Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band

I read that this was a very good autobiography and therefore put it on my wish list. I have never been one of Springsteen's big fans but I tend to like a lot of his music. I find the lives of musicians often interesting, especially when told with honesty.

Perhaps the biggest attraction Springsteen has for his fans is his honesty, his directness. His willingness to share his triumphs and failures without reservation does make this worth reading - or in this case listening to. Bruce spent seven years writing it, and does his best to bare his soul along with his thoughts about his music.

I went back and forth on whether I liked Springsteen's narration of his own work. His distinct gravelly voice could be a plus, and we know that when he expresses his emotions they are real and appropriate. Yet I often felt I might have preferred another reader. He seems at times flat. It may be that the act of reading this work is very different from singing what he has written, and he is not really an actor in that sense. It is difficult to bring to life words so painstakingly put on paper, to remain in the moment always.

The story is one of a difficult childhood in a New Jersey home that also holds great memories, the gradual development of his craft, his relationship with family and band mates, and the evolution of the music over time. I found it interesting but not as satisfying as I'd hoped.… (more)

20. Born to Run (Audio) by Bruce Springsteen
reader the author
published: 2016
format: Overdrive digital audio, 18:23 (and 510 page hardcover)
acquired: Library
Listened: unfinished. I listened to about 80% from Feb 14-27, read last 74 pages Apr 30 - Mar 1
rating: 4

(From Mar 4, when I was 80% done)
I have every intention of finishing this, but my library audio borrowing period expired and it's a popular book. I have a long wait until I get it back. I'm reviewing it now because I'm pretty sure I'm past the best part of the book and I'm going to forget too much if I wait.

I'm not a traditional Springsteen fan of any sort, but I have become a pretty big fan over (only) the last maybe five years or so. The name isn't new to me, but the magic still is. I love the acoustics, and variety, and the very real sense I get from his music...whatever it is that means. And I'm curious about who he is and was. So, this book really called to me. I was going to like it no matter what. That he reads himself only makes it that much more appealing. I was sold before I started.

What makes Springsteen's story interesting is that so much happened before he found success. He had played a long time with several different bands, developed into a stage and musical presence, for years, all under the radar. So, when Paul Hammond discovered him, this guy who took the bus into New York carrying his guitar over his head the whole way, because it had no case, who came alone, without his band, and played a few acoustic songs he had (Growing Up, and A Saint in the City), Hammond discovered a mature somewhat sophisticated talent. But, I'm getting ahead.

In sort of overwrought language using many maybe too strong words, the way a song writer might phrase it, he covers his childhood in Freehold, New Jersey, growing up in a working class family with an alcoholic father. At ten Elvis Presley was on the Ed Sullivan show, and captured his imagination. Springsteen calls him "a Saturday night jukebox Dionysos". He convinced his mother to rent him a guitar - but he didn't learn to play it. At 18 Springsteen was completely dedicated to music, obsessed. When his parents and younger sister moved to California, he stayed in New Jersey, essentially orphaned, and continue to play and obsess. He played lead guitar with the Castile's, who didn't feel he could sing, and later with Steel Mill, where he did sing. I imagine Steel Mill as some variation of Led Zeppelin, in 1969. Eventually he put his own band together, the Bruce Springsteen Band, originally ten members with keyboards and horns and female singers. All of these bands were successful enough to make some kind of living - albeit, he tells how he could live on $30 a week. But these were significant unknown groups. So, when he walked into Columbia Records to play for Paul Hammond alone, and presented himself as the next Bob Dylan (one of the many at the time), it was something a bit different from his usual. It's the moment that made him, or that allowed him to be made. The future E-Street would play on his first album and tour with him and always remain some part of who he was musically. Later, when Columbia told him his first album, Greetings from Asbury Park, NJ, didn't have any hits, he went out an wrote Blinded by the Light and Spirit of the Night. He was, and is, that kind of musician.

The rest of the book is an oddball story of success in the 1970's without a map and then superstardom in the 1980's. The musically obsessed Springsteen never took drugs, and didn't touch alcohol till he was 22. But he wasn't college educated, and was easily manipulated in contracts. And having spent his young life homeless, running from place to place, he couldn't settle down, and had a lot of trouble figuring out what to do with his success. That is to say the guy who wrote his breakthrough song, Born to Run, had a lot going on behind that song. (Oddly, his first top ten hit was the, to me, forgettable Hungry Heart).

The story through Paul Hammond takes up half of the 18 hours of the CD, and it's an absolutely amazing story. I liked the rest I listened to—including long sections on each album and the thought processes that went into them. As my borrowing period was about to expire he started on American Skin and I had to sneak away and make sure I at least got through that section. It's all interesting, but not the same wow as his background story, which is really the story behind all his music. Clean, sober, homeless, musically obsessed, mixing with a line of fascinating personalities and going nowhere while living on $30 a week. That is a story.

ETA - The review above is from March 4. Yesterday I finally picked up a hardcover to read the last 74 pages, which covers Clarence Clemmons (probably the most important member of E Street), The Rising and how it ties into 9-11, and where he mentions that he has been writing this for 7 years, on and off. That means he started in 2009, after playing the Super Bowl, and also the year Clarence passed away.

2017
https://www.librarything.com/topic/244568#5960854… (more)