Bruce Springsteen
At a time when disco, glam rock, heavy metal, and rock opera promoted escapism in a fantasy world, Bruce Springsteen cultivated an image of authenticity and relatable behavior, singing about work stress, financial tribulations, romantic problems, and alienation. "Do you know what rock 'n' roll is?" he asked in 1978, "it's me and my band playing tonight for the audience and growing up with that audience." This stance transformed him into the most successful white musician since Elvis Presley, his greatest idol.
He bought his first guitar after seeing an Elvis performance on TV. He was 15 years old when he started a succession of high school bands in Freehold, a small town in southern New Jersey. The Rogues, The Castiles, Earth, Child, Steel Mill, Dr. Zoom and the Sonic Boom... Then he traded Freehold for the Greenwich Village circuit, the famous bohemian area of New York, where he began playing regularly with The Bruce Springsteen Band in the mid-60s.
Businessman Mike Appel played a key role in his career, securing an audition with bluesman John Hammond, the executive producer at Columbia Records, who offered him a contract after hearing the songs that made it onto his debut album, Greetings From Asbury Park (1973). The album wasn't a commercial success but caught the attention of critics, who attributed to his songwriting a value comparable to that of Bob Dylan. The Wild, The Innocent & The E-Street Shuffle, released the same year, also received favorable reviews but lacked the return the record label hoped for, which decided to bet on the appeal of his live performances.
With the renamed E-Street Band – formed by Clarence Clemons (saxophone), 'Miami' Steve Van Zandt (guitar), Danny Federici (keyboards), Roy Bittan (piano), Garry Tallent (bass) and Max Weinberg (drums) – Springsteen was electrifying, exciting the audience. It was during this tour that he met Jon Landau, the critic who wrote the famous prediction: "I saw the future of rock 'n' roll and its name is Bruce Springsteen," in the article Growing Young with Rock 'n' Roll, published by The Real Paper in 1974.
Landau and Springsteen became friends and soon began working together, but the idea displeased Mike Appel, who filed an unsuccessful lawsuit to prevent the partnership. The lawsuit lasted until 1977, and during this period, in addition to working on material for Born to Run (1975), Bruce also composed for other artists, such as Southside Johnny and Astbury Jukes, who recorded 'Fever', and Patti Smith, who recorded 'Because the Night'.
Born to Run made him a major star; Landau knew what he was doing when he decided to enhance the songwriter's pop side. Co-produced by him and Phil Spector, the album quickly reached the Top Ten, and while the title track went from the Top 40 to the Top 3, Bruce began to be called The Boss. Manfred Mann capitalized on this success by re-recording 'Blinded by the Light' (from the album Greetings...) and reached number one on the charts in 1976, which, indirectly, kept the author on top.
His status as a chronicler of the hopes and dreams of the proletariat began to take hold with Darkness on the Edge of Town (1978), with its characters immersed in an increasingly problematic America. With the double album The River (1980), which sold two million copies, Springsteen consolidated this universe, establishing the characteristic that permeated his subsequent discography, with cars and roads ('Cadillac Ranch', 'Ramrod', 'Drive All Night') serving as metaphors for life.
However, so far, none has been more surprising than Nebraska (1982), both for its introspection and the way it was produced. Springsteen used a four-track recorder to capture stories from Vietnam, of hard life and lost loves. Ten songs wrapped in harmonica and guitar. He didn't want to do shows, he wanted to continue composing, and during this time, Van Zandt left the band to pursue a solo career. Nils Lofgren took his place.
It is said that Springsteen wrote more than 70 songs before being satisfied with the material that propelled his career to stratospheric heights. In Born in the USA (1984), he defined 1980s America and his own image, explicitly expressing a cosmopolitan vision that values Human Rights, environmental causes, and laments inglorious wars. Even so, there were those who used the title track for political purposes, such as former President Ronald Reagan, who quoted the song's lyrics in his campaign speeches.
Born in the USA sold 15 million copies, a mark that no other Columbia artist has managed to achieve. The song 'Dancing in the Dark' earned him a Grammy for best male singer, and six other songs – more than half the album – reached the Top Ten between 1984-85. Even the cover became a reference. In April 2004, for example, the group PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) created an advertisement illustrated by an overweight man with his back turned, accompanied by the phrase – Obese in the USA – to show what junk food has done to America since the album's release. The organization considered Springsteen's history in humanitarian causes to create the parody, but they had to withdraw it because his managers thought the public might interpret it as mockery. Bruce didn't care.
"The public forms its viewpoints from many sources, and I try to be one of them," says Springsteen, "I try to speak in the simplest way possible about what affects me and what matters to me, to make people think about our identity: who we are, what we fight for, where we are going. These questions are a fundamental part of my work; it has always been that way."
Following the album's long tour, which also broke audience records, the record label was forced to release the Live 1975-85 box set to combat the proliferation of 'pirates' of Springsteen's shows. The box set topped the charts while he composed the introverted Tunnel of Love (1987), a prelude to a divorce and his last studio album with the E-Street Band. It was a turbulent period; his subsequent albums were not well-received, but he resurfaced with the soundtrack for Philadelphia (1993), Jonathan Demme's film about a lawyer infected with the AIDS virus.'Streets of Philadelphia' entered the Top Ten of 1994 and received four Grammy Awards, an Oscar, and ranked 68th on the seventh list compiled by the American Film Institute (AFI), which selected the 100 best soundtracks from 400 nominations. The song was so popular that it propelled the Greatest Hits (1995) to number 1 in sales, and Bruce closed the year with The Ghost of Tom Joad, a mostly acoustic album that sounds like a more melancholic continuation of Nebraska. After that, he spent a considerable amount of time without recording, but produced new material for his fans.
The anthology Tracks (1998) brought together 66 songs written between 1970 and the mid-90s, including b-sides and 56 unreleased tracks. Some are considered rare, such as the acoustic guitar version of 'Born in the USA' with a different melody and the cover of Chuck Berry's 'Johnny Bye Bye'. Others appeared on the compilation 18 Tracks, released the following year, shortly before his induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Then came the world tour that celebrated the reunion with the E-Street Band, with Lofgren and Van Zandt on guitars. The series of shows lasted more than a year, and upon their return they decided to go into the studio to record the group's first album in 18 years, and Springteen's first since 1995. This album painted a portrait of the people whose lives were disrupted by the events of September 11, 2001.Among the stories surrounding The Rising (2002), it is said that days after the attacks a taxi driver pulled alongside Springsteen's car and shouted "Bruce, we need you!". Another says that one of the firefighters buried under the rubble of the World Trade Center was a declared fan, and that Bruce called the grieving widow when he found out. From there, the concept album emerged, which Time magazine described as "the first significant pop work to respond to the events of that day. The songs are sad," the text says, "but the sadness is linked to optimism, promises of salvation and spiritual calls."
In the final shows of the tour, Springsteen played a recording of George W. Bush talking about the alleged weapons of mass destruction hidden in Iraq and questioned American objectives in the war, calling for Bush's defeat should he seek re-election. "It's time to remove the president from power and put in his place someone who knows what they're doing," he said, "because the question of whether we were wrongly led into the Iraq war isn't liberal, conservative, Republican or Democratic, it's American." In the opening chords of 'Born in the USA' he emphasized: "Demanding accountability from our leaders is our responsibility, our job as citizens."
Understanding that the presidential election was not merely an internal matter for his country, in 2004 Springsteen spearheaded the most openly political movement in music history, the so-called 'Vote for Change,' which brought together 20 bands in a campaign of 34 shows in 28 American cities to educate people about the importance of voting against the re-election of George W. Bush. But, despite the efforts, Senator John Kerry lost with 49% of the vote.
BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN - FUTPEDIAMUSIC SELECTION
Bruce Springsteen
Futpediamusic Selection
21 Songs To Download
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