it was I had complete freedom to mix those things, because it was basically a new form for me. You write songs for so long, even if you’re free and open with forms, the walls can’t help but close in a little bit. Again, with Springsteen, there’s a difference between “Jungleland” and “Thunder Road” vs. “Lucky Town.” You start with this wild openness of form but you start to get constrained. Doing the book felt like, wow, no constraints.
