Bruce Springsteen

Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen (born September 23, 1949) is an American rock musician from New Jersey. His songs include "Born to Run" and "Born in the USA". For more than 30 years he has been a singer along with his "E-Street Band."  Also, he is now a member in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Jon Landau, a music writer for Rolling Stone magazine, once said: "I have seen the future of rock and roll, and its name is Bruce Springsteen." Springsteen won an Oscar for his song "Streets Of Philadelphia", written for the Tom Hanks' movie Philadelphia.

Early life 
Springsteen was born in Long Branch, New Jersey, and spent his childhood and high school years in Freehold Borough. His father, Douglas Frederick Springsteen, was a bus driver. His mother, Adele Ann (née Zirilli), was a legal secretary. He has two younger sisters, Virginia and Pamela. Pamela was an actor but left this profession and became a photographer. She took photos for the Human Touch and Lucky Town albums.

Raised Catholic, Springsteen attended the St. Rose of Lima Catholic school in Freehold Borough. Old teachers have said he was a "loner, who wanted nothing more than to play his guitar." He completed high school, but felt so uncomfortable that he skipped his own graduation ceremony. He briefly went to Ocean County College but had no degree.

Early career
Till the early 1970s he played with different bands in the Atlantic area. In 1972 he signed a record contract with Columbia Records. His first album  Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J., released in January 1973, was commercially not a success but was highly favored by music critics. Also his second album  The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle was more acclaimed than sold.

In the May 22, 1974, issue of Boston's The Real Paper, music critic Jon Landau wrote after seeing a performance at the Harvard Square Theater,  "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." Landau became Springsteen's manager and producer.

Breakthrough
The commercial breakthrough was his third album Born to Run, which was released on August 25, 1975. Due to this Springsteen was on the covers of Time magazine and Newsweek. After a legal battle with his old manager Mike Appel, he could release his third album Darkness on the Edge of Town not earlier than 1978. In 1978, he worked together with Patti Smith, who had a hit with Springsteen's song "Because the Night". Also Manfred Mann ("Blinded by the Light") and the Pointer Sisters ("Fire") had success with songs of Bruce Springsteen. The next album was The River. The single from this album "Hungry Heart" was his first Top 10 hit. The River brought Bruce Springsteen in a wide range of styles from ballads to rock songs.

His next album was Nebraska (1982) which he recorded in a studio at his home. The only instruments in this record were guitar and harmonica. The songs are about outsiders of the US society. Despite its commercial flop it is regarded by critics as one of Springsteen's best albums.

He is probably best known for his next album Born in the USA which sold 15 million copies in the USA. It contains 7 hit singles which all reached the Top 10. The following tour was also a huge success. The title track of the album was widely misunderstood as patriotic hymn. In fact it was a comment on the poor treatment of Vietnam veterans. In later years Springsteen performed the song only with acoustic guitar to make the meaning of the song more clear.  An acoustic version also appeared on Tracks, a later album. Videos for the album were made by famous movie directors Brian De Palma and John Sayles.

The next album was Live/1975–85, which summed up the powerful live performances of Bruce Springsteen. It was a five records box-set and was the first set which reached #1 in the charts.

After Born in the USA, Springsteen recorded again more sedate and contemplative albums like Tunnel of Love (1987). In late 1989 he dissolved the E-Street Band and married Patti Scialfa. The couple relocated to California. In 1992 he released two albums at once, Human Touch and Lucky Town. After he had received many Grammy Awards he also was winner of the Academy Award in 1994 for his song "Streets of Philadelphia", which appeared on the soundtrack to the movie Philadelphia.

In 1995, he released his second solo guitar album, The Ghost of Tom Joad, inspired by John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath. Following the album he made a solo acoustic tour where he played the new songs but also many of his older songs in acoustic form. After the tour he and his family went back to New Jersey.

In 1999, the E Street Band and Springsteen officially played together again. They made a reunion tour which lasted over one year. The last two concerts of the tour were recorded for an HBO Concert also a DVD and album was released under the title Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band: Live in New York City. The same year Springsteen was inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
About the 1990s Springsteen said: "I didn't do a lot of work. Some people would say I didn't do my best work."

In 2002 the artist released  The Rising the first studio album with the E Street Band for 19 years. The 2005 album Devils & Dust was again mostly acoustic and recorded without the band. In November 2005, Sirius Satellite Radio started a 24-hour, seven-day-a-week radio station on Channel 10 called "E Street Radio". This channel brings commercial-free Bruce Springsteen music, including rare tracks, interviews, and daily concerts of Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band recorded throughout their career. In April 2006, Springsteen released We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions, a project with folk songs which were made popular by Pete Seeger. It was recorded with a large ensemble of musicians including only Patti Scialfa, Soozie Tyrell, and The Miami Horns from past efforts. The end of the decade brought three albums. (Magic (#1), Working on a Dream (#1) and The Promise (#16), which featured again outtakes of different songs). On January 11, 2009, Springsteen won the Golden Globe Award for Best Song for "The Wrestler", from the Mickey Rourke movie by the same name.

Springsteen and politics 
In September 1979, Springsteen and the E Street Band joined the Musicians United for Safe Energy (MUSE) anti-nuclear power collective at Madison Square Garden for two nights, playing an short set and two songs from his next album. 1988 Springsteen headlined the worldwide Human Rights Now! tour for Amnesty International. 2008 he supported Barack Obama's presidential campaign
and he was the musical opener for the Obama Inaugural Celebration on January 18, 2009. He performed "The Rising" with a female choir. Later he performed Woody Guthrie's "This Land Is Your Land" with Pete Seeger.

Lyrics
Springsteen's lyrics often explore highly personal themes such as disappointment and unhappiness with life in everyday situations.

E Street Band
He did most of his records with the E Street Band. The band was formed in October, 1972. Although Springsteen played with other bands, the E Street Band was his band for 40 years. The band took the name from a street in Belmar, New Jersey where the mother of a founding member lived and allowed the band to practice. The band members do also solo works and play as session musicians (for example: Bittan and Van Zandt for Bob Dylan on Empire Burlesque). Clemons and Lofgren also went on tour with Ringo Starr and his All-Starr Band in 1989.
Although Springsteen informed the band in 1989 that he would not play with them they stayed friends and from 1999 onwards they again played and recorded together.

Band members

Discography

Albums
Major studio albums (along with their chart positions in the U.S. Billboard 200 at the time of release):
 1973: Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. (#60)
 1973: The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle (#59)
 1975: Born to Run (#3)
 1978: Darkness on the Edge of Town (#5)
 1980: The River (#1)
 1982: Nebraska (#3)
 1984: Born in the U.S.A. (#1)
 1987: Tunnel of Love (#1)
 1992: Human Touch (#2)
 1992: Lucky Town (#3)
 1995: The Ghost of Tom Joad (#11)
 1998: Tracks (#64)
 2002: The Rising (#1)
 2005: Devils & Dust (#1)
 2006: We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions (#3)
 2007: Magic (#1)
 2009: Working on a Dream (#1)
 2010: The Promise (#16)
 2012: Wrecking Ball
 2014: High Hopes
 2019: Western Stars
 2020: Letter to You
 2022: Only the Strong Survive

Live albums
 1986: Live/1975–85 (#1)
 1993 In Concert / MTV Plugged  (#189)
 2001 Live in New York City (#5)
 2006 Hammersmith Odeon, London ’75 (#93)
 2007 Live in Dublin(Bruce Springsteen & The Seeger Sessions Band) (#23)

Singles
 1975 Born to Run
 1978 Prove It All Night
 1980 Hungry Heart
 1981 Fade Away
 1981 The River
 1984 Dancing in the Dark
 1984 Cover Me
 1984 Born in the U.S.A. (song)
 1985 I’m on Fire
 1985 Glory Days
 1985 I’m Goin’ Down
 1985 My Hometown
 1985 Santa Claus Is Coming to Town
 1986 War
 1987 Fire
 1987 Born to Run (Live)
 1987 Brilliant Disguise
 1987 Tunnel of Love
 1988 One Step Up
 1988 Tougher Than the Rest
 1988 Spare Parts
 1992 Human Touch
 1992 Better Days
 1992 57 Channels (And Nothin’ On)
 1992 Leap of Faith
 1993 Lucky Town (live)
 1994 Streets of Philadelphia
 1995 Secret Garden
 1996 The Ghost of Tom Joad
 1996 Missing
 2002 The Rising
 2002 Lonesome Day
 2003 Waitin’ on a Sunny Day
 2005 Devils & Dust
 2007 Radio Nowhere
 2008 Girls in Their Summer Clothes
 2008 Working on a Dream
 2012 We Take Care of Our Own

References

Other websites

 Bruce Springsteen – official website
 Idio is now Recommendations - Optimizely
  Highlights of Springsteen at Glastonbury 2009.
 Bruce Springsteen at NPR Music
 "Library of Hope and Dreams":bibliography of published Springsteen scholarship in English.

1949 births
Living people
American rock singers
American rock guitarists
American singer-songwriters
Singers from New Jersey
Musicians from New Jersey
Best Original Song Academy Award-winning songwriters
Kennedy Center honorees