(Originally ran April 25, 2008)

Jon Landau had it wrong. Bruce Springsteen wasn’t rock ‘n’ roll’s future.

Landau, then a critic, now Springsteen’s co-manager, made his prediction in 1974. Perhaps Landau envisioned an army of similarly dedicated artists who believed they could deliver both the truth and good times, who could touch hearts and move hips.

A precious few took up the challenge. But rock ‘n’ roll’s future was in empty entertainment, self-conscious spectacle and corporate posturing.

Expressing emotions, saying something meaningful, attempting to communicate with an audience - how terribly quaint.

It’s so much more effective to find a formula, adopt a look and whore yourself to a corporate sponsor - that’s where the bucks are, baby.

And it’s so much neater.

Emotions are messy and unpredictable. They don’t fit into the script. Better to have every move plotted out and every word scripted. Otherwise, you might have to respond to what’s going on around you at that very instant and … well, how do you do that, anyway?

We’ve been conditioned by Clear Channel, MTV and “American Idol” - not to mention the thousands of performers who eagerly play along - to accept sentimental gloop as emotion, cynicism and cheap irony as intelligence, and hollow rage as passion.

Watching Springsteen perform Tuesday night in Tampa was, as always, a revelation about how powerful rock ‘n’ roll can be - it can make you feel, it can make you think and it can make you want to take action.

That is when rock ‘n’ roll is truly dangerous, not when some pouting bad boy with oh-so carefully mussed hair drops f-bombs and brags about his coke habit.

There are still some artists - in rock, hip-hop, country and R&B - who try to make that connection, to create something real and human, and to prove that entertainment and substance aren’t mutually exclusive.

Pray that more of these artists find their way to us through the static.