When Bruce Springsteen was a little boy, he learned the story of Brave Cowboy Bi
ll, about a pure-hearted little cowboy. It was the first of Bruce's Western love
s, which now range from John Ford films to Mexican music to Native American art.
Each of these inspirations, plus what he learned as a man and a rock 'n' roller
about how to combine whimsy and wisdom, were stations on the way to Outlaw Pete
, a modern legend of a criminal who starts out in nappies and confronts the roug
hest edges of adulthood.
