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Bruce Springsteen

Bruce Springsteen

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Bruce Springsteen

Report and Interview by Jerry Gilbert, Sounds, 16 March 1974

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN was confined to the boardwalk life on New Jersey. He lived over a drug store "in all the craziness of downtown", prayed for ...

Bruce Springsteen: Talking To The Boss

Interview by Adam Sweeting, Vox, September 1992

FOLKLORE TELLS us there was a time, about 25 years ago, when meeting the stars was a simple matter. You just had to hang out ...

Audio interviews

Bruce Springsteen on 'Born To Run' (2016)

Interview by David Kamp, Rock's Backpages audio, June 2016

The Boss digs deep into the mighty 'Born To Run'; talks about his use of rock's clichéd imagery and how he added to it; about the way the song's emotional directness connects with audiences and how personal the song is for him; how the song has grown over time; how he and the E Street Band are both pre- and post-hippie worlds; how he needed to write American music; how lyrics to be singable and musical... and how long it took to write the song.

File format: mp3; file size: 22.6mb, interview length: 23' 31" sound quality: *****

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Bruce Springsteen, Biff Rose: Max's Kansas City, New York NY

Live Review by Dan Nooger, The Village Voice, 8 February 1973

EVERYBODY GRUMBLES about Max's for some reason, but most of us keep climbing through the dark to the top of the stairs once or twice ...

Bruce Springsteen: Community Theater, Berkeley CA

Live Review by Philip Elwood, The San Francisco Examiner, 3 March 1973

Electric Guitarist a Blast ...

Bruce Springsteen: Greetings from Asbury Park, NJ (CBS 65480, £2)

Review by Richard Williams, The Times, 14 April 1973

Springsteen is special ...

Bruce Springsteen: Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J. (Columbia)

Review by Dave Marsh, Creem, May 1973

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN has enough gall to actually commit suicide on stage of his own volition. Unlike Alice Cooper and David Bowie, who only yak about ...

Springsteen's Bar Blues Are Over

Interview by Jerry Gilbert, Sounds, 9 June 1973

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN is the new Bob Dylan. No, really? He's spent his life down, and comparatively out, in Asbury Park, New Jersey, cooking up some ...

Bruce Springsteen, Bob Marley & The Wailers: Max's Kansas City, New York NY

Live Review by Michael Watts, Melody Maker, 11 August 1973

Wailers fail to catch afire ...

Was Bob Dylan the Previous Bruce Springsteen?

Interview by Steve Turner, New Musical Express, 6 October 1973

"RANDY NEWMAN is great but he’s not touched. Joni Mitchell is great but she’s not touched. Bruce is touched... he’s a genius!" Manager Mike Appel ...

Bruce Springsteen: The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle (Columbia)

Review by Bruce Pollock, The New York Times, 16 December 1973

Springsteen Celebrates Street Life ...

Bruce Springsteen: The Wild, The Innocent and The E Street Shuffle (Columbia Import)

Review by Nick Kent, New Musical Express, 2 February 1974

Howls of derisive laughter, Bruce ...

Bruce Springsteen: Springsteen Turns On The Heat…

Profile by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 9 February 1974

HE STANDS there looking like a cross between Elvis Presley and a reject from Sha Na Na with faint Dylanesque overtones and a battered Fender ...

Bruce Springsteen: It's Hard to be a Saint in the City

Profile and Interview by Jerry Gilbert, ZigZag, August 1974

ALL DRESSED UP AND NO PLACE TO GO ...

Bruce Springsteen & the E. Street Band: The Troubadour, Los Angeles, CA

Live Review by Harold Bronson, Cash Box, 10 August 1974

CECILIO AND Kapono, a hirsute Hawaiian duo sharing acoustic and electric guitars, opened the show. Seemingly attempting to be another Seals and Crofts, their pleasant ...

Bruce Springsteen: Avery Fisher Hall, New York NY

Live Review by Michael Watts, Melody Maker, 12 October 1974

Hail to the new genius! ...

Bruce Springsteen: Lone Star

Report and Interview by Michael Watts, Melody Maker, 30 November 1974

He laughed when critics called him "the new Dylan". But he stuck to his guns and he's now playing to ecstatic audiences. MICHAEL WATTS in ...

Bruce Springsteen: Shouldn't He Be Famous?

Comment by Dave Marsh, Let It Rock, December 1974

IT WAS DIFFICULT to tell just when the stage caved in. It seemed to happen during 'Rosalita', the last song before the encore. But maybe ...

Bruce Springsteen: Born to Run (Columbia PC 33795)

Review by Mike Jahn, High Fidelity, 1975

TO LISTEN to a Bruce Springsteen record is like walking down Forty Second Street on a hot July afternoon. It's unusual, it's colorful, it's a ...

Bruce Springsteen - The brilliant, the awful and the bumfluff shuffle

Comment by Charles Shaar Murray, New Musical Express, 1 February 1975

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN IS an excellent rhythm guitarist, which just about compensates for the fact that he grows a terrible beard. ...

Bruce Springsteen: Westbury Music Fair, Jericho NY

Live Review by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 8 March 1975

NEW YORK: Bruce Springsteen, an artist whose talent has inspired respected critics to fawn like teenage groupies, took over the revolving stage of the Westbury ...

Bruce Springsteen: Born To Run (CBS Import)

Review by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 6 September 1975

Roy Orbison makes big comeback ...

Bruce Springsteen: Born To Run (Columbia import)

Review by Jerry Gilbert, Sounds, 13 September 1975

THE VISIONARIES and rock and roll prophets who predicted that this album would be the making of Bruce Springsteen may have noted that while their ...

Bruce Springsteen: Hustling For Rock’s Record Machines

Report by Don Snowden, Pasadena Guardian, 24 September 1975

HE STARTED HIS career as a solo performer and fronting New Jersey bar bands like the Steel Mill and Dr. Zoom and the Sonic Boom. ...

Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band: The Bottom Line, New York NY

Live Review by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 25 September 1975

Bruce Springsteen: A Rock Star Is Born ...

Bruce Springsteen & the Street Band: Roxy, Los Angeles

Live Review by Don Snowden, Pasadena Guardian, October 1975

"I’m gonna sit back right easy and laugh When Scooter and Big Man bust this city in half" (‘10th Avenue Freeze-Out’) ...

Bruce Springsteen: Little Egypt From Asbury Park

Profile by Dave Marsh, Creem, October 1975

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN SITS cross-legged on his half-made bed, and surveys the scene. Records are strewn across the room, singles mostly, intermixed with empty Pepsi bottles, ...

Bruce Springsteen: The Sprucing Of The Springbean

Report by Charles Shaar Murray, New Musical Express, 11 October 1975

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN: Man, Myth or Monster? CHARLES SHAAR MURRAY reports from Houston, Texas ...

Bruce Springsteen: The Roxy, Los Angeles

Live Review by Bud Scoppa, Phonograph Record, November 1975

PEOPLE WHO who were clearly not accustomed to standing in line formed a reluctant column along Sunset Boulevard; hordes of photographers snapped at the famous ...

Bruce Springsteen: "What Made Milwaukee Famous"

Report and Interview by Robin Katz, Street Life, 1 November 1975

OR: "I HAVE SEEN THE FUTURE OF ROCK AND ROLL AND HE IS SLIDING DOWN MY WINDSCREEN" ...

Bruce Springsteen: Roxy Club, Los Angeles CA

Live Review by Steven Rosen, Sounds, 1 November 1975

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN'S closing night at the Roxy Club in Hollywood provided neither excitement nor exceptional performance as he played for a packed house. ...

Bruce Springsteen

Report and Interview by Andrew Tyler, New Musical Express, 15 November 1975

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN says he just writes down his impressions of stuff whereas here in Hollywood, Calif., there are people in from New York who believe ...

Bruce Springsteen: Hammersmith Odeon, London

Live Review by Vivien Goldman, Sounds, 29 November 1975

WHEN THEY were good they were very very good, and when they were bad they were so-so. ...

John Hammond: From Billie to Bruce

Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 6 December 1975

John Hammond recalls his 40 years atthe forefront of popular music recording ...

Bruce Springsteen Is Not God (And Doesn't Want To Be)

Report and Interview by Robert Duncan, Creem, January 1976

UNDERSTAND. NEW Jersey has no baseball or football teams and half of it stinks. It used to be that if you were from Jersey and ...

Is Rock 'N' Roll Ready For 1976?

Comment by Mick Farren, New Musical Express, 3 January 1976

What has all this to do with all this? Does anyone care? MICK FARREN'S IS THE VOICE FROM THE GALLERY ...

Casing The Promised Land: Bruce Springsteen at Hammersmith Odeon

Live Review by Simon Frith, Creem, March 1976

So you’re scared and you’re thinkingThat maybe we aren’t that young anymore.Show a little faith, there’s magic in the night.You ain’t a beauty, but hey ...

Finally... The World Is Ready For Mick Brown's History Of Hype

Report by Mick Brown, Sounds, 6 March 1976

IF YOU'RE looking for a definition, forget it. The word is an abbreviation of 'hyperbole', which the dictionary defines as 'rhetorical exaggeration', but in the ...

Bruce Springsteen: The Palladium, New York

Live Review by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 6 November 1976

IT MAY rain or snow, and the temperature in New York might even drop below freezing-point this weekend, but so long as Bruce Springsteen is ...

Steve Van Zandt: Miami, Bruce, and Roots

Interview by Harvey Kubernik, Melody Maker, 6 November 1976

LOS ANGELES: Miami Steve Van Zandt has been in Bruce Springsteen's band for over a year now, and also finds time these days to guide ...

Bruce Springsteen's Longest Season

Essay by Robert Duncan, Creem, April 1977

A love story for the whole family ...

Bruce Turns On the Juice, Plays It Loose, Tells Fans Be Cool In School

Report by Toby Goldstein, Creem, April 1977

NEW YORK — Rock 'n' roll professor Bob Spitz surveyed his half-empty lecture hall and snickered to the brave souls who'd trudged in despite N.Y.'s ...

Rock Stars Talk Back

Comment by Susan Whitall, Creem, May 1977

Dozens listen. ...

Behind the Scenes: Iovine in the Right Place

Profile and Interview by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 17 November 1977

NEW YORK — In 1973, when he was working with producer John Lennon as assistant engineer on Harry Nilsson's Pussycats album, Jimmy Iovine looked up ...

Bruce Springsteen: Proceedings of Discovery

Comment by Bruce Pollock, Gannett Westchester Newspapers, 1978

WE ROCK PUNDITS, critics and reviewers, Rockwells of good taste, O'Neills of moral fervor, are in reality no better than the average slob on the ...

Bruce Springsteen & Dr. John: Fan Recalls First Close Encounter

Memoir by Don Snowden, Thunder, February 1978

WELL, IT WAS the summer of '74 and all in all life was reasonably comfortable but pretty boring. Home was the spacious second floor of ...

Bruce Springsteen: Darkness On The Edge Of Town

Review by Paul Rambali, New Musical Express, 10 June 1978

So where you been, Bruce? ...

Bruce Springsteen: Darkness On The Edge Of Town

Review by Peter Silverton, Sounds, 10 June 1978

LET'S START with the obvious. It's impossible to approach this album without taking into heavy account the fortunes and misfortunes of this Crown Prince of ...

Bruce Springsteen: Reborn and Running Again

Report by Harvey Kubernik, Melody Maker, 10 June 1978

EVEN BEFORE the two brilliant concerts at the Spectrum earlier in the week, Bruce Springsteen could have been the Mayor of Philadelphia if he had ...

Bruce Springsteen: Darkness On the Edge Of Town (Columbia JC 35318)

Review by Bill Holdship, Michigan State News, 23 June 1978

Springsteen's dark edge ...

Bruce Springsteen: Darkness On The Edge Of Town; Mink DeVille: Return To Magenta

Review by John Tobler, ZigZag, July 1978

THE RETURN of the street people, which should be a good thing. First, Springsteen, whose scenario of misfortune has been so well publicised that there's ...

Springsteen fever

Report and Interview by Paul Nelson, Rolling Stone, 13 July 1978

  AT THE Music Hall in Boston in late May, Bruce Springsteen begins a song in almost total darkness, a single blue spotlight faintly limning the ...

Bruce Springsteen: Darkness on the Edge of Town (Columbia JC 35318)

Review by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 27 July 1978

The Boss' triumphant return ...

Bruce Springsteen Raises Cain

Report and Interview by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 24 August 1978

A true believer witnesses mass conversions, rock & roll vandalism, a rocket upside the head and a visit with God. ...

Bruce Springsteen: Darkness On The Edge Of Town (Columbia)

Review by Mitchell Cohen, Creem, September 1978

If I walk away from this, he thought, I'll be an old man – all ghosts and hangovers and mellow recollections. Fuck it, he thought, ...

Lawdamercy, Springsteen Saves!

Report and Interview by Robert Duncan, Creem, October 1978

Testimony from the Howling Dog Choir (or Tramps Like Us, Baby We're Born Again) ...

Bruce Springsteen: Capital Centre, Largo, MD

Live Review by Barry Cain, Record Mirror, 18 November 1978

Listen and be born again ...

Springsteen's Thrill is Gone

Comment by Dave DiMartino, Michigan State News, 20 November 1978

I'M SORRY, folks, — Bruce Springsteen is NOT the Boss, not by a long shot. ...

If they told me I was dying, I'd spend the rest of my time watching Bruce Springsteen

Report and Interview by Barry Cain, Record Mirror, 25 November 1978

BARRY CAIN catches a glimpse of heaven ...

Bruce Springsteen: The Springsteen Syndrome

Live Review by Paul Morley, New Musical Express, 6 October 1979

Musicians United For Safe Energy: Madison Square Garden, NYC ...

Bruce Springsteen: The Last American Hero

Essay by Sandy Robertson, Sounds, 5 January 1980

MUST BE some new kind of drug or somethin', 'cos even a 16-year-old don't do a graveyard shift of four hours and then dance on ...

Bruce Springsteen: The River

Review by Phil Sutcliffe, Sounds, 11 October 1980

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN once said simply this: "I want it all." I've taken it out of context but, judging by the recent Dave Marsh biography, it ...

Bruce Springsteen: The River (CBS)

Review by Paolo Hewitt, Melody Maker, 11 October 1980

LISTENING to Bruce Springsteen's The River is like taking a trip through the rock 'n' roll heartland as you've never experienced it. It's a walk ...

Bruce Springsteen: The Man, The Myth, The Magic

Live Review by Mark Cooper, Record Mirror, 25 October 1980

MILWAUKEE IS up by the Great Lakes in the industrial badlands. Concrete freeways, steel chimneys, cloudy skies and breweries. The kind of place "where Mister ...

Bruce Springsteen: The River (CBS)

Review by David Hepworth, The Face, November 1980

THEY GAVE me 350 words and Wednesday evening to account for the fact that my heart took to pumping double when this record slid out ...

Bruce Springsteen: Los Angeles Sports Arena, California

Live Review by Sylvie Simmons, New Musical Express, 22 November 1980

IT'S EASY to see why the girls go so much on him. You got the excitable adolescent of 'Rosalita', 'Crush On You' – hey hey ...

The Boss is Back

Report and Interview by Fred Schruers, Rolling Stone, 27 November 1980

Bruce Springsteen hits the road for his first tour in two years, and along the way gives ample life to his performing legend. ...

Bruce Springsteen Takes It To The River: So Don’t Call Him ‘Boss’, OK?

Report and Interview by Dave DiMartino, Creem, January 1981

ALL THINGS GOOD come to he who waits; he who hesitates is lost. For every stupid cliché there’s another one out there equally stupid that ...

Bruce Springsteen: The River (Columbia PC2 36854)

Review by Sam Sutherland, High Fidelity, January 1981

Bruce Springsteen Is Worth Waiting For ...

Bruce Springsteen: The River (Columbia)

Review by Ira Robbins, Trouser Press, January 1981

A SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE sketch of a few seasons back poked fun at Roy Orbison by reducing him to a caricature: motionless stance and ever-present ...

Bruce Springsteen

Interview by Dave Marsh, Musician, February 1981

A YEAR AGO, taking a respite from recording to play two nights of the M.U.S.E. anti-nuke concerts, Bruce Springsteen pared his normal three hour show ...

Bruce Springsteen: The Man Who Would Save Rock And Roll

Essay by Greil Marcus, New West, February 1981

LAST OCTOBER Bruce Springsteen released his fifth album, The River, which went swiftly to number one in the States, and began a tour that will ...

Bruce Springsteen and the Secret of the World

Report and Interview by Fred Schruers, Rolling Stone, 5 February 1981

FAME GRIPS A JERSEY BOY... BUT HE GETS OUT UNSCATHED ...

Bruce Springsteen: Not The Me-Me-Me-Me

Report and Interview by Paolo Hewitt, Melody Maker, 9 May 1981

STACKED on the left of the typewriter are two blank cassettes which should contain the voice of Bruce Springsteen. But like Kevin Rowland and Elvis ...

Bruce Springsteen: A responsible rocker

Profile and Interview by Richard Williams, The Sunday Times, 31 May 1981

Bob Dylan arrives in Britain next month hoping to repeat his triumphant series of concerts of three years ago. Many observers feel that his timing ...

Bruce Springsteen: Wembley Stadium

Live Review by Mark Cooper, Quarto, June 1981

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN returned to England in June for the first time since 1975, appearing before audiences totalling over a quarter of a million people. On ...

Bruce Springsteen: Brighton Centre

Live Review by Lynden Barber, Melody Maker, 6 June 1981

TRYING TO WRITE about a Bruce Springsteen concert without reinforcing the man's reputation for scarcely believable stage performances is like trying to cross the Atlantic ...

Springsteen Forged Passports To A Promised Land

Comment by Nick Kent, New Musical Express, 4 July 1981

"What my band and I are about is a sense of responsibility. If you accept it, that makes you responsible for everything that happens. People ...

John Hammond: Discovering Musical Talent — White and Black

Interview by Geoffrey Himes, Baltimore Sun, 25 September 1981

JOHN HAMMOND is a rare figure in the American recording industry. In an industry that worships last year's trends, Mr. Hammond discovered such original artists ...

Clarence Clemons: Born To Rock

Report and Interview by Jim Sullivan, The Boston Globe, 14 January 1982

"LADIES AND GENTLEMEN," announces a raspy-voiced Bruce Springsteen from the stage of the Capitol Theater in Passaic, N. J. It's the 75th performance of the ...

Bruce Springsteen: Nebraska (Columbia 38358)

Review by Joel Selvin, San Francisco Chronicle, 17 October 1982

IN AN ARTISTICALLY daring move virtually unprecedented in the record business, Bruce Springsteen refused to succumb to pressures to follow up the No. 1 success ...

Bruce Springsteen: Nebraska (Columbia)

Review by Jon Young, Trouser Press, January 1983

Starkness at the Edge of Town ...

Out In The Street: Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty and the simple truths of blue-collar rock

Essay by Cynthia Rose, The History of Rock, 1984

In the heyday of Elvis, Chuck Berry or the Beatles, radio was revered. It constituted rock’n’roll’s channel to the teen heart, and it struck out ...

Bruce Springsteen: Born in the USA (CBS 38653); Elvis Presley: 'I Can Tell' and Other Great Hits (RCA PL 89287)

Review by Richard Williams, The Times, 2 June 1984

Green grass and parables of the badlands ...

Bruce Springsteen: Born in The USA (CBS)*****

Review by Sandy Robertson, Sounds, 9 June 1984

IT TOOK me a long time to get to feel comfortable with Bruce Springsteen's music and then, an album or so after I'd overcome the ...

Bruce Springsteen: Born In The USA (CBS)

Review by Charles Shaar Murray, New Musical Express, 4 August 1984

IN BRUCE Springsteen's 1984, America – the original big country where dreams stay with you – has contracted; it is now a very small country ...

Secret of Springsteen's success is 'Born in the U.S.A.'

Profile by Philip Elwood, The San Francisco Examiner, 21 October 1984

SAN FRANCISCO'S local entertainment scene in the second week of January 1970 was in its typical, rainy, post-holiday doldrums. ...

Earl Palmer: Palmer Days

Profile by Bill Bentley, L.A. Weekly, 1 November 1984

WAY BACK when rock & roll radio was first coming into its own, stuffing listener's ears with the likes of Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry, Fats ...

Bruce Springsteen: The Big Boss Groove

Interview by Adrian Deevoy, International Musician & Recording World, December 1984

AT 35, HE'S still claiming that all the world's a stage and all the men and women merely stage hands. He's still hauling that battered ...

Bruce Springsteen

Essay by Richard Cook, New Musical Express, 22 December 1984

TO ANYONE who wasn't born in the USA, America is still defined by the clutter of images it sends us: television, cinema, music, cars, fast ...

Springsteen: Scruff As Superstar

Profile by Simon Frith, The Observer, 1985

IF BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN didn’t exist rock critics would have had to invent him – which, in a sense, they did. His manager, ex-journalist Jon Landau, ...

USA for Africa: Record could raise millions for hungry

Report by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 14 March 1985

"CHECK YOUR ego at the door." That was the message producer Quincy Jones sent to Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Stevie Wonder, Willie Nelson, Diana Ross ...

Various Artists: We Are The World (Columbia)

Review by Mark Rowland, Musician, June 1985

Industry of Mercy: Bruce & Tina lead a parade of mobilized mega-stars. ...

Bruce Springsteen: Perfect Mastery Of The Beat

Live Review by David Sinclair, The Times, 3 June 1985

Bruce Springsteen: Slane Castle, Dublin ...

The Great Smell Of Bruce — Bruce Springsteen & The E-Street Band: St James Park, Newcastle

Live Review by Jack Barron, Sounds, 15 June 1985

Most wanted man Brute Springsteen sweats it out in his rock 'n' roll cell. Jack Barron swallows the key ...

A Promise Fulfilled — But What Next?

Live Review by Richard Williams, The Times, 5 July 1985

Bruce Springsteen: Wembley Stadium, London ...

Nils Lofgren: Nils Desperandum

Interview by Ralph Traitor, Sounds, 6 July 1985

On the eve of Springsteen’s London dates Ralph Traitor tracks down Nils Lofgren, the latest resident on E street. ...

Bruce Springsteen: At Wembley Stadium

Live Review by Biba Kopf, New Musical Express, 13 July 1985

I HAVE seen the future cast as a rock'n'roll song. I do not much like what I see: Bruce Springsteen everywhere confirmed as the way ...

Bruce Springsteen... More Than Just Words?

Report by Richard Cromelin, Los Angeles Times, 30 September 1985

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN closes his 15-month world tour tonight and Wednesday at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum as more than just the biggest star in rock. ...

Bruce Springsteen: The Meaning Of Bruce

Essay by Glenn O'Brien, Spin, November 1985

Hey, it was the greatest show I’ve ever seen. It was like rock ‘n’ roll and a gospel meeting and a party and the World ...

Nils Lofgren: The E Street Flip

Interview by Dave Zimmer, BAM, November 1985

NEW JERSEY – There he is, taking windmill swipes at his guitar with wild abandon, then doing a complete flip on the Meadowlands stage while ...

The Year Of The Boss

Essay by John Mendelsohn, Creem, 1986

LET’S ADMIT IT to one another – there are several things we don’t like so much about Bruce Springsteen. We’re not crazy, for instance, about ...

"My cousin saw Bruce down Fifth Avenue!"

Report and Interview by Phil Sutcliffe, Q, October 1986

"HI gang, this is Martha in Marietta, Georgia. I gotta lotta Springsteen bootlegs and I wanna trade... Hi, Howie in Boston again. My cousin in ...

Bruce Springsteen: Live/1975-85

Review by Gavin Martin, New Musical Express, 15 November 1986

GAVIN MARTIN rummages through his pre-Christmas stocking and uncovers the heavyweight Broooce, a five-album set of Springsteen live, including mucho unreleased material. ...

Bruce Springsteen: The E Street Band Live/1975-85

Review by John Mendelsohn, Creem, March 1987

ON THE SUNNY, balmy Monday this was released the local deejays said, absenteeism in San Francisco broke all records, as tens of thousands of otherwise ...

Obituary: John Hammond

Obituary by Hugh Fielder, Sounds, 25 July 1987

WHO'S GOING to find the next rock legend now that John Hammond's gone? Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, Aretha Franklin, Billie Holiday, Benny Goodman, Bessie Smith, ...

Dave Marsh: Glory Days: A Biography of Bruce Springsteen (Sidgwick & Jackson)

Book Review by Jon Savage, The Observer, August 1987

Sucking up to the boss ...

The E Street Man: Clarence Clemons

Interview by Deborah Frost, Elle, August 1987

CLARENCE DEMONS is so big it's hard to imagine him standing in anyone's shadow. ...

John Hammond 1910-1987

Obituary by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 27 August 1987

LEGENDARY RECORD producer and talent scout John Hammond — who played a key role in the careers of Billie Holiday, Count Basie, Benny Goodman, Aretha ...

Bruce Springsteen: Tunnel of Love (CBS)

Review by Richard Williams, The Times, 5 October 1987

Simple gains: Richard Williams on Bruce Springsteen's new album Tunnel of Love, released today ...

Bruce Springsteen: Tunnel of Love (Columbia, OC 40999)

Review by Geoffrey Himes, Evening Sun (Baltimore), The , 5 October 1987

Latest by Springsteen a subdued look at love ...

Bruce Springsteen: Tunnel Of Love (CBS)

Review by Neil Taylor, New Musical Express, 10 October 1987

Tunnel Vision ...

Bruce Springsteen/Michael Jackson: Through Time and Space with the Changeling Gods

Essay by Richard C. Walls, Creem, February 1988

Just Between You And Me ...

Tougher Than Most: Bruce Springsteen's Tunnel of Love tour

Review by Geoffrey Himes, Baltimore Sun, 24 March 1988

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN'S 'Tougher Than the Rest' is a sombre, unforgiving song typical of his recent Tunnel of Love album. It describes love not as an ...

Bruce Springsteen: Into the Future

Live Review by Wayne Robins, Newsday, 4 April 1988

THE "TUNNEL OF LOVE" tour is not rock-and-roll business as usual, or even Springsteen business as usual. This, after all, is a show that for ...

How To Think Like A Drummer

Interview by J.D. Considine, Musician, June 1988

Becoming a Drumhead in 6 Easy Lessons ...

Bruce Springsteen: Madison Square Garden, New York

Live Review by Tony Fletcher, Record Mirror, 11 June 1988

AS WOULD BE expected, given his return to a more mellow sound on record, the current Bruce Springsteen show is a far cry from the ...

Bruce Springsteen: All Or Nothing

Retrospective by Richard Williams, Q, December 1989

"FILMS ABOUT America should be composed entirely of long and wide shots, as music about America already is," the German film director Wim Wenders wrote ...

Springsteen Goes It Alone

Report by Rob Tannenbaum, Rolling Stone, 11 January 1990

Rocker will search for a new direction without the E Street Band ...

Rock Of Middle Ages

Comment by Tim Riley, The Boston Phoenix, 9 February 1990

The new traditionalism looks for its roots. ...

Bob Clearmountain: Making the hard stuff look easy

Interview by Alan di Perna, Musician, July 1990

BOB CLEARMOUNTAIN exudes a calm, deliberate air as he moves around the cluttered interior of a recording truck parked outside L.A.'s Universal Amphitheatre. Politely negotiating ...

Busman's Holiday: Bruce Springsteen 1987-1990

Overview by Phil Sutcliffe, Q, September 1990

When not touring the world's stadiums, was Bruce Springstreen to be found morosely grouting his bathroom tiles and ruefully reflecting upon his broken marriage? Indeed ...

Bruce Springsteen: Palais Des Sports, Lyons, France

Live Review by Paolo Hewitt, Melody Maker, 2 May 1991

COME ELECTION time, even the President of France must sometimes have to make speeches. And when the President makes a speech, nothing gets in his ...

Nils Lofgren: Nils' Desperados

Interview by Max Bell, Vox, June 1991

A lovely guy, Nils Lofgren. Ask Bruce, Neil, Bob, Lou or Keef. Rock's shortest top sidekick tells Max Bell about life with the E Street ...

Charles R. Cross: Backstreets and Marc Eliot: Down Thunder Road

Book Review by David Sinclair, Q, September 1992

BACKSTREETS IS THE AMERICAN quarterly fanzine whose editors maintain a painstaking and uncritical log of the life of Bruce Springsteen. First published in November 1989, ...

Bruce Rocks the U.K - But He Can't Match His Own Impossibly High Standards

Live Review by David Sinclair, Rolling Stone, 24 June 1993

"WHEN I WAS YOUNG, I truly didn't think music had any limitations," said Bruce Springsteen in an interview with New York Newsday last year. "I ...

Patti Scialfa: Red-Headed Woman

Profile and Interview by Ian Birch, Q, August 1993

ABOUT AN HOUR and a half from New York going south down the New Jersey Turnpike and then east on the Garden State Parkway is ...

“I Wanna Tell You A Story...”

Overview by Phil Sutcliffe, Q, February 1995

Bruce Springsteen, Rock Orator, on Life, Love, Art and everything ...

Bruce Springsteen: Born To Run

Retrospective by Ed Ward, MOJO, February 1995

LORD, WHAT DID I EVER SEE IN BRUCE Springsteen? But I did once see something, and even went on record as having seen it. In ...

Soul On Ice: Clarence Clemons

Interview by Sylvie Simmons, MOJO, April 1995

HE'S HUGE, AS A LEGEND SHOULD BE. Solid as a monument. A big man, built like the American football player that be was before a ...

Bruce Springsteen: The Ghost Of Tom Joad

Review by Phil Sutcliffe, MOJO, December 1995

SPRINGSTEEN'S GOT HIS BOTTLE back. After the diverse dissatisfactions of Human Touch, Lucky Town, the point-defeating In Concert: MTV Plugged, and the unnecessary Greatest Hits, ...

Bruce Springsteen: Orpheum Theatre, Boston

Live Review by Jim Sullivan, The Boston Globe, 16 December 1995

BOZO THE FAN yelled to Bruce Springsteen during a silent moment, early in the two-hour set, last night: "Welcome back, Boss!" ...

Bruce Springsteen: Wiltern Theatre, Los Angeles

Live Review by Dave DiMartino, MOJO, January 1996

"I KNOW THIS IS LA," ANNOUNCED BRUCE Springsteen at the start of his concert, "so I hope I don't have to go out there and ...

Hushed — Bruce Springsteen: The Ghost Of Tom Joad (Columbia 481650)

Review by Mark Cooper, Q, January 1996

Bruce Springsteen: the new Boss — very different to the old Boss. ...

Bruce Springsteen: Hey Joad, Don't Make It Sad... (Oh, Go On Then)

Interview by Gavin Martin, New Musical Express, 9 March 1996

HE'LL BE REMEMBERED as the most unbounded performer in rock'n'roll history. His records took you inside a world of naked honesty and passionate conviction and ...

Bruce Springsteen Finds "A Sense Of Place"

Report and Interview by Fred Schruers, Rolling Stone, 6 February 1997

SUNRISE, FLA.; "Don't make me come out there and slaaaap that tan off ya." Bruce Springsteen's warnings to potentially restless crowds tend to have a ...

Fred Goodman: The Mansion on the Hill (Times Books, $25)

Book Review by Ira Robbins, Rolling Stone, 6 March 1997

BABY, YOU'RE A RICH MAN A new book explores how rock & roll became a $20 billion business ...

Fred Goodman: The Mansion on the Hill (Times Books)

Book Review by Barney Hoskyns, MOJO, April 1997

Deny it all we might, the truth is that music is a business. And its richest players have made billions without ever striking a single ...

Bruce Springsteen: Le Palais des Congres, Paris

Live Review by Chris Roberts, Uncut, August 1997

BRUCE IS telling a story (and I am scribbling furiously). "This is a song about men and women. I didn't write about men and women ...

Bruce Springsteen

Profile by Philip Norman, Daily Mail, 1998

ROCK MUSIC in its 50-year history has inspired many degrees of love, adulation and awe. Yet among the ranks of legends and superstars, only two ...

Bruce Springsteen: Tracks (Columbia)

Review by Evelyn McDonnell, The Village Voice, 15 December 1998

THE GHOST OF BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN ...

It's a Vet's Life: Bruce Springsteen and Born in the USA

Retrospective by Phil Sutcliffe, MOJO, January 1999

It was Springsteen's most epic moment – and his most misunderstood. Phil Sutcliffe uncovers the double life of Born In The USA. ...

The Greatest Band In The World?

Profile by Phil Sutcliffe, MOJO, January 1999

"With Bruce, you wind up treating those four hours on stage as if someone said, You’ve got four hours left on Earth. What are you ...

Bruce Springsteen: Tunnel Of Love; Human Touch; Lucky Town; The Ghost Of Tom Joad,

Retrospective by Gavin Martin, Uncut, February 2000

DISILLUSIONED GROOM, LA-based newlywed and folk conscience of a nation – Springsteen after superstardom subsides ...

Bruce Springsteen: Live In New York City (Columbia 2CD)****

Review by Gavin Martin, Uncut, June 2001

SCINTILLATING DOCUMENT of The Boss reunited with His Gang last year at Madison Square Garden. ...

Various Artists: America: A Tribute To Heroes

Review by David Stubbs, Uncut, March 2002

Star-Spangled Bummer:  Record of benefit concert/telethon for victims of September 11 ...

Bruce Springsteen's Non-Event

Comment by Michael Goldberg, Neumu, August 2002

He may be on the cover of Time again, but The Rising sure ain't Born to Run ...

Hey, He's Bruce

Essay by Gene Santoro, The Nation, 29 August 2002

WHEN BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN and the E Street Band, reunited to tour behind The Rising, came to Madison Square Garden on August 12, they juxtaposed '41 ...

Bruce Springsteen

Interview by Adam Sweeting, Uncut, September 2002

IF ALL YOU'VE ever seen of New Jersey is Newark airport or the bits they show you in the opening sequence of The Sopranos, you ...

Bruce Springsteen: The Rising

Review by Sylvie Simmons, MOJO, September 2002

"BLOOD", "FIRE", "dust", "dark", "empty" – the same words keep recurring. Lights shutting out, black hole in the sun, buildings burning, that lonely desperation that ...

Bruce Springsteen: Wembley Arena, London

Live Review by Ian Watson, Yahoo! Music, October 2002

AT FIRST, it sounds like boo-ing, as if the twelve thousand capacity crowd has suddenly turned against America's unofficial poet laureate. ...

People of the year: Bruce Springsteen

Interview by Anthony DeCurtis, Rolling Stone, 12 December 2002

His album The Rising dealt with life after 9/11. His world tour confronted the realities of war ...

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band: Crystal Palace Sports Centre

Live Review by Gavin Martin, Uncut, August 2003

The Boss proves he's still rock'n'roll redemption personified. ...

Bruce Springsteen: The Essential Bruce Springsteen

Review by Chris Roberts, Uncut, January 2004

HIS HUGE, mournful, wounded bear of a voice is so effective and emotive when placed against fresh backdrops that it remains a pity Springsteen doesn't ...

Bruce Springsteen: Devils & Dust

Review by Phil Sutcliffe, MOJO, June 2005

The E Street Band stand down again. So more for fans of Nebraska and The Ghost Of Tom Joad as Bruce leaves politics for the ...

Bruce Springsteen: Two River Theatre, Red Bank, NJ

Live Review by Phil Sutcliffe, MOJO, June 2005

Springsteen records his first-ever VH1 TV Storytellers session and rather likes it — two hours, eight songs and any amount of explanatory chat before an ...

Unplugged Life: Bruce Springsteen Ages Into The Intimate Singer/Songwriter Album With Devils and Dust

Report by Geoffrey Himes, Baltimore City Paper, 29 June 2005

HUMAN TOUCH: After mastering the rockin' Bruce album, Bruce Springsteen is now honing the acoustic Bruce album. ...

Bruce Springsteen's take on classic folk

Interview by Will Hermes, The New York Times, 18 April 2006

ASBURY PARK, New Jersey — On a bright, brisk April afternoon in one of America's most famous faded seaside resorts, a band is playing in ...

Bruce Springsteen: We Shall Overcome – The Seeger Sessions

Review by Phil Sutcliffe, MOJO, June 2006

What Bruce did next: a hoedown gospel blues klezmer-zydeco celebration of Pete Seeger. Obviously, says Phil Sutcliffe. ...

Bruce Blew My Cover: Pete Seeger

Report and Interview by Edward Helmore, The Guardian, 1 February 2007

ON THE FIRST Friday of the month, in fine weather and sometimes foul, you will find Pete Seeger, the folk-singing legend and pioneering environmentalist, in ...

Bruce Springsteen: Live In Dublin With The Sessions Band

Review by Gavin Martin, Uncut, July 2007

Boss Man's 'Leave The Preaching To The Choir' Policy Reaps Live Jackpot ...

Bruce Springsteen: Magic

Review by Amy Linden, The Village Voice, 3 October 2007

THE E STREET BAND last convened around Bruce Springsteen on 2001's The Rising; since then, the Boss (who looks finer as he gets older) has ...

Bruce Springsteen: Magic

Review by Andrew Mueller, Uncut, November 2007

PROBABLY AS EARLY as his fifth album, 1980's The River, Springsteen reached that sparsely populated stratosphere of artists recognised by surname alone, with a personal ...

Bruce Springsteen: Odyssey Arena, Belfast

Live Review by Adam Sweeting, Daily Telegraph, 17 December 2007

JUST AFTER everybody has published their list of the best gigs of 2007, along comes Bruce Springsteen to confound the pundits. ...

Q&A: Little Steven Van Zandt

Interview by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 14 April 2008

WITH JAMES BROWN no longer around, Steven Van Zandt might just have the title of the Hardest Working Man in Show Business. ...

E Street shuffle: Bruce Springsteen

Retrospective by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, May 2008

The Boss is coming to town! David Burke looks at the career and impact of the man whose been described as "the Steinbeck of rock'n'roll". ...

Bruce Springsteen: RDS Arena, Dublin

Live Review by Gavin Martin, Daily Mirror, 24 May 2008

AT THE FIRST SHOW of Springsteen's European tour, anticipation was at fever pitch for the return of the man they still call the Boss. And ...

Got Live If You Want It? Bruce Springsteen On Stage, 1968-2005

Essay by Rod Tootell, Rock's Backpages, July 2008

Rod Tootell asks how well-served the Boss has been by his official live recordings – and nominates his Top 20 tracks. ...

Bruce Springsteen's 'Dream'

Report and Interview by Johnny Black, Music Week, January 2009

THE FIRST PUBLIC airing of 'Working On A Dream', the title track from The Boss’s upcoming 24th album took place during Barack Obama’s massive rally ...

Bruce Springsteen: Working On A Dream

Review by Andrew Mueller, Uncut, March 2009

After the furious state-of-the-union of Magic, the Boss returns to the home front — where things are rather better, says Andrew Mueller. ...

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band: Izod Center, East Rutherford, New Jersey

Live Review by Kris DiLorenzo, Rock's Backpages, May 2009

A SPRINGSTEEN HOMECOMING is always a big deal, and this time there were only two shows, in a smaller arena than last summer’s Giants Stadium ...

Pete Seeger's Birthday Concert: Madison Square Garden, NYC

Live Review by Alan Light, MSN.com, May 2009

IN THE NEW biography The Protest Singer, folk music paragon Pete Seeger tells writer Alec Wilkinson that the single word he believes in above all ...

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band: Hyde Park, London

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, June 2009

AS HE HEADLINED the Hard Rock Calling weekend in London last night, the pressure was on Bruce Springsteen to match his triumphant Glastonbury debut on ...

Steve Van Zandt: "We said we'd walk together, come what may…"

Interview by Andrew Mueller, Uncut, June 2009

Forty years of friendship: Miami Steve Van Zandt on Bruce Springsteen ...

"Hello, Cleveland!"

Comment by Phil Sutcliffe, Yahoo! Music, 12 June 2009

COMMUNICATION WITH a large audience is a tricky business. ...

Why Indie Nerds Love The Boss

Report and Interview by Jude Rogers, The Guardian, 26 June 2009

Springsteen, a tweepop hero? ...

Bruce Springsteen: Giants Stadium, New Jersey

Live Review by Kris DiLorenzo, Rock's Backpages, October 2009

BY NOW everyone knows that Springsteen's Giants Stadium gigs were the last hurrah for the stadium that's due to be razed. ...

Bruce Springsteen: "People thought we were gone. Finished."

Retrospective and Interview by Keith Cameron, The Guardian, 23 September 2010

Hobbled by legal wrangles, a frustrated Bruce Springsteen turned Born to Run's optimism on its head – and Darkness on the Edge of Town was ...

Bruce Springsteen: The Promise: The Darkness On The Edge Of Town Story

Review by Bud Scoppa, Uncut, December 2010

The original classic remastered. A documentary. Two more live DVDs. Oh, and 21 outtakes... The Great Lost Springsteen Album, found at last. IN 1978, Springsteen broke ...

The Promise: Bruce Before The Beatles

Review by Wayne Robins, Wayne's Words blog, 5 January 2011

IT WAS EARLY New Year's Eve, and I played Bruce Springsteen's The Promise for the friends with whom we spend that night – and sometimes ...

Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band: Live At The Main Point, 1975

Review by Bud Scoppa, Uncut, June 2011

Much-booted concert lives up to its legendary status in first "official" release. IN EARLY 1975, rock fans could have been excused for being puzzled by ...

Clarence Clemons: The Big Man Down For The Count

Comment by Don Snowden, Rock's Backpages, 20 June 2011

LET'S JUST SAY I'm hoping the "always comes in threes" death trinity principle doesn't hold true this time because with Clarence Clemons moving on to ...

Bruce Springsteen: Wrecking Ball

Review by Peter Stone Brown, CounterPunch, 24 February 2012

IN 1944, WRITING a script for a radio show Woody Guthrie wrote: "I hate a song that makes you think that you are not any ...

Writing To Reach You

Overview by Graeme Thomson, The Word, March 2012

Because sometimes the only way musicians can actually talk to each other is by writing songs ...

Bruce Springsteen: Wrecking Ball

Review by Phil Sutcliffe, MOJO, April 2012

THE WESTERN WORLD'S in economic grief and the poor get the dirty end of the stick. Er, Bruce? ...

Marc Dolan: Bruce Springsteen and the Promise of Rock 'n' Roll (Norton)

Book Review by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Chronicle, 15 June 2012

WHILE MOST classic rockers his age are either slowing down, retired or dead, sexagenarian Bruce Springsteen (who might also be called "sexy-genarian" by legions of ...

12-12-12: The Concert for Sandy Relief: Madison Square Garden, New York

Live Review by Alan Light, MSN.com, December 2012

IT MIGHT HAVE been the single greatest gathering of talent for a rock show – or it might just have been, as Mick Jagger put ...

E Street Serenade: Bruce Springsteen, David Sancious and the E Street Shuffle

Retrospective and Interview by Rod Tootell, Rock's Backpages, December 2012

IN SEPTEMBER 1974, a Swedish journalist was interviewing a rock singer pretty much unknown in Sweden. His name was Bruce Springsteen. ...

This Must Be The Place: Holy Grails and Musical Meccas in Pop Culture

Essay by Barney Hoskyns, unpublished, Fall 2012

FOR TRAMPLED UNDER FOOT, my oral history of Led Zeppelin, one of the interviews I conducted was with Dave Bates, an almost-famous A&R man from ...

Bruce Springsteen: High Hopes

Review by Ian Gittins, Virgin Media Music, 13 January 2014

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN albums are often statements, whether 2002's The Rising's heartfelt response to 9/11, or 2012's Wrecking Ball's vitriolic condemnation of the fat-cat bankers behind ...

Bruce Springsteen: High Hopes

Review and Interview by Richard Williams, Uncut, February 2014

Good-time title, sombre message on The Boss' 18th studio album proper. ...

Bruce Springsteen: The Ties That Bind – The River Collection

Review by Phil Sutcliffe, MOJO, November 2015

ON HIS FIFTH E Street Band album, Springsteen still struggled "to gain the knowledge of how to make records". But this sense of technical difficulty ...

Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band: The Agora, Cleveland 1978

Review by Chris Charlesworth, Just Backdated, 12 December 2015

BRUCE WAS LEADING a leaner, meaner E Street Band in 1978, road trained to the nth degree from playing night after night throughout '76 and ...

Bruce Springsteen: Etihad Stadium, Manchester

Live Review by Rob Hughes, Daily Telegraph, 26 May 2016

IT TAKES A PERVERSE SENSE OF LOGIC to serenade a crowd with 'Santa Claus Is Coming To Town' in May, but Bruce Springsteen isn't one ...

Bruce Springsteen: Born To Run (Simon & Schuster)

Book Review by Chris Charlesworth, Just Backdated, October 2016

TWO OF THE best Bruce Springsteen shows I ever saw were at Wembley Stadium in July of 1985. ...

Bruce Springsteen: Born to Run (Simon & Schuster)

Book Review by Robert Dean Lurie, National Review, 31 December 2016

SPRINGSTEEN. THE BOSS. Bruuuuuce. A lot of hyperbolic ink has been spilled over this man through the years, so I'm going to walk it back ...

Bruce Springsteen: Live In Belfast 1996 – The Ghost Of Tom Joad Revisited

Review by Rod Tootell, Rock's Backpages, October 2017

RUNNING THROUGH October and November, Bruce Springsteen will play a series of solo shows at the Walter Kerr Theatre on Broadway. It seems a fitting ...

The 30 best live concert albums of all time

Guide by Ian Winwood, Daily Telegraph, 22 April 2020

LAST WEEK, A STORY appeared in the New York Times that predicted that live music would not return to the world's stages until the autumn ...

"Cuyahoga": An excerpt from Loudmouth

Book Excerpt by Robert Duncan, Three Rooms Press, October 2020

...

Bruce Springsteen: Only the Strong Survive

Review by Chris Charlesworth, Just Backdated, 17 November 2022

I REMEMBER… I was introduced to soul music through Geno Washington & The Ram Jam Band whose 1966 album Hand Clappin' Foot Stomping' Funky-Butt… Live! retains ...

see also Clarence Clemons

see also Little Steven & The Disciples Of Soul

see also Nils Lofgren

see also Steven Van Zandt

see also Steel Mill

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