after all, Springsteen, at fifty-two, is no longer young. But for him music has always been about survival, not victimhood. Twenty-two years ago, the night after John Lennon was murdered, Springsteen took the stage in Philadelphia. "It's a hard world that makes you live with things that are unlivable," he said. "And it's hard to come out here and play tonight, but there's nothing else to do."