Springsteen

Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen (born September 23, 1949) is an American singer and songwriter. He has released 21 studio albums, most of which feature his backing band, the E Street Band. Originally from the Jersey Shore, he is an originator of heartland rock, combining mainstream rock musical styles with narrative songs about working class American life. Nicknamed "the Boss", his career has spanned six decades. Springsteen is known for his poetic, socially conscious lyrics and energetic stage performances, sometimes lasting up to four hours.

In 1973, Springsteen released his first two albums, ''Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J.'' and ''The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle'', neither of which earned him a large audience. He changed his style and reached worldwide popularity with ''Born to Run'' in 1975. It was followed by ''Darkness on the Edge of Town'' (1978) and ''The River'' (1980), which topped the US ''Billboard'' 200 chart. After the solo recording, ''Nebraska'' (1982), he reunited with the E Street Band for ''Born in the U.S.A.'' (1984), his most commercially successful album and one of the best-selling albums of all time. Seven of its singles reached the Top Ten of the ''Billboard'' Hot 100, including the title track. Springsteen recorded his next three albums, '' Tunnel of Love'' (1987), ''Human Touch'' (1992), and ''Lucky Town'' (1992) using mostly session musicians. He reassembled the E Street Band for 1995's ''Greatest Hits'', then recorded the sparse acoustic ''The Ghost of Tom Joad'', followed by the EP '' Blood Brothers'' (1996), his last release of the decade.

Springsteen dedicated his 2002 album '' The Rising'' to the victims of the September 11 attacks. He released two more folk albums, ''Devils & Dust'' (2005) and '' We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions'' (2006), followed by two more albums with the E Street Band: ''Magic'' (2007) and ''Working on a Dream'' (2009). The next two, ''Wrecking Ball'' (2012) and '' High Hopes'' (2014), topped album charts worldwide. His latest releases include the solo ''Western Stars'' (2019), the E Street Band-featuring '' Letter to You'' (2020) and a solo cover album '' Only the Strong Survive'' (2022). When ''Letter to You'' went to No.2 in the US, Springsteen became the first artist to score a Top Five hit across six consecutive decades.

Among the album era's prominent acts, Springsteen has sold more than 140 million records worldwide and more than 71 million in the United States, making him one of the world's best-selling music artists. He has earned numerous awards for his work, including 20 Grammy Awards, two Golden Globes, an Academy Award, and a Special Tony Award (for ''Springsteen on Broadway''). Springsteen was inducted into both the Songwriters Hall of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1999, received the Kennedy Center Honors in 2009, named MusiCares person of the year in 2013, and awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama in 2016. He ranked 23rd on ''Rolling Stone''s list of the Greatest Artists of All Time, which described him as being "the embodiment of rock & roll".

Early life

Springsteen was born at Monmouth Medical Center in Long Branch, New Jersey, where he lived on South Street. His father, Douglas Frederick "Dutch" Springsteen (1924–1998), worked as a bus driver and held other jobs. Throughout his life Douglas Springsteen had mental health problems, which worsened in his later years. Springsteen's mother, Adele Ann (née Zerilli) (born 1925), was originally from the Bay Ridge neighborhood in Brooklyn, worked as a legal secretary, and was the main breadwinner in Springsteen's family. Springsteen has two younger sisters, Virginia and Pamela. The latter had a brief acting career, but left to pursue photography full time; she later took photos for his albums ''Human Touch'', ''Lucky Town'', and ''The Ghost of Tom Joad''.

Springsteen's Italian maternal grandfather was born in Vico Equense. He emigrated through Ellis Island and could not read or write when he arrived. He eventually became a lawyer and impressed the young Springsteen as being larger than life. The name Springsteen is topographic and of Dutch origin, literally translated as "jump stone" but more generally a stepping stone used on unpaved streets or between two houses. The Springsteens, originally from the province of Groningen, were among the early Dutch families who settled in the colony of New Netherland in the 1600s, in the person of Joost Springsteen.

Raised as a Catholic, Springsteen attended the St. Rose of Lima Catholic school in Freehold, where he was at odds with the nuns and rebelled against the strictures imposed upon him, even though some of his later music reflects a Catholic ethos and includes a few rock-influenced, traditional Irish-Catholic hymns. In a 2012 interview, he explained that it was his Catholic upbringing rather than political ideology that most influenced his music. He remarked that his faith had given him a "very active spiritual life" but joked that this "made it very difficult sexually". He added, "Once a Catholic, always a Catholic." He grew up hearing fellow New Jersey singer Frank Sinatra on the radio and became interested in being a musician himself when, in 1956 and 1957, at the age of seven, he saw Elvis Presley on ''The Ed Sullivan Show''. Soon after, his mother rented him a guitar from Mike Diehl's Music in Freehold for $6 a week, but it failed to provide him with the instant gratification he desired.

In ninth grade, Springsteen began attending the public Freehold High School, but did not fit in there either. A former teacher said he was a "loner who wanted nothing more than to play his guitar". He graduated in 1967, but felt so alienated that he skipped his graduation ceremony. He briefly attended Ocean County College, but dropped out. Called for the draft when he was 19, Springsteen failed the physical examination and avoided service in the Vietnam War. The concussion he suffered in a motorcycle accident when he was 17 and his behavior at induction reportedly made him unacceptable for service. The Springsteen family moved to San Mateo, California, in 1969, but Bruce, 20, and his sister, Virginia, who was married and pregnant, stayed behind.

Career

1964–1972: Early career

In 1964, Springsteen saw the Beatles' televised appearances on ''The Ed Sullivan Show''. Inspired, he bought his first guitar for $18.95 at the Western Auto Appliance Store. Thereafter, he started playing for audiences with a band called the Rogues at local venues, including Elks Lodge in Freehold.

In late 1964, Springsteen's mother took out a loan to buy him a $60 Kent guitar. Springsteen later memorialized this act in his song "The Wish". The following year, he went to the house of Tex and Marion Vinyard, who sponsored young bands in town. They helped him become the lead guitarist and subsequently one of the lead singers of the Castiles. The Castiles recorded two original songs at a public recording studio in Brick Township and played a variety of venues, including Cafe Wha? in Greenwich Village. Marion Vinyard said that she believed the young Springsteen when he promised he would make it big.

In the late 1960s, Springsteen performed briefly in a power trio known as Earth, playing in clubs in New Jersey, with one major show at the Hotel Diplomat in New York City.

From 1969 through early 1971, Springsteen performed with Steel Mill (originally called Child), which included Danny Federici, Vini Lopez, Vinnie Roslin, and later Steve Van Zandt and Robbin Thompson. During this time, they performed regularly at venues on the Jersey Shore, especially The Stone Pony, Nashville, Tennessee, and California, quickly gathering a cult following. A ''San Francisco Examiner'' review of their show at The Matrix by music critic Philip Elwood gave Springsteen early credibility. In his glowing assessment of Steel Mill, Elwood wrote: "I have never been so overwhelmed by a totally unknown talent," ..."the first big thing that's happened to Asbury Park since the good ship Morro Castle burned to the waterline of that Jersey beach in '34". Elwood went on to praise their "cohesive musicality" and, in particular, singled out Springsteen as "a most impressive composer". In San Mateo, Steel Mill recorded three original Springsteen songs at ''Pacific Recording''.

Over the next two years, as Springsteen sought to shape a unique and genuine musical and lyrical style, he performed with Dr. Zoom & the Sonic Boom (early- to mid-1971), the ''Sundance Blues Band'' (mid-1971), and the ''Bruce Springsteen Band'' (mid-1971 to mid-1972).

Springsteen's prolific songwriting ability included "more words in some individual songs than other artists had in whole albums", as his future record label would describe it in early publicity campaigns. He brought his skills to the attention of several people who went on to prove influential to his career development, including new managers Mike Appel and Jim Cretecos, who in turn brought him to the attention of Columbia Records talent scout John Hammond. Hammond auditioned Springsteen in May 1972.

In October 1972, Springsteen formed a new band for the recording of his debut album, ''Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J.'' The band eventually became known as the E Street Band, although the name was not used until September 1974. Springsteen acquired the nickname "the Boss" during this period, since he took on the task of collecting his band's nightly pay and distributing it amongst his bandmates. The nickname also reportedly sprang from games of Monopoly that Springsteen would play with other Jersey Shore musicians.

1972–1974: Initial struggle for success

Springsteen was signed to Columbia Records in 1972 by Clive Davis after having piqued the interest of John Hammond, who had signed Bob Dylan to the same label a decade earlier. Despite the expectations of Columbia Records' executives that Springsteen would record an acoustic album, he brought many of his New Jersey-based colleagues into the studio with him, and formed the E Street Band (although the band would not be formally named for several months). His debut album ''Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J.'', released in January 1973, established him as a critical favorite, though sales were slow.

Because of Springsteen's lyrical poeticism and folk rock-rooted music exemplified on tracks like "Blinded by the Light""Blinded by the Light" would later be a hit for Manfred Mann's Earth Band and reach No. 1, the only time Springsteen had a No. 1 single as a songwriter. and "For You", as well as the Columbia and Hammond connections, critics initially compared Springsteen to Dylan. "He sings with a freshness and urgency I haven't heard since I was rocked by 'Like a Rolling Stone'" wrote '' Crawdaddy'' magazine editor Peter Knobler