Bruce Springsteen

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Bruce Springsteen
Background information
Birth name	Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen
Also known as	"The Boss"
Born	September 23, 1949 (age 57) Long Branch, New Jersey, USA
Genre(s)	Rock Heartland rock Folk
Occupation(s)	Singer-songwriter Guitarist
Instrument(s)	Voice Guitar Harmonica Piano
Years active	1969–present
Label(s)	Columbia Records
Associated acts	E Street Band The Castiles Steel Mill Dr. Zoom and the Sonic Boom Bruce Springsteen Band
Website	http://www.brucespringsteen.net/

Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen (born September 23, 1949) is an American rock singer-songwriter and guitarist. Springsteen has frequently recorded and toured with the E Street Band, and also as a solo artist and with other musicians.

Through his career, Springsteen has won fifteen Grammys, an Oscar, an induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and a large, devoted and long-lasting fan base. His best-known albums, such as Born to Run and Born in the U.S.A., epitomize his penchant for finding grandeur in the struggles of daily life.

Contents 1 Musical style 2 Biography 2.1 Early years 2.2 1972 - 1974 2.3 1975 - 1981 2.4 1982 - 1989 2.5 1990s 2.6 2000s 3 E Street Band 3.1 Current members 3.2 Former members 4 Discography 5 Samples 6 Awards and recognition 6.1 Grammy Awards 7 Music in Film & Television 7.1 Academy Awards 7.2 Emmy Awards 7.3 Other recognition 8 Web domain dispute 9 References 10 See also 11 Further reading 12 Footnotes 13 External links

[edit] Musical style

Springsteen's lyrics often concern people struggling to make ends meet. He has gradually become identified with progressive politics, various charitable causes and his response to the September 11, 2001 attacks, on which his album The Rising reflects.

In recent years Springsteen's recordings tended to alternate between mainstream rock and more somber, topical, folk-oriented music. Much of Springsteen's iconic status stems from his concert performances: marathon shows up to four hours in length, in which he and the E Street Band energetically perform intense ballads, rousing anthems and rock and roll party songs, interspersed with Springsteen's whimsical or deeply personal stories.

[edit] Biography

[edit] Early years

Springsteen was born and grew up in Freehold, New Jersey. His father, Douglas Frederick Springsteen, was a bus driver of Dutch and Irish ancestry. His mother, Adele Ann Zirelli, was a legal secretary whose parents were immigrants from Italy.^[1] Raised a Catholic,^[2] Springsteen attended the St. Rose of Lima parochial school in Freehold Borough, where he was at odds with both the nuns and other students,^[3] In ninth grade he transferred to the public Freehold Borough High School, but did not fit in there, either. He completed high school but felt so uncomfortable that he skipped his own graduation ceremony.^[4] He then attended Ocean County Community College briefly, but dropped out.^[3] Seeing Elvis Presley on the Ed Sullivan Show inspired Springsteen to take up music at the age of seven . At 13, he bought his first guitar for $18 and began studying with a local guitarist. His mother took out a loan to buy the 16-year-old Springsteen a $60 Kent guitar, an event he memorializes in his song "The Wish." In 1965, he went to the house of Tex and Marion Vinyard, who sponsored young bands in town. They helped him become the lead guitarist of The Castiles, and later lead singer of the group. The Castiles recorded two original songs at a public recording studio in Brick Township, New Jersey and played a variety of venues, including Cafe Wha? in Greenwich Village. Marion Vinyard said that she believed Springsteen when, as a young man, he said he was going to make it big.^[5] Bruce's sister, Pamela Sue Springsteen, had a brief film career, but left acting to pursue her still photography career full time.

From 1969 through 1971, Springsteen performed around New Jersey with Steve Van Zandt, Danny Federici and Vini Lopez in a band called Child, later renamed Steel Mill. They went on to play at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, VA, and also in California. During this time Springsteen also performed regularly at small clubs in Asbury Park and along the Jersey shore, quickly gathering a cult following.

Even after gaining international acclaim, Springsteen's New Jersey roots reverberated in his music, and he routinely praised "the great state of New Jersey" in his live shows. Drawing on his extensive local appeal, he routinely sold out consecutive nights in major New Jersey and Philadelphia venues and, much like the Grateful Dead, his song lists varied significantly from one night to the next. He also made many surprise appearances at The Stone Pony and other shore nightclubs over the years, becoming the foremost exponent of the Jersey Shore sound.

Springsteen seems to have come to terms with his longstanding nickname "The Boss," which he was initially reported to dislike—he sometimes jokingly refers to himself as such on stage. The nickname originated when a young Springsteen, playing club gigs with a band in the 1960s, took on the task of collecting the band's nightly pay and distributing it amongst his bandmates.

[edit] 1972 - 1974

Springsteen signed a solo record deal with Columbia Records in 1972, with the help of John Hammond, who had signed Bob Dylan to the same record label a decade earlier. Springsteen brought many of his New Jersey-based colleagues, including Van Zandt, into the studio with him, thus forming the E Street Band. His debut album, Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J., released in January 1973, established him as a critical favorite,^[6] though sales were slow. Because of his lyrics-heavy, folk rock-rooted music exemplified on tracks like "Blinded by the Light" 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 Peter Knobler in Springsteen's first interview/profile, in Crawdaddy, March, 1973. Crawdaddy "discovered" Springsteen in the rock press and was his earliest champion. Famed music critic Lester Bangs wrote in Creem, 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."^[7] The track "Spirit in the Night" especially showed Morrison's influence, while with "Lost in the Flood" Springsteen presented the first of his many portraits of Vietnam veterans.

In September 1973 his second album, The Wild, the Innocent and the E Street Shuffle, came out 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 folky, more R&B vibe and the lyrics often romanticizing 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)" would rank among Springsteen's most beloved concert numbers.

In the May 22, 1974 issue of Boston's The Real Paper, music critic Jon Landau wrote after seeing a club performance, "I saw rock and roll's 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."^[8] Landau subsequently became Springsteen's manager and producer, helping to finish the epic new album, Born to Run. 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, fed by the release of an early mix of "Born to Run" to progressive rock radio, anticipation built toward the album's release.

[edit] 1975 - 1981

On August 13, 1975, Springsteen and the E Street Band began a five-night, 10-show stand at New York's Bottom Line club; it attracted major media attention, was broadcast live on WNEW-FM, and convinced many skeptics that Springsteen was for real. (Decades later, Rolling Stone magazine would name the stand as one of the 50 Moments That Changed Rock and Roll.^[9]) With the release of Born to Run on August 25, 1975, Springsteen finally found success: while there were no real hit singles, "Born to Run", "Thunder Road", "Tenth Avenue Freeze-out" and "Jungleland" all received massive FM radio airplay and remain perennial favorites on many classic rock stations to this day. With its panoramic imagery, thundering production and desperate optimism, some fans consider this among the best rock & roll albums of all time and Springsteen's finest work. It established him as a sincere and dynamic rock & roll personality who spoke for and in the voice of a large part of the rock audience. To cap off the triumph, Springsteen appeared on the covers of both Time and Newsweek in the same week, on October 27 of that year. So great did the wave of publicity become that Springsteen eventually rebelled against it during his first venture overseas, tearing down promotional posters before a concert appearance in London.

A legal battle with former manager Mike Appel kept Springsteen out of the studio for over two years, 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, the new songs he was writing and often debuting on stage had taken a more somber tone than much of his previous work. Reaching settlement with Appel in 1977, Springsteen finally returned to the studio, and the subsequent sessions produced Darkness on the Edge of Town (1978). Musically, this album was a turning point of Springsteen's career. Gone were the rapid-fire lyrics, outsized characters and long, multi-part musical compositions of the first three albums; now the songs were leaner and more carefully drawn and began to reflect Springsteen's growing intellectual and political awareness. Some fans consider Darkness Springsteen's best and most consistent record; tracks such as "Badlands" and "The Promised Land" became concert staples for decades to come, while the track "Prove it All Night" received a significant amount of radio airplay. Other fans would prefer the work of the adventurous early Springsteen.^[10] The cross-country 1978 tour to promote the album would become legendary for the intensity of its shows.

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 U.S. No. 1 pop hit with a heavily rearranged version of Greetings' "Blinded by the Light" in early 1977. Patti Smith reached number 13 with her take on Springsteen's unreleased "Because the Night" in 1978, while The Pointer Sisters hit No. 2 in 1979 with Springsteen's also-unreleased "Fire".

Springsteen continued to consolidate his thematic focus on working-class life with the double album The River in 1980, which finally yielded his first hit single of his own, "Hungry Heart", but also included an intentionally paradoxical range of material from party rockers to intense piano ballads. The album sold well, and a long tour in 1980 and 1981 followed, featuring Springsteen's first extended playing of Europe and ending with a series of multi-night arena stands in major cities in the U.S.

[edit] 1982 - 1989

Springsteen suddenly veered off the normal rock career course, following The River with the stark solo acoustic Nebraska in 1982. According to the Marsh biographies, Springsteen was in a depressed state when he wrote this material, and the result is a brutal depiction of American life. The title track on this album is about the murder spree of Charles Starkweather. The album actually started (according to Marsh) as a demo tape for new songs to be played with the E Street Band - but during the recording process, Springsteen and producer Landau realized they worked better as solo acoustic numbers; several attempts at re-recording the songs in a studio led them to realize that the original versions, recorded on a simple, low-tech four-track cassette deck in Springsteen's kitchen, were the best versions they were going to get.

While Nebraska did not sell especially well, it garnered widespread critical praise (including being named "Album of the Year" by Rolling Stone magazine's critics) and influenced later significant works by other major artists, including U2's album, The Joshua Tree. It helped inspire the musical genre known as lo-fi music, becoming a cult favorite among indie-rockers. Springsteen did not tour in conjunction with Nebraska's release.

Springsteen probably is best known for his album Born in the U.S.A. (1984), which sold 15 million copies in the U.S. alone and became one of the best-selling albums of all time with seven singles hitting the top 10, and the massively successful world tour that followed it. The title track was a bitter commentary on the treatment of Vietnam veterans, some of whom were Springsteen's friends and bandmates. The song was widely misinterpreted as nationalistic, and in connection with the 1984 presidential campaign became the subject of considerable folklore. Springsteen also turned down several million dollars offered by Chrysler Corporation for using the song in a car commercial. (In later years, Springsteen performed the song accompanied only with acoustic guitar to more explicitly make clear the song's original meaning. An acoustic version also appeared on Tracks, a later album.) "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 music video for the song featured a young Courtney Cox dancing on stage with Springsteen, an appearance which helped kickstart the actress' career.

The Born in the U.S.A. period represented the height of Springsteen's visibility in popular culture and the broadest audience demographic he would ever reach (this was further helped by releasing Arthur Baker dance mixes of three of the singles). Live/1975-85, a five-record box set (also released on three cassettes or three CDs), was released near the end of 1986 and also became a huge success, selling 13 million units in the U.S. and becoming the first box set to debut at No. 1 on the U.S. album charts. It is one of the best selling live albums of all time. It summed up Springsteen's career to that point and displayed some of the elements that made his shows so powerful to his fans: the switching from mournful dirges to party rockers and back; the communal sense of purpose between artist and audience; the long, intense spoken passages before songs, including those describing Springsteen's difficult relationship with his father; and the instrumental prowess of the E Street Band, such as in the long coda to "Racing in the Street". Some fans and critics felt the song selection on this album could have been better, but in any case, Springsteen concerts are the subjects of frequent bootleg recording and trading among fans.

After this commercial peak, Springsteen released the much more sedate and contemplative Tunnel of Love (1987), a mature reflection on the many faces of love found, lost and squandered. It presaged the breakup of his first marriage to actress Julianne Phillips. Reflecting the challenges of love, on Tunnel of Love's title song, Springsteen famously sang:

Ought to be easy, ought to be simple enough. Man meets woman, and they fall in love. But the house is haunted, and the ride gets rough. You got to learn to live with what you can't rise above.

The subsequent Tunnel of Love Express tour shook up fans with changes to the stage layout, favorites dropped from the set list, and horn-based arrangements; during the European leg in 1988, Springsteen's relationship with E Street Band backup singer Patti Scialfa became public. Later in 1988, Springsteen headlined the truly worldwide Human Rights Now! Tour for Amnesty International. In the fall of 1989, Springsteen dissolved the E Street Band, and he and Scialfa relocated to California.

[edit] 1990s

Springsteen married Scialfa in 1991; they had three children born 1991, 1993 and 1995.

In 1992, after risking charges of "going Hollywood" by moving to Los Angeles (a radical move for someone so linked to the blue-collar life of the Jersey Shore) and working with session musicians, Springsteen released two albums at once. Human Touch and Lucky Town were even more introspective than any of his previous work. Also different about these albums was the confidence he displayed. As opposed to his first two albums, which dreamed of happiness, and his next four, which showed him growing to fear it, at points during the Lucky Town album, Springsteen actually claims happiness for himself.

Some E Street Band fans voiced (and continue to voice) a low opinion of these albums, (especially Human Touch), and did not follow the subsequent "Other Band" Tour. For other fans, however, who had only come to know Springsteen after the 1975 consolidation of the E Street Band, the "Other Band" Tour was an exciting opportunity to see Springsteen develop a working onstage relationship with a different group of musicians, and to see him explore the Asbury Park soul-and-gospel base in some of his classic material.

It was also during this tour that fans generally became aware of Springsteen using a teleprompter so as to not forget his lyrics, a practice that he may have begun on the Tunnel of Love Express but in any case has continued ever since. An electric band appearance on the acoustic MTV Unplugged television program (that was later released as In Concert/MTV Plugged) further cemented fan dissatisfaction.

Springsteen seemed to realize this dissatisfaction a few years hence when he spoke humorously of his late father during his Rock and Roll Hall of Fame acceptance speech:

I've gotta thank him because — what would I conceivably have written about without him? I mean, you can imagine that if everything had gone great between us, we would have had disaster. I would have written just happy songs – and I tried it in the early '90s and it didn't work; the public didn't like it.^[11]

A multiple Grammy Award winner, Springsteen also won an Academy Award in 1994 for his song "Streets of Philadelphia", which appeared in the soundtrack to the film Philadelphia. The song, along with the film, was applauded by many for its sympathetic portrayal of a gay man dying of AIDS. The music video for the song shows Springsteen's actual vocal performance, recorded using a hidden microphone, to a prerecorded instrumental track. This was a technique developed on the "Brilliant Disguise" video.

In 1995, after temporarily re-organizing the E Street Band for a few new songs recorded for his first Greatest Hits album (a recording session that was chronicled in the documentary Blood Brothers), he released his second (mostly) solo guitar album, The Ghost of Tom Joad. This was generally less well-received than the similar Nebraska, due to the minimal melody and twangy vocals. The lengthy, worldwide, small-venue solo acoustic Ghost of Tom Joad Tour that followed successfully featured many of his older songs in drastically reshaped acoustic form, although Springsteen had to explicitly remind his audiences to be quiet during the performances.

In 1995 Springsteen sang a duet with Elliott Murphy on "Everything I Do (Leads Me Back To You)" from Murphy's album Selling The Gold.

In 1998, another precursor to the E Street Band's upcoming re-birth appeared in the form of a sprawling, four-disc box set of out-takes, Tracks.

In 1999, Springsteen and the E Street Band officially came together again and went on the extensive Reunion Tour, lasting over a year. Highlights included a record sold-out, 15-show run at Continental Airlines Arena in East Rutherford, New Jersey to kick off the American leg of the tour.

[edit] 2000s

Springsteen's Reunion Tour with the E Street Band ended with a triumphant 10-night, sold-out engagement at New York City's Madison Square Garden in mid-2000 and controversy over a new song, "American Skin (41 Shots)", about the police shooting of Amadou Diallo. The final shows at Madison Square Garden were recorded and resulted in an HBO Concert, with corresponding DVD and album releases as Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band: Live In New York City.

In 2002, Springsteen released his first studio effort with the full band in 18 years, The Rising, produced by Brendan O'Brien. The album, mostly a reflection on the September 11 attacks, was a critical and popular success. The title track gained airplay in several radio formats, and the record became Springsteen's best-selling album of new material in 15 years. Bruce and the band played multiple songs on "The Today Show" from his hometown of Asbury Park in August 2002, thereby setting the stage for his new tour.The Rising Tour commenced at the same time, barnstorming through a series of single-night arena stands in the U.S. and Europe to promote the album in 2002, then returning for large-scale, multiple-night stadium shows in 2003. While Springsteen had maintained a loyal hardcore fan base everywhere (and particularly in Europe), his general popularity had dipped over the years in some southern and midwestern regions of the U.S. But it was still strong in Europe and along the U.S. coasts, and he played an unprecedented 10 nights in Giants Stadium in New Jersey, a ticket-selling feat to which no other musical act has come close.^[12] During these shows Springsteen thanked those fans who were attending multiple shows and those who were coming from long distances or another country; the advent of robust Bruce-oriented online communities had made such practices more common. The Rising Tour came to a final conclusion with three nights in Shea Stadium, highlighted by renewed controversy over "American Skin" and a guest appearance from Bob Dylan He also performed "Born in the USA" at the end of the night.

During the 2000s, Springsteen became a visible advocate for the revitalization of Asbury Park, and he's played an annual series of winter holiday concerts there to benefit various local businesses, organizations and causes. These shows are explicitly intended for the faithful, featuring numbers such as the unreleased (until Tracks) E Street Shuffle outtake "Thundercrack", a rollicking group-participation song that would mystify casual Springsteen fans. He also frequently rehearses for tours in Asbury Park; some of his most devoted followers even go so far as to stand outside the building to hear what fragments they can of the upcoming shows.

At the Grammy Awards of 2003, Springsteen performed The Clash's "London Calling" along with Elvis Costello, Dave Grohl, and E Street Band member Steven van Zandt in tribute to the late Joe Strummer; Springsteen and the Clash had once been considered multiple-album-dueling rivals at the time of the double The River and the triple Sandinista!.

In 2004, Springsteen announced that he and the E Street Band would participate in a politically motivated "Vote for Change" tour, in conjunction with John Mellencamp, John Fogerty, the Dixie Chicks, R.E.M., Jurassic 5, Dave Matthews Band, Jackson Browne and other musicians. All concerts were to be held in swing states, to benefit MoveOn.org and to encourage people to vote against George W. Bush. A finale was held in Washington, D.C., bringing many of the artists together. Several days later, Springsteen held one more such concert in New Jersey, when polls showed that state surprisingly close. While in past years Springsteen had played benefits for causes in which he believed – against nuclear energy, for Vietnam veterans, Amnesty International and the Christic Institute – he had always refrained from explicitly endorsing candidates for political office (indeed he had rejected the efforts of Walter Mondale to attract an endorsement during the 1984 Reagan "Born in the U.S.A." flap). This new stance led to criticism and praise from the expected partisan sources. Springsteen's "No Surrender" became the main campaign theme song for John Kerry's unsuccessful presidential campaign; in the last days of the campaign, he performed acoustic versions of the song and some of his other old songs at Kerry rallies. Springsteen's stance coincided with a reduction in his fan base over the next two years, but how much was due to his politics versus his uncommercial music choices was unclear.

Devils & Dust was released on April 26, 2005, and was recorded without the E Street Band. It is a low-key, mostly acoustic album, in the same vein as Nebraska and The Ghost of Tom Joad although with a little more instrumentation. Some of the material was written almost 10 years earlier during, or shortly after, the Ghost of Tom Joad Tour, a couple of them being performed then but never released. [1]. The title track concerns an ordinary soldier's feelings and fears during the Iraq War. Starbucks rejected a co-branding deal for the album, due in part to some sexually explicit content but also because of Springsteen's anti-corporate politics. Nonetheless, the album entered the album charts at No. 1 in 10 countries (United States, Austria, Switzerland, Sweden, Denmark, Italy, Germany, The Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Ireland).

Springsteen began the solo Devils & Dust Tour at the same time as the album's release, playing both small and large venues. Attendance was disappointing in a few regions, and everywhere (other than in Europe) tickets were easier to get than in the past. Unlike his mid-1990s solo tour, he performed on piano, electric piano, pump organ, autoharp, ukulele, banjo, electric guitar and stomping board, as well as acoustic guitar and harmonica, adding variety to the solo sound. (Offstage synthesizer, guitar and percussion also are used for some songs.) Unearthly renditions of "Reason to Believe", "The Promised Land", and Suicide's "Dream Baby Dream" jolted audiences to attention, while rarities, frequent set list changes, and a willingness to keep trying even through audible piano mistakes kept most of his loyal audiences happy.

In November 2005, New Jersey Senators Frank Lautenberg and Jon Corzine sponsored a U.S. Senate resolution to honor Springsteen on the 30th anniversary of the release of his Born to Run album. In general, resolutions honoring native sons are passed with a simple voice vote. For unstated reasons, this resolution was killed in committee. Eonline story, 11/2005 Also in November 2005, Sirius Satellite Radio started a 24-hour, seven-day-a-week radio station on Channel 10 called "E Street Radio." This channel, which has since been discontinued, featured commercial-free Bruce Springsteen music, including rare tracks, interviews and daily concerts of Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band recorded throughout their career.

In April 2006, Springsteen released his latest album, We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions, an American roots music project focused around a big folk sound treatment of 15 songs popularized by Pete Seeger. It was recorded with a large ensemble of musicians, including only Patti Scialfa, Soozie Tyrell, and the Miami Horns from past efforts. In contrast to previous albums, this was recorded in only three one-day sessions, and frequently one can hear Springsteen calling out key changes live as the band explores its way through the tracks. The Bruce Springsteen with The Seeger Sessions Band Tour began the same month, featuring the 18-strong ensemble of musicians dubbed the Seeger Sessions Band. Seeger Sessions material was heavily featured, as well as a handful of (usually drastically rearranged) Springsteen numbers. The tour proved very popular in Europe, selling out everywhere and receiving some excellent reviews [2], but newspapers reported that attendance at U.S. shows was occasionally sparse. [3] [4] [5] By the end of 2006, the Seeger Sessions tour toured Europe twice and toured America for only a short span. By January 2007, rumors surfaced on the Internet suggesting that Springsteen is recording in his home studio with members of the E Street Band, with the goal of releasing a new record and touring. On April 3 of 2007, Billboard magazine announced Springsteen's intention to release a live CD/DVD documenting his Fall 2006 Seeger Sessions Band tour of Europe. The album was recorded from a 3-night set of shows at the Point Theatre in Dublin, Ireland and contains songs such as "This Little Light of Mine," "How Can a Poor Man Stand Such Times and Live," "American Land,"When the Saints Go Marching In," as well as a few Springsteen originals that appeared on his earlier albums. The record will be released on June 5, 2007. Rumors persist that Springsteen is recording a new E Street Band album in Atlanta.

[edit] E Street Band

Main article: E Street Band

The E Street Band is considered to have started in October 1972, even though it wasn't officially billed and known as such until September 1974.^[13] The E Street Band was inactive from the end of 1988 through early 1999, except for a brief reunion in 1995.

[edit] Current members

• Danny Federici - organ, glockenspiel, accordion, keyboards
• Garry Tallent - bass guitar, tuba
• Clarence "Big Man" Clemons - saxophone, percussion, backing vocals, larger-than-life persona and Springsteen foil
• Max Weinberg - drums, percussion (joined September 1974)
• Roy Bittan - piano, synthesizer (joined September 1974)
• Steven Van Zandt - guitar, mandolin, backing vocals (officially joined July 1975 after playing in previous bands; left in 1984 to go solo; rejoined in early 1995)
• Nils Lofgren - guitar, pedal steel guitar, backing vocals (replaced Steven van Zandt in June 1984; remained in group after van Zandt returned)
• Patti Scialfa - backing and duet vocals, guitar (joined June 1984; became Springsteen's wife in 1991; they have a daughter and two sons)
• Soozie Tyrell - violin, percussion, backing vocals (joined 2002, occasional appearances before that)

• Springsteen himself does all lead vocals, guitar, harmonica, occasional piano, and even more rarely bass guitar.

[edit] Former members

• Vinnie "Mad Dog" Lopez - drums (inception through February 1974, when asked to resign)
• David Sancious - keyboards (June 1973 to August 1974)
• Ernest "Boom" Carter - drums (February to August 1974)
• Suki Lahav - violin, backing vocals (September 1974 to March 1975)

[edit] Discography

See Bruce Springsteen discography.

[edit] Samples

• Download sample of "Badlands" from Darkness on the Edge of Town
• Download sample of "Thunder Road" from Born to Run.
• Download sample of "Dancing in the Dark" from Born in the U.S.A.

[edit] Awards and recognition

[edit] Grammy Awards

Springsteen has won 15 Grammy Awards, as follows (years shown are the year the award was given for, not the year in which the ceremony was held):

• Best Rock Vocal Performance, Male, 1984, "Dancing in the Dark"
• Best Rock Vocal Performance, Male, 1987, "Tunnel of Love"
• Song of the Year, 1994, "Streets of Philadelphia"
• Best Rock Song, 1994, "Streets of Philadelphia"
• Best Rock Vocal Performance, Solo, 1994, "Streets of Philadelphia"
• Best Song Written Specifically for a Motion Picture or Television, 1994, "Streets of Philadelphia"
• Best Contemporary Folk Album, 1996, The Ghost of Tom Joad
• Best Rock Album, 2002, The Rising
• Best Rock Song, 2002, "The Rising"
• Best Male Rock Vocal Performance, 2002, "The Rising"
• Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal, 2003, "Disorder in the House" (with Warren Zevon)
• Best Solo Rock Vocal Performance, 2004, "Code of Silence"
• Best Solo Rock Vocal Performance, 2005, "Devils & Dust"
• Best Traditional Folk Album, 2006, The Seeger Sessions: We Shall Overcome
• Best Long Form Music Video, 2006, "Wings For Wheels: The Making Of Born to Run"

Only one of these awards has been one of the cross-genre "major" ones (Song, Record, or Album of the Year); he has been nominated a number of other times for the majors, but failed to win.

[edit] Music in Film & Television

• Lucky You (2007) (completed) (writer: "Lucky Town") (performer: "Lucky Town")
• Badland (2007) (completed) (writer: "DEVILS & DUST") (performer: "DEVILS & DUST")
• "20 to 1" (1 episode, 2006)

... aka 20 to 01 (Australia: promotional title)

   - Greatest Songs of All Time (2006) TV Episode (performer: "Born In The USA") ("Born In The USA") 

• "Shminiya, Ha-" (1 episode, 2006)

... aka The Eight (International: English title)

   - Teva Domem (2006) TV Episode (performer: "You're Missing") 

• Romance & Cigarettes (2005) (writer: "Red Headed Woman") (performer: "Red Headed Woman")
• Pavee Lackeen: The Traveller Girl (2005) (writer: "Because the Night")
• A Home at the End of the World (2004) (writer: "Because the Night")
• No Regrets (2004) (writer: "Dancing In The Dark") (performer: "Dancing In The Dark")
• Jersey Girl (2004) (writer: "My City of Ruins") (performer: "My City of Ruins", "Jersey Girl")
• "Cold Case" (1 episode, 2004)

   - The Lost Soul of Herman Lester (2004) TV Episode (performer: "Walk Like a Man") 

• Walk on Water (2004) ("Tunnel of love")
• Grand Theft Parsons (2003) (writer: "Blood Brothers") (performer: "Blood Brothers")
• 25th Hour (2002) (writer: "The Fuse") (performer: "The Fuse")
• "Ed" (1 episode, 2002)

   - Makeovers (2002) TV Episode (performer: "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town") 

• The Trip (2002/I) (writer: "Cover Me") (performer: "Cover Me")
• Hysterical Blindness (2002) (TV) (performer: "Tunnel of Love")
• Skins (2002) (writer: "BORN IN THE USA") (performer: "BORN IN THE USA")
• Prozac Nation (2001) (writer: "The Promise") (performer: "The Promise")
• Blow (2001) (writer: "Blinded By the Light") (publisher: "Blinded By the Light")
• Lucky Numbers (2000) (writer: "Light Of Day")

... aka Bon numéro, Le (France)

• Greenfingers (2000) (writer: "If I Should Fall Behind") (performer: "If I Should Fall Behind")

... aka Jailbuds (Europe: English title: DVD box title)

• The Perfect Storm (2000) (performer: "Hungry Heart")

... aka Sturm, Der (Germany)

• "Spin City" (1 episode, 2000)

   - Goodbye: Part 2 (2000) TV Episode (performer: "Glory Days") 

• High Fidelity (2000) (writer: "The River") (performer: "The River")
• Pitch People (1999) (writer: "4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)") (performer: "4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)") ("4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)")
• Big Daddy (1999/I) (writer: "Growin' Up") (performer: "Growin' Up")
• Limbo (1999) (performer: "Lift Me Up")
• "The Sopranos" (1999) TV Series (unknown episodes)
• A Night at the Roxbury (1998) (performer: "Secret Garden")
• The Wedding Singer (1998) (writer: "Hungry Heart") (performer: "Hungry Heart")
• Hard Rain (1998) (writer: "The River")

... aka Flood (Japan: English title) ... aka Pluie d'enfer (France)

• Lawn Dogs (1997) (performer: "Dancing In The Dark")
• Cop Land (1997) ("Drive All Night", "Stolen Car", "Darkness on the edge of town")
• Fierce Creatures (1997) (writer: "Hungy Heart")
• Jerry Maguire (1996) ("Secret Garden")
• Dead Man Walking (1995) (writer: "Dead Man Walkin'")
• The Crossing Guard (1995) (writer: "Missing") (performer: "Missing")
• Art for Teachers of Children (1995) (writer: "Blinded by the Light")
• Canadian Bacon (1995) (publisher: "Born in the USA")
• Speechless (1994) (writer: "I'm On Fire")
• Philadelphia (1993) (writer: "Streets of Philadelphia") (performer: "Streets of Philadelphia") (producer: "Streets of Philadelphia")
• The Switch (1993) (TV) (writer: "Human Touch") (performer: "Human Touch")
• Peter's Friends (1992) (writer: "Hungry Heart") (performer: "Hungry Heart")
• Honeymoon in Vegas (1992) (performer: "VIVA! LAS VEGAS")
• Texasville (1990) (writer: "Dancing In The Dark", "No Surrender", "Highway Patrolman") (performer: "Dancing In The Dark", "No Surrender")
• Roger & Me (1989) (writer: "My Hometown") (performer: "My Hometown")

... aka A Humorous Look at How General Motors Destroyed Flint, Michigan (USA: subtitle)

• In Country (1989) (writer: "I'm On Fire") (performer: "I'm On Fire")
• Bossen i byen (1988) (TV) (writer: "Tougher Than The Rest", "Tunnel Of Love", "The River", "Dancing In The Dark") (performer: "Boom Boom Boom", "Tougher Than The Rest", "Tunnel Of Love", "The River", "Dancing In The Dark")

... aka The Boss in Town (literal English title)

• "Fuori orario. Cose (mai) viste" (1988) TV Series (writer: "Because the Night")
• Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam (1987) (TV) (writer: "BORN IN THE USA") (performer: "BORN IN THE USA")

... aka Dear America

• Born in East L.A. (1987) (music: "Born in East L.A.")
• Light of Day (1987) (writer: "Light Of Day")
• Ruthless People (1986) (writer: "STAND ON IT") (performer: "STAND ON IT")
• Wise Guys (1986) (performer: "Pink Cadillac")
• Once Upon a Time (1986) (writer: "Dancing in the Dark") (performer: "Dancing in the Dark")
• "Saturday Night's Main Event" (1 episode, 1985)

... aka The Main Event (USA: short title)

   - Episode dated 10 May 1985 (1985) TV Episode (writer: "Born in the U.S.A.") (performer: "Born in the U.S.A.") 

• The Slugger's Wife (1985) (writer: "HUNGRY HEART")

... aka Neil Simon's The Slugger's Wife

• Mask (1985) (performer: "Badlands", "Thunder Road", "The Promised Land", "The River", "Born In The USA")

... aka Peter Bogdanovich's Mask (USA: complete title)

• Risky Business (1983) (performer: "HUNGRY HEART")
• Baby It's You (1983) (writer: "It's Hard To Be A Saint In The City", "The E Street Shuffle", "Jungleland", "She's the One", "Adam Raised a Cain") (performer: "It's Hard To Be A Saint In The City", "The E Street Shuffle", "Jungleland", "She's the One", "Adam Raised a Cain")

[edit] Academy Awards

• Academy Award for Best Song, 1993, Streets of Philadelphia from Philadelphia

[edit] Emmy Awards

• The Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band: Live In New York City HBO special won two technical Emmy Awards in 2001.

[edit] Other recognition

• Polar Music Prize in 1997.
• Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, 1999
• Inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, 1999
• "Born to Run" named "The unofficial youth anthem of New Jersey" by the New Jersey state legislature (something Springsteen always found to be ironic, considering that the song "is about leaving New Jersey")^[14]
• The minor planet 23990, discovered Sept. 4 1999 by I. P. Griffin at Auckland, New Zealand, was officially named in his honor^[15]
• Banner hung from the rafters of New Jersey's Continental Airlines Arena, honoring his 15 nights of sold-out shows there in 1999
• Banner hung from the rafters of Philadelphia's Wachovia Center in the colors of the Philadelphia Flyers, honoring Springsteen's 41 Philadelphia sold-out shows.
• Ranked #23 on Rolling Stone Magazine's list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.^[16], 2004.

[edit] Web domain dispute

In November 2000, Springsteen filed legal action against Jeff Burgar which accused him of registering the domain brucespringsteen.com (along with several other celebrity domains) in bad faith to funnel web users to his Celebrity 1000 portal site. Once the legal complaint was filed, Burgar pointed the domain to a Springsteen biography and message board. Burgar claims to be running a Springsteen fan club.

In February 2001, Springsteen lost his dispute with Burgar. A WIPO panel ruled 2 to 1 in favor of Burgar.

[edit] References

• Alterman, Eric. It Ain't No Sin To Be Glad You're Alive : The Promise of Bruce Springsteen. Little Brown, 1999. ISBN 0-316-03885-7.
• Coles, Robert. Bruce Springsteen's America: The People Listening, a Poet Singing. Random House, 2005. ISBN 0-375-50559-8.
• Cross, Charles R. Backstreets: Springsteen - the man and his music Harmony Books, New York 1989/1992. ISBN 0-517-58929-X. Contains 15+ interviews and a complete list of all Springsteen songs including unreleased compositions. Complete lising of all concerts 1965-1990 - most of them with tracklists. Hundreds of previously unreleased high quality color pictures.
• Cullen, Jim. Born in the U.S.A.: Bruce Springsteen and the American Tradition. 1997; Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 2005. New edition of 1997 study book places Springsteen's work in the broader context of American history and culture. ISBN 0-8195-6761-2
• Eliot, Marc with Appel, Mike. Down Thunder Road. Simon & Schuster, 1992. ISBN 0-671-86898-5.
• Graff, Gary. The Ties That Bind: Bruce Springsteen A to E to Z. Visible Ink, 2005. ISBN 1-57859-151-1.
• Guterman, Jimmy. Runaway American Dream: Listening to Bruce Springsteen. Da Capo, 2005. ISBN 0-306-81397-1.
• Hilburn, Robert. Springsteen. Rolling Stone Press, 1985. ISBN 0-684-18456-7.
• Knobler, Peter with special assistance from Greg Mitchell. "Who Is Bruce Springsteen and Why Are We Saying All These Wonderful Things About Him?" Crawdaddy, March 1973.
• Marsh, Dave. Bruce Springsteen: Two Hearts : The Definitive Biography, 1972-2003. Routledge, 2003. ISBN 0-415-96928-X. (Consolidation of two previous Marsh biographies, Born to Run (1981) and Glory Days (1987).)
• Wolff, Daniel. 4th of July, Asbury Park: A History of the Promised Land. Bloomsbury, 2005. ISBN 1-58234-509-0.
• Smith, Andrew Bruce Springsteen loses cybersquatting dispute, The Register, February 9, 2001.
• GROWIN' UP BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN BIOGRAPHY PAGES 1949-2003. Accessed on March 17, 2005.
• Bruce Springsteen biography. Accessed on March 17, 2005.

[edit] See also

• List of best selling music artists
• List of artists who reached number one on the U.S. Mainstream Rock chart
• E Street Band
• Patti Scialfa
• Jersey Shore Sound
• Jersey Shore
• Julio and the Fern Scissors

[edit] Further reading

• Greetings from E Street: The Story of Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band. Chronicle Books, 2006. ISBN 0-8118-5348-9.
• Days of Hope and Dreams: An Intimate Portrait of Bruce Springsteen. Billboard Books, 2003. ISBN 0-8230-8387-X.
• Racing in the Street: The Bruce Springsteen Reader. Penguin, 2004. ISBN 0-14-200354-9.
• Runaway American Dream: Listening to Bruce Springsteen. Da Capo Press, 2005. ISBN 0-306-81397-1.
• The Ties That Bind: Bruce Springsteen A to E to Z. Visible Ink Press, 2005. ISBN 1-57859-157-0.
• Bruce Springsteen: "Talking". Omnibus Press, 2004. ISBN 1-84449-403-9.

[edit] Footnotes

[edit] External links

• Bruce Springsteen official website
• Bruce Springsteen at the Internet Movie Database
• Bruce Springsteen official Shore Fire Media publicity site
• Map-based view of all Bruce Springsteen tours.
• Backstreets Magazine fan publication
• Tramps Like Us - Bruce Springsteen online community
• Brucebase - Online reference about live performances and studio sessions
• Bruce Springsteen Lyrics - Lyrics and detailed information to every song written by, performed by, or related to Bruce Springsteen.
• Lost In The Flood - The Bruce Springsteen collector's page.
• Bruce Springsteen at Rolling Stone
• Killing Floor - Historic setlists, band histories, etc.
• Bruce Springsteen-related places in New Jersey
• Bruce Springsteen at MTV

v • d • e Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band
Bruce Springsteen | Roy Bittan | Clarence Clemons | Danny Federici | Nils Lofgren | Patti Scialfa | Garry Tallent | Soozie Tyrell | Steven Van Zandt | Max Weinberg
Ernest "Boom" Carter | Suki Lahav | Vini "Mad Dog" Lopez | David Sancious
Original studio albums
Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. | The Wild, the Innocent and the E Street Shuffle | Born to Run | Darkness on the Edge of Town | The River | Nebraska | Born in the U.S.A. | Tunnel of Love | Human Touch | Lucky Town | The Ghost of Tom Joad | The Rising | Devils & Dust | We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions
Live albums
Live/1975-85 | Chimes of Freedom (EP) | In Concert/MTV Plugged | Live in New York City | Hammersmith Odeon London '75
Compilations, Reissues, and Unreleased material albums
Greatest Hits | Blood Brothers (EP) | Tracks | 18 Tracks | The Essential Bruce Springsteen | Born To Run 30th Anniversary Edition
Bruce Springsteen discography
Video releases
In Concert/MTV Plugged | Blood Brothers | The Complete Video Anthology / 1978-2000 | Live in New York City | Live in Barcelona | VH1 Storytellers | Wings For Wheels | Hammersmith Odeon London '75
Tours
Born to Run tours | Darkness Tour | River Tour | Born in the U.S.A. Tour | Tunnel of Love Express | Human Rights Now! | "Other Band" Tour | Ghost of Tom Joad Tour | Reunion Tour | Rising Tour | Vote for Change | Devils & Dust Tour | Seeger Sessions Band Tour
Other Related Articles
Mike Appel | Jon Landau | The Max Weinberg 7 | The Miami Horns
Categories
Bruce Springsteen | Bruce Springsteen albums | Bruce Springsteen songs | Bruce Springsteen videos | Bruce Springsteen tours

Persondata
NAME	Springsteen, Bruce
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen
SHORT DESCRIPTION	American rock and folk singer, songwriter, and guitarist
DATE OF BIRTH	September 23, 1949
PLACE OF BIRTH	Long Branch, New Jersey
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH