A Long Way Gone Vs Ishmael Beah

Katherine Grossman

Chestnut

Honors English IV

8 March 2024

A Long Way Gone vs Born to Run

What kind of music did you listen to as a kid? Were you stuck listening to your parents' music, or did you find the music you like on your own? The music we listen to as children has a major impact on our future lives; that impact can just be nostalgia for your childhood, comfort when you need it, or a fundamental influence on a child's mind that they carry with them for the rest of their life. Two people who have had a musical impact that has been large on their lives are Ishmael Beah and Bruce Springsteen. Ishmael Beah is an author and former child soldier in the Sierra Leone civil war, and Bruce Springsteen is a singer-songwriter who grew up in

He found the music through the televisions in Mobimbi when he and his brothers went swimming. One day in Mobimbi, a video of the Sugarhill Gang singing “Rappers Delight” came out. Ishmael and his brothers were mesmerized by the fact that the young black men could speak English so well. Beah recounts, “After that, we came to the quarters every other weekend to study that kind of music on television. We didn’t know what it was called then, but I was impressed with the fact that the black fellows knew how to speak English really fast, and to the beat” (Beah, 6). Ishmael's first introduction to rap music was so impactful that he started memorizing all the songs he could get in his ears. The music helped him with his English fluency and with expressing himself through his words, his clothing, and his movements. Ishmael's favorite music shaped his childhood, but the few mentions we get of his adult life in A Long Way Gone have rap references throughout. When Ishmael describes his PTSD, he explains how he grounds himself in his new life in New York City: “I studied the red exposed brick wall of the room and tried to identify the rap music coming from a car passing by” (Beah, 19). He uses tangible and audible things around him to try to get out of his vivid memories, one of those being rap music. Ishmael tries to latch on to the music, but it’s from a passing car, so

Born to Run is Springsteen’s third album and was his last chance for success in the music industry before he ran out of money. The titular song was the first single off the album and got his foot back into the door and eventually reached 23 on Billboard's Hot 200 list. Now with the backing of his record label, he was able to craft an album inspired by the rock n roll greats of his childhood. One of those rock n roll legends, Roy Orbison, is explicitly mentioned in the opening seconds of the album on the song “Thunder Road”: “Like a vision, she dances across the porch as the radio plays. Roy Orbison singing for the lonely. ‘hey, that’s me’ and it wants you only” (Springsteen, 0:27). The Boss was also heavily inspired by Bob Dylan’s songwriting and Phil Spector’s ‘wall of sound’ technique. Bob Dylan was a singer-songwriter and the voice of his generation; he was an amazing storyteller and guitar player and influenced Springsteen’s words more than anyone. Phil Spector was a music producer in the 60s who pioneered a new technique called the Wall of Sound, it was a technique that used yards and yards of music tape spliced on top of each other to create a loud, full “wall of sound” and it is prevalent throughout the Boss’ discography. Bruce Springsteen himself said, “The vision for the album was something that sounded like Roy Orbison singing Bob Dylan produced by