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Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen was born at Monmouth Medical Center in Long Branch, New Jersey, on September 23, 1949.^[2] He is of Dutch and Irish descent through his father, and Italian through his mother. He spent his childhood in Freehold, New Jersey, where he lived on South Street and attended Freehold Borough High School. His father, Douglas Frederick "Dutch" Springsteen (1924–1998),^[3] worked as a bus driver among other things; he suffered from mental health issues through his life which worsened in his later years.^[4] Springsteen's mother, Adele Ann (née Zerilli), was a legal secretary whom Springsteen has said was the main breadwinner in the family.^[5] He has two younger sisters named 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.^[6] 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.^[7] Springsteen's last name is topographic and of Dutch origin, literally translating to "jumping stone" but more generally meaning a kind of stone used as a stepping stone in unpaved streets or between two houses.^[8] The Springsteens were among the early Dutch families who settled in the colony of New Netherland in the 1600s.^{[9][better source needed]}

Raised a Catholic, Springsteen attended the St. Rose of Lima Catholic school in Freehold, where he was at odds with the nuns and rejected 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.^[10] In a 2012 interview, he explained that it was his Catholic upbringing rather than political ideology that most influenced his music. He noted in the interview 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."^[4][11] 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.^[12]

In ninth grade, Springsteen began attending the public Freehold High School, but did not fit in there either. Former teachers have said he was a "loner who wanted nothing more than to play his guitar". He graduated in 1967, but felt like such an outsider that he skipped the ceremony.^[13] He briefly attended Ocean County College, but dropped out.^[10] Called for conscription in the U.S. Army when he was 19, Springsteen failed the physical examination and did not serve in the Vietnam War. He had suffered a concussion in a motorcycle accident when he was 17, and this, together with his "crazy" behavior at induction, made him unacceptable for service.^[14]

Career

1964–1972: Early years

In 1964, Springsteen saw the Beatles' appearances on the Ed Sullivan Show. Inspired, he bought his first guitar for $18.95 at the Western Auto Appliance Store.^[16][15] Thereafter, he started playing for audiences with a band called the Rogues at local venues such as the Elks Lodge in Freehold.^[17]

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.^[18][19]

 

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.^[18] 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, he performed regularly at venues on the Jersey Shore, in Richmond, Virginia,^[20] Nashville, Tennessee, and a set of gigs in California,^[18] quickly gathering a cult following. San Francisco Examiner music critic Philip Elwood gave Springsteen credibility in his glowing assessment of Steel Mill: "I have never been so overwhelmed by a totally unknown talent." Elwood went on to praise their "cohesive musicality" and, in particular, singled out Springsteen as "a most impressive composer".^{[citation needed]} 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).^[21]

Springsteen's prolific songwriting ability (with "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) brought his skills to the attention of several people who were about to change his life: 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.^[22]

In October 1972, he 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.^[23][24] Springsteen acquired the nickname "The Boss" during this period, as he took on the task of collecting his band's nightly pay and distributing it amongst his bandmates.^[25] The nickname also reportedly sprang from games of Monopoly that Springsteen would play with other Jersey Shore musicians.^[26]

1972–1974: Initial struggle for success

Springsteen was signed to Columbia Records in 1972 by Clive Davis, after having initially 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, thus forming the E Street Band (although it 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,^[27] though sales were slow.

Because of Springsteen's lyrical poeticism and folk rock-rooted music exemplified on tracks like "Blinded by the Light"^{[note 1]} and "For You", as well as the Columbia and Hammond connections, critics initially compared Springsteen to Bob 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 in Springsteen's first interview/profile in March 1973. Photographs for that original profile were taken by Ed Gallucci.^[28][29] Crawdaddy discovered Springsteen in the rock press and was his earliest champion. Knobler profiled him in Crawdaddy three times, in 1973, 1975 and 1978.^[30] (Springsteen and the E Street Band acknowledged the magazine's support by giving a private performance at the Crawdaddy 10th Anniversary Party in New York City in June 1976.)^[31] Music critic Lester Bangs wrote in Creem in 1975 that when Springsteen's first album was released "... many of us dismissed it: he wrote like Bob Dylan and Van Morrison, sang like Van Morrison and Robbie Robertson, and led a band that sounded like Van Morrison's".^[32]

In September 1973, Springsteen's second album, The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle, was released, again to critical acclaim but no commercial success. Springsteen's songs became grander in form and scope, with the E Street Band providing a less folksy, more R&B vibe, and the lyrics often romanticized teenage street life. "4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)" and "Incident on 57th Street" would become fan favorites, and the long, rousing "Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)" continues to rank among Springsteen's most beloved concert numbers.^{[citation needed]}

In the May 22, 1974, issue of Boston's The Real Paper music critic Jon Landau wrote, after seeing a performance at the Harvard Square Theater, "I saw rock and roll future, and its name is Bruce Springsteen. And on a night when I needed to feel young, he made me feel like I was hearing music for the very first time."^[33] Landau helped to finish the epic new album Born to Run and subsequently became Springsteen's manager and producer. Given an enormous budget in a last-ditch effort at a commercially viable record, Springsteen became bogged down in the recording process while striving for a "Wall of Sound" production. But when his manager, Mike Appel, orchestrated the release of an early mix of "Born to Run" to nearly a dozen radio stations, anticipation built toward the album's release.^[34]

The album took more than 14 months to record, with six months spent on the song "Born to Run". During this time, Springsteen battled with anger and frustration over the album, saying he heard "sounds in [his] head" that he could not explain to the others in the studio. It was during a recording session of "Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out", on July 13, 1975, that Steve Van Zandt was asked by Springsteen and Jon Landau to take charge and instruct the horn players. They both knew he was playing guitar and managing Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes, who had the sound they were looking for. Van Zandt "sang each horn player his part, with the lines, the timing and the inflection all perfect. The musicians played their parts, and the horns were recorded. When they'd finished, Springsteen turned to Mike Appel. "Okay," he said. "It's time to put the boy on the payroll. I've been meaning to tell you — he’s the new guitar player."^[35] Van Zandt joined the E Street Band a week later on July 20, the opening night of the Born to Run tour. He also helped Springsteen perfect "Born to Run" by adding its memorable guitar line. In the 2005 documentary Wings for Wheels,^[36] Springsteen called his friend's input on the track "arguably Steve's greatest contribution to my music."^{[citation needed]}

The album was completed on July 25, but at the end of the grueling recording sessions Springsteen was not satisfied, and upon first hearing the finished album, threw it into the alley; another master was so bad that Bruce flung it out of his hotel room window and into a river. He was going to scrap half of it, he told Appel, and substitute live recordings from upcoming dates at The Bottom Line in New York (a place he often played).^[37]

1975–1983: Breakthrough

On August 13, 1975, Springsteen and the E Street Band began a five-night, 10-show stand at New York's The Bottom Line club. This attracted major media attention and was broadcast live on WNEW-FM. Decades later, Rolling Stone magazine would name the stand as one of the 50 Moments That Changed Rock and Roll.^[38]

Born to Run was released on August 25, 1975. It proved to be a breakthrough album^[39][40][41] that catapulted Springsteen to worldwide fame.^[42] The album peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard 200, and while reception at US top 40 radio outlets for the album's two singles was not overwhelming ("Born to Run" reached a modest No. 23 on the Billboard charts, and "Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out" peaked at No. 83), almost every track on the album received album-oriented rock airplay, especially "Born to Run", "Thunder Road", "Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out," and "Jungleland", all of which remain perennial favorites on many classic rock stations.^{[citation needed]} In October 1975, Springsteen appeared on the covers of both Newsweek and Time in the same week.^[43][44] So great did the wave of publicity become that he eventually rebelled against it during his first venture overseas, tearing down promotional posters before a concert appearance in London.^[45]

 

A legal battle with former manager Mike Appel kept Springsteen out of the studio for nearly a year, during which time he kept the E Street Band together through extensive touring across the U.S. Despite the optimistic fervor with which he often performed, Springsteen's new songs sounded more somber than much of his previous work. Reaching settlement with Appel in 1977, Springsteen returned to the studio, and the subsequent sessions produced Darkness on the Edge of Town (1978). Musically, this album was a turning point in Springsteen's career. Gone were the raw, rapid-fire lyrics, outsized characters, and long, multi-part musical compositions of the first three albums; the songs were leaner and more carefully drawn and began to reflect Springsteen's growing intellectual and political awareness. The cross-country 1978 tour to promote the album would become legendary for the intensity and length of its shows.^[46]

By the late 1970s, Springsteen had earned a reputation in the pop world as a songwriter whose material could provide hits for other bands. Manfred Mann's Earth Band had achieved a US No. 1 pop hit with a heavily rearranged version of Greetings' "Blinded by the Light" in early 1977. Patti Smith reached No. 13 with her take on Springsteen's unreleased "Because the Night" (with revised lyrics by Smith) in 1978, while The Pointer Sisters hit No. 2 in 1979 with Springsteen's also unreleased "Fire". Between 1976-1978, Springsteen provided four compositions to Southside Johnny & the Asbury Jukes, including "The Fever" and "Hearts of Stone", and collaborated on four more with Steven Van Zandt, producer of their first three albums.^[47]

In September 1979, Springsteen and the E Street Band joined the Musicians United for Safe Energy anti-nuclear power collective at Madison Square Garden for two nights, playing an abbreviated set while premiering two songs from his upcoming album. The subsequent No Nukes live album, as well as the following summer's No Nukes documentary film, represented the first official recordings and footage of Springsteen's fabled live act, as well as Springsteen's first tentative dip into political involvement.^{[citation needed]}

Springsteen continued to focus on working-class life with the 20-song double album The River in 1980, which included an intentionally paradoxical range of material from good-time party rockers to emotionally intense ballads, and finally yielded his first hit Top Ten single as a performer, "Hungry Heart".^[48] The album sold well, becoming his first No. 1 on the Billboard Pop Albums chart.^{[citation needed]}

The River was followed in 1982 by the stark solo acoustic Nebraska. According to the Marsh biographies, Springsteen was depressed when he wrote this material, and the result is a brutal depiction of American life. While Nebraska did not sell as well as Springsteen's three previous albums, it garnered widespread critical praise (including being named "Album of the Year" by Rolling Stone magazine's critics) and influenced later works by other major artists, including U2's album The Joshua Tree.^{[citation needed]}

1984–1991: Commercial and popular phenomenon

Springsteen is probably best known for his album Born in the U.S.A. (1984), which sold 15 million copies in the U.S., 30 million worldwide, and became one of the best-selling albums of all time with seven singles hitting the Top 10. The title track was a bitter commentary on the treatment of Vietnam veterans, some of whom were Springsteen's friends. The lyrics in the verses were entirely unambiguous when listened to, but the anthemic music and the title of the song made it hard for many, from politicians to the common person, to get the lyrics—except those in the chorus, which could be read many ways.^[49] The song made a huge political impact, as he was advocating for the rights of the common working-class man.^[50]

The song was widely misinterpreted as jingoistic, and in connection with the 1984 presidential campaign became the subject of considerable folklore. In 1984, conservative columnist George Will attended a Springsteen concert and then wrote a column praising Springsteen's work ethic. Six days after the column was printed, in a campaign rally in Hammonton, New Jersey, Reagan said, "America's future rests in a thousand dreams inside your hearts. It rests in the message of hope in the songs of a man so many young Americans admire—New Jersey's own, Bruce Springsteen." Two nights later, at a concert in Pittsburgh, Springsteen told the crowd, "Well, the president was mentioning my name in his speech the other day and I kind of got to wondering what his favorite album of mine must've been, you know? I don't think it was the Nebraska album. I don't think he's been listening to this one." He then began playing "Johnny 99", with its allusions to closing factories and criminals.^[51]

"Dancing in the Dark" was the biggest of seven hit singles from Born in the U.S.A., peaking at No. 2 on the Billboard music charts. The video for the song showed a young Courteney Cox dancing on stage with Springsteen, which helped start the actress's career. The song "Cover Me" was written by Springsteen for Donna Summer, but his record company persuaded him to keep it for the new album. A big fan of Summer's work, Springsteen wrote another song for her, "Protection". Videos for the album were directed by Brian De Palma and John Sayles. Springsteen played on the "We Are the World" song and album in 1985. His live single "Trapped" from that album received moderate airplay on US Top 40 stations as well as reaching No. 1 on the Billboard Top Rock Tracks chart.^[52]

 

The Born in the U.S.A. period represented the height of Springsteen's visibility in popular culture and the broadest audience he would ever reach (aided by the release of Arthur Baker's dance mixes of three of the singles). From June 15 to August 10, 1985, all seven of his albums appeared on the UK Albums Chart: the first time an artist had charted their entire back catalogue simultaneously.^[53]

Live/1975–85, a five-record box set (also on three cassettes or three CDs), was released near the end of 1986 and became the first box set to debut at No. 1 on the U.S. album charts. It is one of the most commercially successful live albums of all time, ultimately selling 13 million units in the U.S. During the 1980s, several Springsteen fanzines were launched, including Backstreets magazine.^{[citation needed]}

Springsteen released the much more sedate and contemplative Tunnel of Love album in 1987. The album is a mature reflection on the many faces of love found, lost and squandered, which only selectively used the E Street Band.^{[citation needed]}

 

On July 19, 1988, Springsteen held a concert in East Germany that attracted 300,000 s