Springsteen

Bruce Springsteen once said he intended to make an album with words like Bob Dylan that sounded like Phil Spector with vocals like Roy Orbison's, a nifty summary of many, but not all, of his artistic ambitions and a key to his appeal. Unlike any other singer/songwriters saddled with the appellation of "the new Dylan" in the early '70s, Springsteen never hid how he was raised on '60s AM radio. He loved rock & roll, whether it was the initial blast from the '50s or the mini-symphonies from the days before the Beatles or the garage rockers that surfaced in the wake of the British Invasion, and all this could be heard within his wild, wooly collective E Street Band, a group who debuted on his second album, 1973's The Wild, The Innocent & The E Street Shuffle, and who would support him throughout most of his career.

Recorded At The Hit Factory & The Power Station, New York City, New York USA 1982 April 1984.

Bruce Springsteen Among rock music's most iconic figures, Bruce Springsteen often feels like the one who loves and believes in rock & roll the most, eager to re-create the breathless emotions it brings out in him. Embracing the pleasures of the sounds of AM radio in the 1950s and '60s (garage rock, British Invasion, R&B, blue-eyed soul, emotional teen pop) with the literacy of the singer/songwriter movement and a fierce desire to document the lives of the blue-collar world in which he grew up, Springsteen's music was always a grand, ambitious amalgam. (He once said he dreamed of making an album with words like Bob Dylan, sounding like Phil Spector, and with vocals like Roy Orbison.) His sound found full flower on 1973's eclectic The Wild, The Innocent & The E Street Shuffle (which introduced his most important backing group, the E Street Band), and he rose to stardom with 1975's streetwise, sweeping Born to Run. 1978's Darkness on the Edge of Town and 1980's The River marked a thematic shift, as his songs addressed the malaise of the working class, whose dreams had begun slipping out of reach.

Bruce Springsteen once said he intended to make an album with words like Bob Dylan that sounded like Phil Spector where he sang like Roy Orbison, a nifty summary of many, but not all, of his artistic ambitions and a key to his appeal. Unlike any other singer/songwriters saddled with the appellation of "the new Dylan" in the early '70s, Springsteen never hid how he was raised on '60s AM radio.

Bruce Springsteen - Lead vocal, electric and acoustic guitars, harmonica; Roy Bittan - Piano, keyboards, accordion; Clarence Clemons - Tenor and baritone saxophones, percussion, backing vocal; Danny Federici - Organ, keyboards, accordion; Nils Lofgren - Electric and acoustic guitars, backing vocal; Garry Tallent - Bass; Stevie Van Zandt - Electric and acoustic guitars, mandolin, backing vocal; Max Weinberg: Drums; Charlie Giordano - Organ, keyboards, accordion; Soozie Tyrell - Violin, acoustic guitar, percussion, backing vocal

In 1973 the band Chicago played a string of dates culminating in two nights at New York’s Madison Square Garden on 14 and 15 June. The support act was Bruce Springsteen, and the tour was, to say the least, not a happy experience for him, as Christopher Sandford relates in Springsteen: Point Blank: “Things soured in Philadelphia…’Kids were throwing rolls of toilet paper,’ says [manager, Mike] Appel. A fan bounced a basket ball off Springsteen’s piano. ‘They’re not paying attention to me,’ was his wild understatement to his manager. Something similar, or worse, happened at Madison Square Garden…Springsteen ran off stage in New York, announced he was quitting, ‘shrieked like a beast’ at Appel and burst into tears. After the recriminations had died down, he vowed he’d never play another ‘shed’ and ‘never as someone’s butt-fuck.’ ‘I told Bruce, okay, no more big venues,’ says Appel.”

Bruce Springsteen - Lead vocal, electric and acoustic guitars, harmonica; Roy Bittan - Piano, keyboards, accordion; Clarence Clemons - Tenor and baritone saxophones, percussion, backing vocal; Nils Lofgren - Electric and acoustic guitars, backing vocal; Patti Scialfa - Backing vocal; acoustic guitar, percussion; Garry Tallent - Bass; Stevie Van Zandt - Electric and acoustic guitars, mandolin, backing vocal; Max Weinberg: Drums; Charlie Giordano - Organ, keyboards, accordion; Soozie Tyrell - Violin, acoustic guitar, percussion, backing vocal; Curtis King - Backing vocal; Cindy Mizelle - Backing vocal.

Bruce Springsteen once said he intended to make an album with words like Bob Dylan that sounded like Phil Spector with vocals like Roy Orbison's, a nifty summary of many, but not all, of his artistic ambitions and a key to his appeal. Unlike any other singer/songwriters saddled with the appellation of "the new Dylan" in the early '70s, Springsteen never hid how he was raised on '60s AM radio. He loved rock & roll, whether it was the initial blast from the '50s or the mini-symphonies from the days before the Beatles or the garage rockers that surfaced in the wake of the British Invasion, and all this could be heard within his wild, wooly collective E Street Band, a group who debuted on his second album, 1973's The Wild, The Innocent & The E Street Shuffle, and who would support him throughout most of his career.

Bruce Springsteen - Lead vocals, guitar, harmonica; Roy Bittan - Piano, keyboards; Clarence Clemons - Tenor and baritone saxophones, percussion, backing vocal; Danny Federici - Organ, keyboards; Nils Lofgren - Guitar, pedal steel, backing vocal; Patti Scialfa - Guitar, percussion, backing vocal; Garry Tallent - Bass; Stevie Van Zandt - Electric and acoustic guitars, mandolin, backing vocal; Max Weinberg - Drums