My hometown

Bruce Springsteen grew up in Freehold, New Jersey. The Jersey Area including Freehold and Asbury Park and the people living there will always be omnipresent in his lyrics, music, private life and career.

Asbury Park and the E-street shuffle

When John Hammond auditioned Bruce Springsteen in his office in 1972, hearing some original songs only on guitar and piano, his response was simply “you’ve got to be on Columbia Records.” Springsteen gathered his previous back up band for the recording of his debut album Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J released in 1973. It went almost unnoticed at the release.

Lester Bangs in Rolling Stone said: “He’s been influenced a lot by The Band, his arrangements tend to take on a Van Morrison tinge every now and then, and he sort of catarrh-mumbles his ditties in a disgruntled mushmouth sorta like Robbie Robertson on Quaaludes with Dylan barfing down the back of his neck. It’s a tuff combination, but it’s only the beginning. Because what makes Bruce totally unique and cosmically surfeiting is his words. Hot damn, what a passel o’ verbiage!”

Manfred Mann's Earth Band would turn its leadoff track, "Blinded by the Light", into a number one hit though in 1976. Second album "The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle" also failed to sell despite very good reviews. Both albums have since gone platinum.

The E-street band

In the late 1960s and early 1970s there was a vibrant music scene in and around the City of Asbury Park on the Jersey Shore. Prominent in this scene were the early members of the E Street Band, some of them forming Child and Steel Mill with Springsteen in the late 60's. Clarence Clemons, Danny Federici, Vini Lopez, David Sancious, Garry Tallent and Steve Van Zandt all played in numerous bands, both with and without Springsteen. The E Street Band was founded in October 1972, but it wasn't formally named until September 1974.

The original lineup included Tallent (bass), Clemons (saxophone), Federici (keyboards, accordion), Lopez (drums), and Sancious (keyboards). The band took its name from the street in Belmar, New Jersey, where Sancious' mother lived and where they rehearsed. This lineup remained stable until the early 1980s when Van Zandt left to pursue his own career, and Nils Lofgren replaced him. Patti Scialfa (vocals, guitar), was also added to the lineup, that toured actively until 1989 when the band split for a while. The single "Tenth avenue freeze-out" from Born to run tells the story of the band according to Springsteen. When Springsteen reformed the E Street band in 1995 for a greatest hits album and tour, Van Zandt joined the crew again. By 2002, the band also included Soozie Tyrell on violin, guitar and vocals.

80s: success and politics

Nebraska, a stripped down acoustic solo album from 1982 marked a major turn for the rock icon. The music captured on the record is what he originally recorded as demos on acoustic guitar and harmonica in January, 1982, although he had attempted to revisit the songs himself and with his band. Nebraska was acclaimed both from critics and the audience that came to see yet another side of "The Boss," a nickname he got already in the 60's.

Turn number two came to be in 1985 when Springsteen became "born in the USA" with the whole nation, a song that still today is mistaken for a patriotic anthem. The album became Springsteen’s most successful ever, with seven Top 10 hits.

It also arrived at a time when American politicians with Reagan as their leader wanted to create a "new form of patriotism" after the war and tragedies in Vietnam. Springsteen's all American working class man image was perfect to use to get closer to the people: "It rests in the message of hope in songs so many young Americans admire: New Jersey's own Bruce Springsteen." Reagan said at a public speech in 1984. However, the song itself was telling the story of how (badly) the U.S treated its war veterans. Other republicans also tried to connect Springsteen to their campaigns, followed by an official negative response from Springsteen and his staff. Springsteen finally managed to reach out to an even bigger audience with this album, being true to his political and social convictions and remaining on "the ordinary people's" side.

Social and political activism

Bruce Springsteen, with his social pathos, is also a singer of the people, a modern “bard” with lyrics about everyday struggling ordinary people. He has always stood up straight and always hit hard, with discretion and never without tenderness.

Politically he's always shown an active support  to the democrats in the USA and has participated in numerous benefit and socially engaged actions. Whether it is for his hometown,  political ideas he believes in or benefits for human rights, justice or against poverty, Springsteen always takes a stand and speaks up.