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Back To School

Steve Matoren
7 min readSep 16, 2020

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With Bruce Springsteen In Bosston

  • With all due respect to big Boss fan and New Hampshire native Adam Sandler, the best movie about returning to school not named ‘Billy Madison’ is ‘Back to School,’ starring the infamous and affable Thornton Mellon (Rodney Dangerfield).
Scene from the film, ‘Back To School’

When ‘Back to School’ premiered in June of 1986, the Jersey rocker was on top of the pop culture world. Taking a much needed break after a mammoth 2-year global tour with the legendary E Street Band supporting his best selling ‘Born in the USA’ album, Springsteen’s “presence” made a cameo in the cult classic film. A sign held up by Thornton’s limo driver and right hand man, Lou (Burt Young), with Springsteen’s name on it, was all it took to drive the kids wild and clear out the fictional New England’s school’s packed class registration lines. In 1986, Bruce Springsteen was the solution to a problematic situation. Perhaps, The Boss is still the answer to such in 2020.

Boston College sure seems to think so. The institute of higher learning invited Bruce to speak at their annual First Year Academic Convocation, virtually, on September 10.

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Steve Matoren
Steve Matoren

Written by Steve Matoren

Jersey boy. Bruce Springsteen is my only Boss. I'd drive all night just to...

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