Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen (born September 23, 1949) is an American singer and songwriter, nicknamed "The Boss". He frequently recorded with The E-Street Band. Springsteen is most widely known for his brand of heartland rock, rock and roll infused with Americana sentiments. His eloquence in expressing Everyman's problems has earned him a huge fan base within America's middle class. His most famous albums, Born to Run and Born in the USA, epitomize his penchant for writing about the struggles of a young man growing up in the streets of New Jersey. Comparisons are inevitably made between him and Bob Dylan [1] (http://home.theboots.net/theboots/articles/bangs_btr_review.html) because of his folk rock roots. Springsteen has become popular in his own right despite that because of the appeal of his songs. "Born in the USA" was so popular that Ronald Reagan famously chose it to be the theme of his 1984 presidential campaign, misinterpreting it to be a patriotic song rather than a protest song about the Vietnam War.

Springsteen is also noted for his work for the relief effort after the September 11th attacks. His album, The Rising, is a retrospective of those events.

Early years

Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen was born September 23, 1949 in Freehold Borough, New Jersey. His father, Douglas, was a bus driver of Dutch ancestry and his mother, Adele Zirilli Springsteen, an Italian-American legal secretary. One of Springsteen's earliest recordings is from 1965, when he was originally the guitar player for a band called the Castiles, later becoming lead singer. He began performing in Richmond, Virginia in late 1969 and through 1970 with singer Robbin Thompson in a band called Steel Mill. They went on to perform some memorable shows at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond. Before being discovered nationally, he returned to Asbury Park, New Jersey, and performed regularly at The Stone Pony and other small Asbury Park nightclubs. His New Jersey shows quickly gathered cult-like appeal for their energy, passion and longevity, most lasting in excess of three hours.

Even after gaining international acclaim, Springsteen's New Jersey roots would reverberate in his music, with him routinely praising "the great state of New Jersey" in his live shows. Drawing on his extensive local appeal, his appearances in major New Jersey and Philadelphia venues routinely would sell out for consecutive nights and, much like the Grateful Dead, his show's song lists would vary significantly from night to night.

He began his recording career with the E Street Band in 1973. Upon signing a solo record deal with Columbia Records in 1972, Springsteen brought many of his New Jersey-based musician friends into the studio with him, many of them forming the E Street Band. His debut album, Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J., from January 1973 established him as a critical favorite [2] (http://www.rollingstone.com/reviews/album/_/id/107193), though sales were slow. Manfred Mann's Earth Band later turned one song from this album, "Blinded By The Light," into a number one hit. Although Greetings and his second album, The Wild, The Innocent, & The E Street Shuffle received critical acclaim, they failed to achieve commercial success.

In Boston's The Real Paper May 22, 1974, music critic Jon Landau wrote, "I saw rock and roll future, and its name is Bruce Springsteen. And on a night when I needed to feel young, he made me feel like I was hearing music for the very first time."[3] (http://home.theboots.net/theboots/articles/future.html) (Landau later became Springsteen's manager and producer). With the release of his album Born to Run in 1975, Springsteen made the covers of both Time Magazine and Newsweek the same week, on October 27 of that year. However, a legal battle with former manager Mike Appel kept Springsteen out of the studio for a while, and probably also contributed to the much more sombre tone of his 1978 album, Darkness on the Edge of Town. He continued to consolidate his thematic focus on working-class life with the double album The River in 1980 and the solo acoustic Nebraska in 1982.

Springsteen is probably best known for the multi-million selling Born in the U.S.A.(1984), and the successful world tour that followed it. The title track was a tribute to Springsteen's buddies that had experienced the Vietnam War, some of whom did not come back. The song was widely mis-interpreted on release as nationalistic. In later years Springsteen performed the song accompanied only with acoustic guitar to restore the song's original meaning.

After this commercial peak, Springsteen released the much more sedate and contemplative Tunnel of Love (1987), a mature reflection on the many faces of love found, lost and squandered. It coincided with the breakup of his first marriage to actress Julianne Phillips.

Reflecting the challenges of love, on Tunnel of Love's title song, Springsteen famously sang:

"Ought to be easy, ought to be simple enough. Man meets woman, and they fall in love. But the house is haunted, and the ride gets rough. You got to learn to live with what you can't rise above."

1990s

In 1992, after breaking up with most of the E Street Band (Roy Bittan remained), Springsteen released two albums simultaneously. Human Touch and Lucky Town were even more introspective than any of his previous work. Also different about these albums was the confidence he displayed. As opposed to his first two albums, which dreamed of happiness, and his next four, which showed him growing to fear it, these albums saw a finally satisfied and mature Springsteen.

A multiple Grammy Award winner, he also won an Academy Award in 1993 for his song "Streets of Philadelphia," which appeared in the soundtrack to the film Philadelphia. The song, along with the film, was applauded by many for its sympathetic portrayal of a gay man dying of AIDS, especially coming from a main-stream, heterosexual musician.

In 1995, after temporarily re-organizing the E Street Band for a few new songs recorded for his first Greatest Hits album (a recording session that was chronicled in the film "Blood Brothers"), he released his second solo guitar album, The Ghost of Tom Joad. In 1998, another precursor to the E Street Band's upcoming re-birth appeared in the form of a sprawling, four-disc box set of out-takes, Tracks.

In 1999, the Band officially re-united and went on an extensive world tour, lasting over a year in length and finishing with ten sold out shows at New York's Madison Square Garden. The E-United World Tour resulted in an HBO Concert, with corresponding DVD and album releases as Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band: Live In New York City.

Drawing on his strong fan base in Philadelphia, Springsteen chose to celebrate his 50th birthday in September 1999 with a live show at the Philadelphia Spectrum, which he opened with his hit "Growing Up." Closing the song on that night, he quoted W. C. Fields: "All things being equal, I'd rather be in Philadelphia."

2000s

In 2002, Springsteen released his first studio effort with the full band in 18 years, The Rising, produced by Brendan O'Brien. The album, mostly a reflection on the September 11 attacks, was a critical and popular success, and hailed the return of "The Boss". A massive tour was made to promote The Rising. It would come to a final conclusion with 3 nights in Shea Stadium. Bruce Springsteen lost his police escort for the second night after performing "American Skin (41 shots)" a song about the police shooting of Amadou Diallo. Bob Dylan was a surprise guest on the last night, the two performed "Highway 61 Revisited" together.

In 2004, Springsteen announced that he and the E Street Band would participate in a politically motivated "Vote for Change" tour, in conjunction with John Fogerty, the Dixie Chicks, R.E.M., Jurassic 5 and other musicians. All were be held in swing states, to benefit MoveOn.org and encourage people to vote against George W. Bush. A finale was held in Washington, D.C., bringing many of the artists together. Several days later, Springsteen had one more concert in New Jersey for Moveon.org. This led to both criticism and praise from the expected partisan sources. Springsteen's "No Surrender" became the main campaign theme song for John Kerry's unsuccessful presidential campaign. In the last days of John Kerry's campaign, he performed acoustic versions of his songs at Kerry rallies, mainly "No Surrender," "Thunder Road" and "The Promised Land".

Despite his overt partisanship, however, Springsteen was forgiven by many of his Republican fans, many of whom said they found Springsteen's passion for America and personal struggle consistent with their own ideology. Springsteen thus represented one of only a few modern performers whose music was viewed as widely relevant to the politics and culture of the day.

E Street Band

Current members of the E Street Band:

• Roy Bittan - piano (replaced David Sancious in 1975)
• Clarence Clemons - saxophone
• Danny Federici - organ, glockenspiel, keyboard
• Nils Lofgren - guitar (replaced Steven van Zandt in 1984; remained in group after van Zandt returned)
• Patti Scialfa - guitar (Springsteen's wife - added in 1984)
• Gary W. Tallent - bass guitar
• Soozie Tyrell - violin (recorded with Springsteen in 1995, joined the band in 2002 with "The Rising" album and tour)
• Steven van Zandt - guitar, mandolin (replaced Sukia Levy [violin] in 1975; left in 1984 to go solo as Little Steven; rejoined in 1995)
• Max Weinberg - drums (replaced Ernest "Boom" Carter in 1975, who replaced Vinnie "Mad Dog" Lopez in 1974 or 1975)

Samples

• Download sample of "Badlands" from Darkness on the Edge of Town

Discography

Albums

Hit singles

• from "Born to Run"
  • 1975 "Born to Run" #23 US
• from "Darkness on the Edge of Town"
  • 1978 "Prove It All Night" #33 US
• from "The River"
  • 1980 "Hungry Heart" #5 US
  • 1981 "The River" #35 UK
  • 1981 "Fade Away" #20 US
• from "Born in the U.S.A."
  • 1984 "Born in the U.S.A." #9 US
  • 1984 "Dancing in the Dark" #2 US, #28 UK
  • 1984 "Cover Me" #7 US, #38 UK
  • 1985 "Dancing in the Dark" (re-entry) #4 UK
  • 1985 "Cover Me" (re-entry) #16 UK
  • 1985 "I'm on Fire" #6 US, #5 UK (double A-side with Born in the USA in the UK)
  • 1985 "Glory Days" #5 US, #17 UK
  • 1985 "My Hometown" #6 US, #9 UK (double A-side with Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town in the UK)
  • 1985 "I'm Goin' Down" #9 US
• from "Live/1975-85"
  • 1986 "War" #8 US, #18 UK
• non-album-related single
  • 1987 "Born to Run" (re-issue) #16 UK
• from "Tunnel of Love"
  • 1987 "Brilliant Disguise" #5 US, #20 UK
  • 1987 "Tunnel of Love" #9 US
  • 1988 "Tougher Than the Rest" #13 UK
  • 1988 "Spare Parts" #32 UK
  • 1988 "One Step Up" #13 US
• from "Lucky Town"
  • 1992 "Better Days" #34 UK
• from "Human Touch"
  • 1992 "Human Touch" #16 US, #11 UK
  • 1992 "57 Channels (And Nothin' On)" #32 UK
• from "Philadelphia" soundtrack
  • 1994 "Streets of Philadelphia" #9 US, #2 UK
• from "Greatest Hits"
  • 1995 "Hungry Heart" (re-issue) #28 UK
• from "The Ghost of Tom Joad"
  • 1996 "The Ghost of Tom Joad" #26 UK
• from "Jerry Maguire" soundtrack (originally on "Greatest Hits")
  • 1997 "Secret Garden" #19 US, #17 UK
• from "The Rising"
  • 2002 "Lonesome Day" #39 UK

Trivia

Bruce Springsteen is credited with helping to launch the career of a young Courteney Cox by granting her an appearance in his famous "Dancing in the Dark" music video.

External links

• Comprehensive Springsteen Lyrics (http://www.xs4all.nl/~maroen/engels/bruce.html)
• Bruce Springsteen's web site (http://www.brucespringsteen.net/)
• Bruce Springsteen Lyrics / Sound / Video Page (http://www.myclassiclyrics.com/bruce_springsteen/bruce_springsteen_lyrics.html)
• News, performances, set-lists; by fans, for fans (http://www.backstreets.com)