Re "Springsteen's Brilliant Disguise" (June 20): The premise of the article -- that the successful, wealthy Bruce Springsteen is a workingman pretender in his songs of working class life -- is flawed.
The episode featured the songs "Body of Work", "My Heart Goes Boom Boom", "My Oh My", "Feels Like the End", "Portions for Foxes", "Without You", and "Into You".
The show, nicely tight with only 16 looks, reached a climax with the voice of Carly Simon singing the theme song of "Working Girl," an odd choice, given that Mr. Natiello has never really catered to the girl who works.
Each book contains fragments compiled from different notebooks the author kept— Songs of S. working in the mode of a man named S., and A Picture Is Always a Book working as a woman named Ruth.
Kern's later innovations included a more believable plot than the rather shapeless stories built around songs of earlier works, beginning with Show Boat in 1927.
The recital and chamber-music repertoire was of special interest to Upshaw, and she devoted a substantial part of her time to programs that included selections ranging from art songs to works of the musical theatre and American popular songs.
The album is Green Day's most ambitious collection yet, the distillation of dozens of songs and years of work.
It's a song-oriented body of work, rich with melody, often featuring his affectingly unstudied singing voice.
He mentioned her video to the song "Actor Out of Work," which he called "creepy".
