Bruce Springsteen biography
When Bruce Springsteen finally broke through to national recognition in
the fall of 1975 after a decade of trying, critics hailed him as the savior of
rock & roll, the single artist who brought together all the exuberance of
'50s rock and the thoughtfulness of '60s rock, molded into a '70s style. He
rocked as hard as Jerry Lee Lewis, his lyrics were as complicated as Bob
Dylan's, and his concerts were near-religious celebrations of all that was best
in music. One critic became so enamored that he quit reviewing to become
Springsteen's manager.
But the hosannas, when piped through the publicity machine of a major
record company, were perceived as hype by a significant part of the public as
well as the mainstream media -- Springsteen landed on the covers of Time and
Newsweek, but both magazines were covering the phenomenon, not the music. Springsteen's
album, Born to Run, became a hit, and he jumped to arena status as a live act,
but as many people were turned off by the press campaign as turned on by the
records and shows.
Two decades later, however, Springsteen remained an established star who
could look back on a career that had produced one of the best-selling albums of
all time, sold-out stadium shows, Grammy Awards and an Oscar,
and a group of imitators who constituted their own subgenre of popular music. If
he no longer seemed divine, he remained popular enough for his Greatest Hits
album to enter the charts at number one, and he had won over many of those
skeptics from 1975.
Growing up in southern
The result was Greetings From Asbury Park, NJ (January 1973), which went
unnoticed upon initial release, though Manfred Mann's Earth Band would turn its
leadoff track, "Blinded by the Light," into a number one hit four
years later. The Wild, the Innocent, and the E Street Shuffle (September 1973)
also failed to sell, despite some rave reviews. (Both albums have since gone
platinum.)
The following year, Springsteen revised his backup group -- dubbed the E
Street Band -- settling on a lineup that included saxophone player Clarence
Clemons, second guitarist "
What Springsteen needed to do in the wake of the hype, of course, was to
play and record more to consolidate his position. He was prevented at least
from the latter by a former manager, who kept him in court during the next
couple of years. Meanwhile, the musical world changed. Part of the reason
critics had welcomed Springsteen so enthusiastically in 1975 was that he seemed
a return to basic rock & roll values in a world of soft rock, heavy metal,
and art rock.
By the time Springsteen returned with his fourth album, Darkness at the
Edge of Town (June 1978), however, the punk/new wave movement had outflanked
him, pushing him from the vanguard to the mainstream. Similar sounding
heartland rockers such as Bob Seger had appeared, so that Springsteen sounded
less like an innovator than a member of an established genre.
Nevertheless, he set about winning fans with an album that found the
lost children of his early albums stuck in factory jobs, still longing for some
escape. The album was a hit, though it did not match the success of Born to Run.
Springsteen returned with the double album The River (October 1980), which
topped the charts and featured his first Top Ten hit, "Hungry Heart."
Nobody was calling him a hype anymore, but Springsteen retreated from
his expanding success, next recording the low-key album
But then came Born in the
Characteristically, Springsteen returned with a more introverted effort,
Tunnel of Love (October 1987), which presaged his divorce from his first wife. (He
married a second time to singer Patti Scialfa, who had joined the E Street
Band.)
After another marathon tour, Springsteen gave the E Street Band notice
in November 1989, breaking up a celebrated unit who had stayed together 15
years. In March 1992, he simultaneously released Human Touch and
Springsteen continued to tour until July 1993. In the fall, he wrote and
recorded "Streets of Philadelphia" for the soundtrack to the film