Movie review: A contemplative Bruce Springsteen delivers 'Letter to You'

Most rock bands are content to just make music. But Bruce Springsteen, the bard of New Jersey, makes statements of intense recognition and empathy for the blue-collar folk who fork over as much as half of their weekly salaries to watch him and his indelible E Street Band perform the songs that mirror their lives of struggle and strife. It is those loyal fans the "Boss" directly addresses via a new album and documentary titled simply "Letter to You." And it is indeed a heartfelt missive set to muscle and brawn of tunes baring his soul and addressing his growing awareness that the best things in life are finite.

The songs - ranging from hard, loud rockers to quiet odes to his departed friends and youth - are some of the finest of his storied career. They tell the tale of a man genuinely surprised by the height of his success and the evolution of a sound, a band and the singular man who has seen his stardom spread across multiple generations and social strata. But as he enters his 70's, Springsteen is well aware he's drawing ever closer to a date with the Reaper. In fact, the impetus for the movie and the album, debuting Oct. 23, are the deaths of six close friends and bandmates from his associations with The Castiles and the vaunted E Street Band, most notably the immortal sax fiend, Clarence Clemons.