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Everyday people: the parking wardens, estate agents and more who inspired classic songs

After the death of Joe DePugh, the high school baseball player hymned in Springsteen’s Glory Days, we look at the ordinary inspirations for extraordinary hits

The old crowd from the Jersey Shore still make their way into Springsteen’s songs: the centrepiece ofhis huge stadium shows these last couple of years has been a solo acoustic number called Last Man Standing, which appeared in his 2020 album Letter to You. She was, De Moraes said, “a golden teenage girl, a mixture of flower and mermaid, full of light and grace, the sight of whom is also sad, in that she carries with her, on her route to the sea, the feeling of youth that fades, of the beauty that is not ours alone.” And what did she think? By the end of that album campaign, he was the subject of lines roared by thousands of people at every Idles gig: “My blood brother is an immigrant / A beautiful immigrant.” Fortunately, he was not disgruntled by being made a political poster boy, pronouncing himself “very flattered and humbled”.

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