On boingboing a few months ago, a post about a new Springsteen box set:

My favorite part of The Promise, a documentary about the making of Bruce Springsteen’s 1978 album Darkness on the Edge of Town that was on pay TV this month and will be available for sale next month, is when we learn that one of the many reasons recording took longer than it should have is that Springsteen felt he could hear the sound of Max Weinberg’s stick hitting the drum. That ruined the sound of the song for him, and many hours were devoted to making the drum sound all drum and no stick. Springsteen sits in the control room, says, monotonously, “stick … stick … stick” as he hears the playback, and you can feel the whole recording operation grind to a stop.

There are two responses to this.

First, it’s fascinating to watch an artist so dedicated to his work that he’s willing to put everything on hold until a minor mistake, one few in his audience would ever suspect is there, is fixed.

Second, he’s nuts.

How much attention to detail is too much?