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Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Springsteen
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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 New Jersey, Springsteen turned to rock & roll as a teenager and played in a series of bands from the mid-'60s on, varying in style from garage rock to power trio blues-rock. By the early '70s, he was trying his hand at being a folky singer/songwriter in Greenwich Village. But when he was signed to Columbia Records in 1972, he brought into the studio many of the New Jersey-based musicians with whom he'd played over the years.

The result was Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. (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 & 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 "Miami" Steve Van Zandt, organist Danny Federici, pianist Roy Bittan, bassist Garry Tallent, and drummer Max Weinberg. With this unit he barnstormed the country while working on his third and last chance with Columbia. By the time Born to Run (August 1975) was released, the critics and a significant cult audience were with him, and the title song became a Top 40 hit while the album reached the Top Ten.

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 on 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 Nebraska (September 1982), a virtual demo tape on vinyl. (Springsteen did not tour to promote the album, and in the interim E Street Band guitarist Van Zandt amicably left the group for a solo career, to be replaced by Nils Lofgren.)

But then came Born in the U.S.A. (June 1984) and a two-year international tour. The album threw off seven hit singles and sold over ten million copies, putting Springsteen in the pop heavens with Michael Jackson and Prince. After touring for more than a year, he released a five-LP/three-CD concert album, Live/1975-85 (November 1986), which topped the charts.

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 Lucky Town, and though the albums premiered near the top of the charts, they were less successful with fans than previous efforts. In the fall, Springsteen taped an MTV Unplugged segment (though he plugged in after one song), and the performance was released as an album in Europe in 1993.

Springsteen continued to tour until July 1993. In the fall, he wrote and recorded "Streets of Philadelphia" for the soundtrack to the film Philadelphia, which concerned a lawyer dying of AIDS. The song became a Top Ten hit in 1994, winning the Academy Award for Best Song and cleaning up at the Grammys the following year. At the same time, Springsteen had readied his Greatest Hits album (February 1995), reassembling the E Street Band to record a few new tracks. The album was an immediate best-seller. Springsteen followed it with The Ghost of Tom Joad (November 1995), another low-key, downcast, near-acoustic effort and embarked upon a brief solo tour. In 1999, shortly after his induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, Springsteen reunited with the E Street Band (including both Lofgren and Van Zandt on guitars) and embarked on a world tour that lasted until mid-2000, its final dates resulting in the album Live in New York City.

Bruce Springsteen then set to work on The Rising, his first full-length studio album to feature the group as a whole since Born in the U.S.A.. Released in July 2002, it was also Springsteen's first album of new studio recordings since The Ghost of Tom Joad. Another successful tour followed, as did the release of Devils & Dust in 2005. One year later, the songwriter released the first covers album of his career, a tribute to the songs of Pete Seeger titled We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions. Live in Dublin, featuring concert material from the tour supporting Springsteen's Seeger project, was released on both CD and DVD in 2007. Springsteen then returned to his work with the E Street Band and released Magic in the fall of 2007, followed by another round of touring. Several months later, however, longtime E Street organist Danny Federici succumbed to a three-year battle with melanoma.

Springsteen finished the tour in 2008 and held several additional shows in support of Senator Barack Obama, whose presidential campaign had kicked into hyperdrive earlier that year. While playing an Obama rally in early November, Springsteen debuted material from his forthcoming album, Working on a Dream, whose tracks had been recorded with the E Street Band during breaks in the group's previous tour. The resulting album, which was the last to feature contributions from Federici (as well as his son, Jason), arrived on January 27, 2009, one week after Barack Obama's historic inauguration. ~ William Ruhlmann, All Music GuideMore

Official Profile

Bruce Springsteen
When Bruce Springsteen finally broke through to national recognition in the fall of 1975 after a dec...
Songs: 12, Videos: 2, Playlists: 2, Blog Posts: 7, Polls: 0, Battles: 0

Most Popular Music Videos (15)

Secret Garden
(Duration: 4:28)
Jun 20th, 12:15am
Dancing In The Dark
(Duration: 3:58)
Jun 20th, 12:45am
Streets Of Philadelphia
(Duration: 2:57)
Jun 19th, 11:56pm
Human Touch
(Duration: 6:30)
Jun 20th, 12:00am
Born To Run
(Duration: 5:35)
Jun 20th, 12:18am
Born In The U.S.A.
(Duration: 4:43)
Jun 23rd, 7:38pm
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Fan Comments

Nov 5th, 4:02am Last edited Nov 5th, 4:02am.
Bruce goes deep with his album themed shows. Is there another artist dead or alive that has a trifecta as powerful as BTR, Darkness and The River? For an amazing insight into Darkness on The Edge of Town, check out http://thelightinDarkness.com
Nov 2nd, 3:30am
New Springsteen book, The Light in Darkness has just launched this November 2009 to celebrate Bruce Springsteen’s 4th album Darkness on The Edge of Town, and tour This stunning new volume will not be available in stores and is printed in a limited collectors edition. The initial reaction we have received by fans and critics has been extremely positive. If you like what you find, please drop by your favorite blogs, message boards and or Face Book page and share your experience with others. http://www.thelightinDarkness.com
Jul 15th, 7:43am
I love him!
Jul 4th, 3:52pm
Thanks for the wonderful music
Jul 1st, 3:35am
your music is awesome keep up the good work.
May 2nd, 2:47pm Last edited May 2nd, 2:48pm.
A new collector's edition book focusing on Bruce Springsteen’s Darkness on the Edge of Town and the subsequent 1978 tour, it will look at the album from a fan’s perspective, featuring never-seen-before images of The Boss in his prime.
This finely produced volume will cover the 1978 tour and album release of Darkness on The Edge of Town. It will feature incredible, never-seen-before photos from at least 25 photographers printed from the original historic negatives. Many of these photos come from the personal collections of both fans and professional photographers alike. Fans of fine photography will definitely want to
own this book.

In addition to these extraordinary images, the volume will feature writings from music critics, journalists and fans, providing insight into one of Springsteen’s most masterful albums.

The Light in Darkness will also tell the recollections of iconic 1978 shows such as the Agora in Cleveland, Springsteen’s first headlining stint at Madison Square Garden
and radio broadcasts from the Winterland and Capitol Theaters, all through the eyes and ears of fans who witnessed these monumental concerts.

Bruce Springsteen's Darkness on the Edge of Town broke new ground for The Boss in 1978. A counterpoint to the operatic elegance of Born to Run, the album was an angry, raw record that burst forth after a three-year hiatus. The Light in Darkness is a forthcoming book that celebrates this classic Springsteen work.
Thirty years after its release, Darkness on the Edge of Town continues to connect with fans in countless ways and these stories can only be told by each of us. The Light in Darkness is a unique opportunity to share what this album and tour has meant to you.

Bruce was away from the recording scene for almost three years, which was an eternity for an artist back then, especially for Bruce who was eager to build on his newfound fame and recognition with the release of Born to Run.
Darkness was a big shift from the high-polished sounds of Born to Run, it was a sound that may have shocked many fans. As Bruce recently told the Los Angeles Times, "When 'Darkness' came out -- and people don't remember this now -- it was not tremendously received initially by plenty of fans," Springsteen said as he sat in his dressing room before the first Asbury Park show. "It was a record that people really needed to hear live. We went out and played and played and played. And that music through the years -- it's become some of our most durable music. It seems to have tentacles that reach out to our darkest things and our most inspirational things. It seems to sit center; it's almost like a little compass that guides you into the center of the band. It has an element of political implications to it, and at the same time it was gospel music in its intent. The verses were blues, and the choruses were gospel. It can sit near [the 1982 acoustic album] 'Nebraska,' and it can sit near [2007’s] 'Magic'. It spreads its arms between those places." Thirty years later, this album continues to connect with fans in countless ways and these stories can only be told by each of us. This is a unique opportunity to share what this album and tour has meant to you.
Whether you heard it first in 1978, or more recently discovered Darkness, we want your stories about how the album and live shows affected you.
We are also looking for original 1978 photography and memorabilia to publish in the volume. If you have original negatives or slides of Bruce in concert from the 1978 tour please contact us.
This book, produced with the highest care and passion, will reflect the devotion of Springsteen’s legendary fans.

If you would like to submit a story, please visit the website at http://www.thelightindarkness.com/story or send an email to info@thelightindarkness.com

Quotes

Born To Run cast Bruce into the rock and roll spotlight. But Darkness On The Edge Of Town found him retreating into the shadows to face his demons. This is probably the most soul searching and gut wrenching of all the Springsteen albums.
Chris Luallen, Tennessee
***

Bruce Springsteen endured nearly three years of court battles and personal betrayal after his 1975 breakthrough Born To Run. This two-and-a-half-year stall in his newfound streak of acclaim added to the many frustrations in his creative career. All of that angst and bitterness that came from three years of this inspired the genuine pain and scorn of Springsteen's 1978 masterpiece Darkness on the Edge of Town.

Bud Sturgess, Texas

***

Never one to shy away from putting himself on the line for his music, Springsteen creates a true masterpiece with Darkness on the Edge of Town. Frustration, longing, and all the dark places that can be found in the soul is on display here; he doesn't hide from it or cover it with a wry smile. But he also doesn't allow anyone to give up; you fight it or you accept it, but you don't quit. The band does their part, creating a sound that reflects the emotional content of the lyrics perfectly. It's not his easiest album to listen to, but it is easily one of his best.

J. Carroll, NJ
Apr 21st, 5:44pm
Love dat music! May McCorkill
Apr 9th, 12:17am Last edited Apr 9th, 9:59pm.
Hi Mr. Springsteen, my dad, Gunnery Sergent James Pruitt, is a Marine and he is currently in Iraq right now. MY sister, My mom, and i are going to see you in concert on May 2nd
in greensboro, NC. It would be really amazing if you could dedcate Born To Run to my Dad. Thank you so much, I cannot wait till the 2nd!
Mar 24th, 1:25am
hello bruce...thanx man .. indoorsun
Mar 20th, 2:58am
I've been a fan of Bruce Springsteen ever since the day in 1976 when I heard 'Born to Run.' I'm glad to hear Bruce is still running. I'm not sure what I like beter; the music or the poetic lyrics.