30 Dec Bruce Springsteen ~ The BOSS

Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen (born September 23, 1949) is an American singer, songwriter, and musician. He has released 20 studio albums, most of which feature his backing band, the E Street Band. Originally from the Jersey Shore, he is one of the originators of the heartland rock style of music, combining mainstream rock musical style with narrative songs about working class American life. During a career that has spanned six decades, Springsteen has become known for his poetic, socially conscious lyrics and energetic stage performances, sometimes lasting up to four hours. He has been nicknamed “The Boss“. .In 1973, Springsteen released his first two albums, Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. and The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle, neither of which earned him a large audience. He changed his style and reached worldwide popularity with Born to Run in 1975. It was followed by Darkness on the Edge of Town (1978) and The River (1980), which topped the US Billboard 200 chart. His first album without the E Street Band was Nebraska (1982). Born in the U.S.A. (1984), which reunited Springsteen with the E Street Band, became his most commercially successful album and one of the best-selling albums of all time. Seven of its singles reached the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100, including the title track. Springsteen recorded his next three albums, Tunnel of Love (1987), Human Touch (1992), and Lucky Town (1992), using mostly session musicians. He reassembled the E Street Band for 1995’s Greatest Hits and The Ghost of Tom Joad. His last release of the 1990s was the EP Blood Brothers (1996).

A solo cover album Only the Strong Survive (2022), Among the album era‘s prominent acts, Springsteen has sold more than 150 million records worldwide and more than 64 million albums in the United States, making him one of the world’s best-selling music artists. He has earned numerous awards for his work, including 20 Grammy Awards, two Golden Globes, an Academy Award, and a Special Tony Award (for Springsteen on Broadway). Springsteen was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1999 by Bono (the lead singer of U2), a favor he returned in 2005.

Springsteen was inducted into both the Songwriters Hall of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1999, received the Kennedy Center Honors in 2009, named MusiCares person of the year in 2013, and awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama in 2016.

He is of Dutch, Irish, and Italian descent. Springsteen’s Italian maternal grandfather emigrated through Ellis Island and could not read or write when he arrived. He eventually became a lawyer and impressed the young Springsteen as being larger than life. The name Springsteen is topographic and of Dutch origin, literally translated as “jump stone” but more generally a stepping stone used on unpaved streets or between two houses.

Called for the draft when he was 19, Springsteen failed the physical examination and avoided service in the Vietnam War. The concussion he suffered in a motorcycle accident when he was 17 and his behavior at induction reportedly made him unacceptable for service. The Springsteen family moved to San Mateo, California, in 1969, but Bruce, 20, and his sister, Virginia, who was married and pregnant, stayed behind

From 1969 through early 1971, Springsteen performed with Steel Mill (originally called Child), which included Danny Federici, Vini Lopez, Vinnie Roslin, and later Steve Van Zandt and Robbin Thompson. During this time, they performed regularly at venues on the Jersey Shore, especially The Stone Pony. In San Mateo, Steel Mill recorded three original Springsteen songs at Pacific Recording.^[

In October 1972, Springsteen formed a new band for the recording of his debut album, Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. The band eventually became known as the E Street Band, although the name was not used until September 1974. Springsteen acquired the nickname “the Boss” during this period, since he took on the task of collecting his band’s nightly pay and distributing it amongst his bandmates. The nickname also reportedly sprang from games of Monopoly that Springsteen would play with other Jersey Shore musicians.

In September 1973, Springsteen’s second album, The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle, was released. Like Greetings from Asbury Park, it was met with critical acclaim but limited commercial success. Springsteen’s songs became grander in form and scope with the E Street Band providing a less folksy, more rhythm and blues vibe, and the lyrics often romanticized teenage street life. “4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)” and “Incident on 57th Street” became fan favorites, and the long, rousing “Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)” continues to rank among Springsteen’s most beloved concert numbers. “Rosalita” is the ninth most played song in his catalog; as of June 2020, it has been played by Springsteen 809 times.

On August 13, 1975, Springsteen and the E Street Band began a five-night, 10-show stand at New York’s The Bottom Line club. The 10-show stand attracted media attention and was broadcast live on WNEW-FM. Born to Run was released on August 25, 1975. It proved to be a breakthrough album that catapulted Springsteen to worldwide fame.

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

Later in 1988, Springsteen headlined the worldwide Human Rights Now! tour for Amnesty International. In late 1989, he dissolved the E Street Band.

On December 14, 2018, the live album Springsteen on Broadway was released. The album reached the top 10 in more than 10 countries and no. 11 in the United States.

It was announced on July 23, 2019, that Springsteen would premiere his film, Western Stars, at the Toronto Film Festival in September 2019. He co-directed the film along with longtime collaborator Thom Zimny. On May 29, 2020, Springsteen appeared remotely during a livestream, no-audience concert by the Dropkick Murphys at Fenway Park in Boston. Springsteen performed the Dropkick Murphys song “Rose Tattoo” and his song “American Land”, sharing co-vocals with Ken Casey on both songs. The event marked the first music performance without an in-person audience at a major U.S. arena, stadium or ballpark during the COVID-19 pandemic. During the livestream, viewers were encouraged to make charitable donations.^[159] The livestream attracted over 9 million viewers and raised over $700,000.

On February 22, 2021, it was announced that Springsteen was releasing an eight-part podcast on Spotify titled Renegades: Born in the USA that would feature himself in conversation with Barack Obama discussing a wide range of topics including family, race, marriage, fatherhood, and the state of the U.S.

On September 11, 2021, Springsteen performed “I’ll See You in My Dreams” in tribute to the victims of the September 11 attacks.

On December 13, 2021, Springsteen gave a surprise four song performance at the John Henry’s Friends benefit concert for children diagnosed with Autism where he was joined by Steve Earle and the Dukes as his backing band. On December 14, 2021, Max Weinberg indicated that he felt a tour with Springsteen and the E Street Band was very likely in 2022 saying “Until the bus pulls up at my house, figuratively speaking, I’m not quite sure but I’m pretty convinced … (that) myself, my colleagues and the people who are interested are going to be very pleasantly surprised in 2022. I don’t make plans for Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band but I feel very good about the next 18, 24 months. On December 16, 2021, Springsteen sold the masters of his entire catalog and the coinciding music publishing rights to Sony Music for $500 million. This topped what Bob Dylan and Taylor Swift received for their catalogs by $200 million. This sale, along with his Broadway shows and projects with Obama, helped him top the Rolling Stone list of the highest-paid musicians of 2021.

On May 24, 2022, it was announced that he would be launching an international tour with the E Street Band in 2023, the first such since 2017.^[182]

On September 26, 2022, it was announced that Springsteen and his wife Patti Scialfa would perform at the inaugural Albie Awards at the New York Public Library on September 29, 2022.

On September 29, 2022, Springsteen announced that his twenty-first studio album, Only the Strong Survive, would be released on November 11, 2022. The album features fifteen covers of classic soul music songs from the 60s and 70s and was preceded by the singles “Do I Love You (Indeed I Do)” and “Nightshift“.

While rejecting religion in his earlier years, Springsteen stated in his autobiography Born to Run, “I have a personal relationship with God. I believe in his power to save, love […] but not to damn.” In terms of his lapsed Catholicism, he has stated that he “came to ruefully and bemusedly understand that once you’re a Catholic you’re always a Catholic”. He elaborated, “I don’t participate in my religion but I know somewhere… deep inside… I’m still on the team. Springsteen has spoken openly about his struggles with depression, which he accepted and began to face in his 30s. Around this time, frustrated with being an underweight “fast food junkie” who would have to be helped off the stage after a show due to poor health, he began running up to six miles on a treadmill and lifting weights three times a week; in September 2019, an article celebrating his 70th birthday revealed that he has maintained this same workout routine since he began following it. He has also reportedly followed a mostly vegetarian diet since around the same time, and has avoided hard drugs all of his life.

Springsteen was introduced to actress Julianne Phillips and married her shortly after midnight on May 13, 1985 at Our Lady of the Lake Catholic Church in Lake Oswego, Oregon. Opposites in background, the two had an 11-year age difference, and Springsteen’s traveling took its toll on their relationship. Phillips filed for divorce in Los Angeles on August 30, 1988and a settlement was reached in December and finalized on March 1, 1989. They had no children.

Springsteen and Scialfa lived in New Jersey before moving to Los Angeles, where they decided to start a family. On July 25, 1990, Scialfa gave birth to the couple’s first child, Evan James Springsteen. On June 8, 1991, Springsteen and Scialfa married at their Los Angeles home in a private ceremony, only attended by family and close friends. Their second child, Jessica Rae Springsteen, was born on December 30, 1991. Their third child, Samuel Ryan Springsteen, was born on January 5, 1994. In a 1995 interview, Springsteen said, “I went through a divorce, and it was really difficult and painful and I was very frightened about getting married again. So part of me said, ‘Hey, what does it matter?’ But it does matter. It’s very different than just living together. First of all, stepping up publicly—which is what you do: You get your license, you do all the social rituals—is a part of your place in society and in some way part of society’s acceptance of you … Patti and I both found that it did mean something.”

When their children reached school age in the 1990s, Springsteen and Scialfa moved back to New Jersey to raise them away from paparazzi. The family owns and lives on a horse farm in Colts Neck Township and has a home in Rumson; they also own homes in Los Angeles and Wellington, Florida. Evan graduated from Boston College; he writes and performs his own songs and won the 2012 Singer/Songwriter Competition held during the Boston College’s Arts Festival. Jessica graduated from Duke University and is a nationally ranked champion equestrian. She made her show-jumping debut with the Team USA in August 2014. She won a silver medal as part of the U.S. equestrian team at the 2020 Summer Olympics, held in Tokyo in 2021 due to the COVID-19 epidemic. Sam is a Jersey City, New Jersey, firefighter.

On July 17, 2022, Scialfa posted on social media that she and Springsteen became first-time grandparents when she announced the birth of a daughter of their son Sam.^[

Springsteen supported Barack Obama‘s presidential campaigns.

Springsteen is an activist for LGBT rights and has spoken out many times as a strong supporter of gay marriage. In an April 1996 interview with The Advocate he spoke of the importance of gay marriage: “You get your license, you do all the social rituals. It’s part of your place in society, and in some way part of society’s acceptance of you.”  In 2009, he posted the following statement on his website: “I’ve long believed in and have always spoken out for the rights of same sex couples and fully agree with Governor Corzine when he writes that ‘The marriage-equality issue should be recognized for what it truly is—a civil rights issue that must be approved to assure that every citizen is treated equally under the law.'” In 2012, he lent his support to an ad campaign for gay marriage called “The Four 2012”. Springsteen noted in the ad, “I couldn’t agree more with that statement and urge those who support equal treatment for our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters to let their voices be heard now.”

A few days prior to the 2020 United States presidential election, Springsteen provided narration for a campaign ad that spotlights Biden’s upbringing in Scranton, Pennsylvania with “My Hometown” playing throughout the ad Biden used “We Take Care of Our Own” as one of his theme songs, as Obama had before him in 2012.