My Vinyl Collection 161
Bruce Springsteen (8). Putting on his father’s clothes and doing the job. The Boss. From New Jersey. Music history from the shelf. 33 rpm, Vinyl
1123. Bruce Springsteen, Greetings from Asbury Park N. J. (1973)
1124. ———————-, The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle (1973)
1125. ———————, Born to Run (1975)
1126. ———————, Darkness on the Edge of Town (1975)
1127. ———————, The River (1980)
1128. ———————, Born in the U.S.A. (1984)
1129. ———————, Tunnel of Love (1987)
1130. ———————, Greatest Hits 1974-1995 (1995)
Bruce Springsteen says his relationship with his father is the core of his art. In 1999, in his Rock Hall induction speech, he thanked that father, that Doug Springsteen. “What would I conceivably have written about without him? I mean, you can imagine that if everything had gone great between us? We would have had disaster. I would have written just happy songs—and I tried it in the early ’90s, and it didn’t work…
“Anyway, I put on his work clothes, and I went to work.
“It was the way that I honored him. My parents’ experience forged my own. They shaped my politics, and they alerted me to what is at stake when you’re born in the U.S.A.”
On his mother’s side Springsteen was Italian. From Vico Equense via Ellis Island. His grandfather became a lawyer, impressing the young Springsteen as being "larger than life.”
On the paternal side, the Springsteen name means "jump stone" in Dutch, a stepping stone between houses used in muddy streets. The Springsteens came early to New Netherlands (soon to be New York), arriving in the mid-1600s. John Springsteen fought for the rebels in the American Revolution. Bruce was born 1949, Long Branch, N.J., raised in Freehold, N.J., a working class town on the road to the Shore from Princeton. Doug Springsteen, that father, was a bus driver, millworker, prison guard. Adele, Bruce’s mother, was a legal secretary in an insurance office.
The seventies left a bad taste in the eighties Jersey economy. Manufacturing jobs that once lifted all boats ran away to the South and to Asia. New Jersey's unemployment rates matched those of the Great Depression of the 1930s.
Springsteen was raised mostly by his father’s father, his paternal grandfather. That was the Dutch grandfather, whose daughter was killed in a car crash. Grandfather doted on little Bruce, letting him stay up until 3 a.m.
Springsteen's father, on the other hand, struggled with his wartime experiences. The son is understanding. “You know, my dad was young. He went to work. He'd been to war. He'd seen some of the world.”
Steady folk. Built to last. In 1956, at age 7, Springsteen watched Elvis Presley on The Ed Sullivan Show, something he would later point out in interviews as being a crucial moment in his career. In 1964, this time it was the Beatles on Sullivan. Springsteen went to a Western Auto in town and bought a guitar for $18.95. He played constantly, joined a rock band called the Rouges in Freehold, got a break at a house party attended by sponsors of young bands on the Shore.
He joined the Castiles, lead vocal, climbed the ladder to the Cafe Wa? in the Village. Start and stop, Wa? The new Dylan? John Hammond? Sell outs in increasingly big venues. Signed by Columbia 1972. Formed the E-Street Band and blasted out of the gate, a growling bull charging into the ring.
“Blinded by the Light” was the first cut of the first LP. Some brimstone baritone anti-cyclone/ Rolling stone preacher from the East/ He says, dethrone the dictaphone/ Hit it in its funny bone, that's where they expect it least/ And some new-mown chaperone was standin' in the corner all alone/ Watchin’ the young girls dance/ Yeah, he was blinded by the light/ Oh, cut loose like a deuce, another runner in the night/ Blinded by the light’/ He got down but he never got tight,/ But he's gonna make it tonight.
With a folkie guitar and the cascading lyrics, the comparison to Dylan, who had been around for 10 years. Crawdaddy’s Peter Knobler in March 1973 wrote of Bruce, “He sings with a freshness and urgency I haven't heard since I was rocked by 'Like a Rolling Stone'". Critic Jon Landau saw Springsteen's performance at the Harvard Square Theater, and in the May 22, 1974, issue of Boston's The Real Paper wrote: "I saw the rock and roll future, and its name is Bruce Springsteen.”
Landau became co-producer of Springsteen's next album, Born to Run, in February 1975. With two almost-hits under this belt Springsteen didn’t want to miss again. To get it right he and the new E Street Band spent from January 1974 to July 1975 in New York City cutting the tracks, with six months spent just on "Born to Run."
Now known as “The Boss,” Springsteen’s rep as a killer band director grew in these days, working rock, pop rock and power rock into the mix, using Landau’s ear and Clarence Clemons’ E Street sax, the Boss became Phil Spector, building his Wall of Jersey. He lives here with characters at home on the dusty beach road, driving a burnt out Chevrolet. Springsteen had on his father’s work clothes, but these songs were Bruce’s own version of life. All about the people chasing the “runaway American dream.” A “death trap, a suicide rap.” More than 140 million records sold. So far.
Lately, he’s a hardened rock star. A brief 2023 European tour sold 1.6 million tickets. A two-night kick-off in Barcelona “unleashed euphoria.” Two dates at London’s Hyde Park drew 130,000 and a final night, in Monza, Italy, brought 70,000 to the football stadium.
Back in the USA, the band played its first stadium show in seven years — at Chicago’s Wrigley Field — a show “without equal” said the Tribune; one of “Wrigley Field’s brightest moments” said the Sun-Times. In Jersey for the last three nights, the shows were described by Rolling Stone said “nobody felt like saying goodbye.”
A new tour starts next week, March 19, in Phoenix.