- Bruce Sringsteen was asked to star in the movie, Eddie and the Cruisers, however he declined the opportunity because he was not ready to be a movie star.
- Bruce wrote the song, "Into the Fire", days after 9/11 attacks, although had a change of heart when it came time to publish the song, because he felt as though it was to early. Instead, he chose to publish the song, "My City of Ruins", that was written for Asbury Park, not 9/11.
- Springsteen's first top 10 single on the U.S. Billboard chart was "Hungry Heart".
- Before singing, "Born to Run", Bruce Springsteen would turn to the crowd and say, "nobody wins, unless everybody wins".
- In Bruce Springsteen's song, "My Best Was Never Good Enough", he stole the lines "Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're gonna get" from the movie "Forrest Gump".
- Springsteen wrote the songs, "Bobby Jean" and "No Surrender" about Steven Van Zandt, a guitarist for the E Street Band, and close friend of Bruce.
- At the age of 15, Bruce gave up his dreams of being a pro baseball player after he saw Elvis Presley on The Ed Sullivan Show, and began playing the guitar in clubs at the age of 16.
- In September 28, 2007, Bruce performed on The Today Show, and sang the song, "Radio Nowhere," in which the chorus contains the line, "Is there anybody alive out there?" In a response, an audience member held up a sign that said, "We're all alive out here."
- At 13, Springsteen bought his first guitar for $18, and he still plays that same guitar to this day.
- Springsteen hated high school, and he ended up skipping his high school graduation ceremony. The following line in the song, "No Surrender", portrays this:
"We learned more from a 3 minute record than we ever learned in school"
Friday, September 5, 2008
Bruce Springsteen
10 Interesting Facts:
Bruce Springsteen Timeline
September 23, 1949: Bruce Springsteen is born in Freehold, New Jersey.
May 3, 1972: Bruce Springsteen auditions for Columbia Records A&R man John Hammond at his office in New York. He signs with the label a month later.
January 1, 1973: ‘Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J.’, Bruce Springsteen’s debut album, is released.
January 31, 1973: Bruce Springsteen performs in New York City for the first time.
November 1, 1973: The Wild, the Innocent and the E Street Shuffle’, Bruce Springsteen’s second album in less than a year, is released. Though neither album charts until 1975, Bruce Springsteen and his newly christened E Street Band steadily win fans on the road with their powerful two-hour sets.
May 22, 1974: A performance in Cambridge, Massachusetts, inspires music journalist Jon Landau to write, “I saw rock and roll’s future—and its name is Bruce Springsteen.”
September 6, 1975: ‘Born to Run’ by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band is released. The album garners critical raves, and Springsteen appears on the covers of both ‘Time’ and ‘Newsweek’ at the end of October.
October 27, 1975: Bruce Springsteen appears simultaneously on the covers of ‘Newsweek’ and ‘Time’ after ‘Born to Run’, his much-anticipated third album, quickly vaults to #3 on the album chart.
November 1, 1975: Bruce Springsteen hits #23 with “Born to Run”.
July 1976 - May 1977: Bruce Springsteen is engaged in a legal battle with manager Mike Appel, during which time an injunction prohibits Bruce Springsteen from recording with ‘Born to Run’ coproducer and soon-to-be manager Jon Landau.
June 1, 1977: After a settlement is reached in his lawsuits on May 28, Bruce Springsteen begins work on ‘Darkness On the Edge of Town’, his long-delayed fourth album. It is released on almost exactly a year later.
May 23, 1978: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band kick off their first major arena tour in Buffalo, New York. It ends seven months and 109 cities later in Cleveland on January 1, 1979.
September 23, 1979: On the very day he turns 30, Bruce Springsteen performs a set at New York’s Madison Square Garden as part of the Musicians United for Safe Energy (MUSE) benefit concert. His “Mitch Ryder Medley” is a favorite part of the multi-artist three-album set, No Nukes, culled from the concert.
November 1, 1980: ‘The River’, Bruce Springsteen’s sprawling double-album masterwork, enters the U.S. charts, which it tops for four consecutive weeks. Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band kick off another marathon tour on November 3. It ends ten and a half months later in Cincinnati, on September 14, 1981.
1982: Bruce Springsteen releases his mostly acoustic, folk-flavored album ‘Nebraska’.
September 1, 1982: Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska, an acoustic solo set of dark-themed material cut at home on a four-track cassette recorder—and originally intended as a demo tape of new material for the E Street Band to learn—is released as is.
June 17, 1984: Culled from roughly 100 songs recorded over the previous year and a half, Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Born in the U.S.A.’ is released. It becomes one of the biggest albums of the Eighties, remaining at #1 for seven weeks and selling more than 15 million copies. It also launches seven Top Ten singles: “Dancing in the Dark” (#2), “Cover Me” (#7), “Born in the U.S.A.” (#9), “I’m On Fire” (#6), “Glory Days” (#5), “I’m Goin’ Down” (#9) and “My Hometown” (#6).
October 2, 1985: Bruce Springsteen’s globe-trotting Born in the U.S.A. Tour draws to a close at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. The 15-month, 150-date outing found him performing at mammoth outdoor stadiums and indoor arenas.
November 29, 1986: Bruce-mania remains in full swing as Bruce Springsteen’s hotly anticipated five-album box set, Live/1975-85, becomes a retail sensation at Christmastime. The decade-spanning collection of concert recordings enters the chart at #1.
November 5, 1987: ‘Tunnel of Love’ becomes Bruce Springsteen’s fourth #1 album, following ‘The River’, ‘Born in the U.S.A.’ and ‘Live 1975-85’. According to ‘Billboard’, he is the only artist to amass four #1 albums in the past ten years.
January 31, 1989: The 18-song Video Anthology/1978-88, which contains every Bruce Springsteen video to date, is released.
June 9, 1991: Bruce Springsteen and Patti Scialfa, a member of his E Street Band since 1984, are married in a ceremony at their home in Beverly Hills, California.
April 18, 1992: ‘Human Touch’ and ‘Lucky Town’, two simultaneously released studio albums by Bruce Springsteen, debut at #2 and #3, respectively.
November 11, 1992: A live-in-the-studio performance by a fully plugged-in Bruce Springsteen and band premieres on MTV’s “Unplugged” series. The show is released on home video a month later as ‘Bruce Springsteen: MTV Plugged’ and appears on CD in 1997.
November 11, 1992: MTV presents Bruce Springsteen in a first-ever televised concert performance “Bruce Springsteen Plugged.”
April 23, 1994: “Streets of Philadelphia,” Bruce Springsteen’s contribution to the film AIDS-themed film ‘Philadelphia’, becomes his first Top Ten hit since “Tunnel of Love” in 1987.
March 18, 1995: ‘Greatest Hits’, an 18-track anthology that includes newly recorded tracks by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, enters the album chart at #1. A video documentary of the studio reunion is released in 1998 as ‘Blood Brothers’.
September 2, 1995: Backed by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, Jerry Lee Lewis sings “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On” and “Great Balls of Fire” at the Concert for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland.
September 2, 1995: Backed by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, Chuck Berry performs “Johnny B. Goode” and “Rock and Roll Music” at the Concert for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland.
November 26, 1996: Bruce Springsteen begins his first solo acoustic tour in Los Angeles, coinciding with the release of ‘The Ghost of Tom Joad’.
March 15, 1999: Bruce Springsteen is inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame at the fourteenth annual induction dinner. Bono (of U2) is his presenter.
April 9, 1999: Bruce Springsteen’s reunion tour with the E Street Band kicks off in Barcelona, Spain. The band plays for three hours without a break.
July 15, 1999: The U.S. leg of the Bruce Springsteen and the E-Street Band reunion tour commences with the first of 15 sold-out shows at New Jersey’s Continental Airlines Arena.
April 17, 2008: Danny Federici, keyboardist for Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, dies of melanoma in New York City.
Timeline was from: http://www.rockhall.com/inductee/bruce-springsteen
May 3, 1972: Bruce Springsteen auditions for Columbia Records A&R man John Hammond at his office in New York. He signs with the label a month later.
January 1, 1973: ‘Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J.’, Bruce Springsteen’s debut album, is released.
January 31, 1973: Bruce Springsteen performs in New York City for the first time.
November 1, 1973: The Wild, the Innocent and the E Street Shuffle’, Bruce Springsteen’s second album in less than a year, is released. Though neither album charts until 1975, Bruce Springsteen and his newly christened E Street Band steadily win fans on the road with their powerful two-hour sets.
May 22, 1974: A performance in Cambridge, Massachusetts, inspires music journalist Jon Landau to write, “I saw rock and roll’s future—and its name is Bruce Springsteen.”
September 6, 1975: ‘Born to Run’ by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band is released. The album garners critical raves, and Springsteen appears on the covers of both ‘Time’ and ‘Newsweek’ at the end of October.
October 27, 1975: Bruce Springsteen appears simultaneously on the covers of ‘Newsweek’ and ‘Time’ after ‘Born to Run’, his much-anticipated third album, quickly vaults to #3 on the album chart.
November 1, 1975: Bruce Springsteen hits #23 with “Born to Run”.
July 1976 - May 1977: Bruce Springsteen is engaged in a legal battle with manager Mike Appel, during which time an injunction prohibits Bruce Springsteen from recording with ‘Born to Run’ coproducer and soon-to-be manager Jon Landau.
June 1, 1977: After a settlement is reached in his lawsuits on May 28, Bruce Springsteen begins work on ‘Darkness On the Edge of Town’, his long-delayed fourth album. It is released on almost exactly a year later.
May 23, 1978: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band kick off their first major arena tour in Buffalo, New York. It ends seven months and 109 cities later in Cleveland on January 1, 1979.
September 23, 1979: On the very day he turns 30, Bruce Springsteen performs a set at New York’s Madison Square Garden as part of the Musicians United for Safe Energy (MUSE) benefit concert. His “Mitch Ryder Medley” is a favorite part of the multi-artist three-album set, No Nukes, culled from the concert.
November 1, 1980: ‘The River’, Bruce Springsteen’s sprawling double-album masterwork, enters the U.S. charts, which it tops for four consecutive weeks. Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band kick off another marathon tour on November 3. It ends ten and a half months later in Cincinnati, on September 14, 1981.
1982: Bruce Springsteen releases his mostly acoustic, folk-flavored album ‘Nebraska’.
September 1, 1982: Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska, an acoustic solo set of dark-themed material cut at home on a four-track cassette recorder—and originally intended as a demo tape of new material for the E Street Band to learn—is released as is.
June 17, 1984: Culled from roughly 100 songs recorded over the previous year and a half, Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Born in the U.S.A.’ is released. It becomes one of the biggest albums of the Eighties, remaining at #1 for seven weeks and selling more than 15 million copies. It also launches seven Top Ten singles: “Dancing in the Dark” (#2), “Cover Me” (#7), “Born in the U.S.A.” (#9), “I’m On Fire” (#6), “Glory Days” (#5), “I’m Goin’ Down” (#9) and “My Hometown” (#6).
October 2, 1985: Bruce Springsteen’s globe-trotting Born in the U.S.A. Tour draws to a close at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. The 15-month, 150-date outing found him performing at mammoth outdoor stadiums and indoor arenas.
November 29, 1986: Bruce-mania remains in full swing as Bruce Springsteen’s hotly anticipated five-album box set, Live/1975-85, becomes a retail sensation at Christmastime. The decade-spanning collection of concert recordings enters the chart at #1.
November 5, 1987: ‘Tunnel of Love’ becomes Bruce Springsteen’s fourth #1 album, following ‘The River’, ‘Born in the U.S.A.’ and ‘Live 1975-85’. According to ‘Billboard’, he is the only artist to amass four #1 albums in the past ten years.
January 31, 1989: The 18-song Video Anthology/1978-88, which contains every Bruce Springsteen video to date, is released.
June 9, 1991: Bruce Springsteen and Patti Scialfa, a member of his E Street Band since 1984, are married in a ceremony at their home in Beverly Hills, California.
April 18, 1992: ‘Human Touch’ and ‘Lucky Town’, two simultaneously released studio albums by Bruce Springsteen, debut at #2 and #3, respectively.
November 11, 1992: A live-in-the-studio performance by a fully plugged-in Bruce Springsteen and band premieres on MTV’s “Unplugged” series. The show is released on home video a month later as ‘Bruce Springsteen: MTV Plugged’ and appears on CD in 1997.
November 11, 1992: MTV presents Bruce Springsteen in a first-ever televised concert performance “Bruce Springsteen Plugged.”
April 23, 1994: “Streets of Philadelphia,” Bruce Springsteen’s contribution to the film AIDS-themed film ‘Philadelphia’, becomes his first Top Ten hit since “Tunnel of Love” in 1987.
March 18, 1995: ‘Greatest Hits’, an 18-track anthology that includes newly recorded tracks by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, enters the album chart at #1. A video documentary of the studio reunion is released in 1998 as ‘Blood Brothers’.
September 2, 1995: Backed by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, Jerry Lee Lewis sings “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On” and “Great Balls of Fire” at the Concert for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland.
September 2, 1995: Backed by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, Chuck Berry performs “Johnny B. Goode” and “Rock and Roll Music” at the Concert for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland.
November 26, 1996: Bruce Springsteen begins his first solo acoustic tour in Los Angeles, coinciding with the release of ‘The Ghost of Tom Joad’.
March 15, 1999: Bruce Springsteen is inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame at the fourteenth annual induction dinner. Bono (of U2) is his presenter.
April 9, 1999: Bruce Springsteen’s reunion tour with the E Street Band kicks off in Barcelona, Spain. The band plays for three hours without a break.
July 15, 1999: The U.S. leg of the Bruce Springsteen and the E-Street Band reunion tour commences with the first of 15 sold-out shows at New Jersey’s Continental Airlines Arena.
April 17, 2008: Danny Federici, keyboardist for Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, dies of melanoma in New York City.
Timeline was from: http://www.rockhall.com/inductee/bruce-springsteen
Song Analysis: The Ghost of Tom Joad
In life people are faced with challenges, struggles, and unfortunate situations everyday. It could range from the death of a new born, trying to survive in an unstable family, a murder of a loved one, or even not knowing where you will sleep each night. Although everyone may have a different struggle, they all have one thing in common that keeps them going: faith. Musicians often corroborate these life shattering situations into their songs, which make their listeners aware and recognize the struggle some face. Bruce Springsteen’s song, The Ghost of Tom Joad, identifies struggles many Americans encounter, and the importance of keeping faith through these tough times.
In the first stanza, Springsteen illustrates how many Americans are forced to live their lives due to what ever reason. For example, “Hot soup on a campfire under the bridge, shelter line stretchin' round the corner, welcome to the new world order, families sleepin' in their cars in the southwest, no home no job no peace no rest” (4-8). Thousands of individuals are trying to figure out how to get by in today’s world, resulting in many having to go to desperate measures. More and more people are becoming homeless, starving, and often not feeling safe at all. In the third stanza Bruce portrays the struggle immigrants undergo on their journey to finding a better life. For instance, “Got a one-way ticket to the promised land, you got a hole in your belly and gun in your hand, sleeping on a pillow of solid rock, bathin' in the city aqueduct”(17-20). Although what these individuals are going through from being hungry, to sleeping on rocks, to bathing in a canal, they still continue plugging along in hopes that the promise land will provide them with better opportunities, and a life that they could only dream of. No matter how tough life gets these people never give up, even when they are at their worst. They just keep, “Searchin' for the ghost of Tom Joad” (12). Alluding to the hero in John Steinbeck's 'Grapes of Wrath', meaning that they keep faith, and keep searching and wishing that things will get better, and that keeps them going. For example, “wherever there's a cop beatin' a guy, wherever a hungry newborn baby cries, where there's a fight 'gainst the blood and hatred in the air, look for me Mom I'll be there” (25-28). All these individuals have taken everything life has thrown at them, but through it all they still have faith and believe that it can’t get any worse, and they hope to see a day when they won’t have to struggle and fight anymore.
In conclusion, life is unpredictable and you could be rich one day and dirt poor the next. However, the individuals’ stories in Bruce Springsteen’s song, The Ghost of Tom Joad, illustrate the refusal to accept life’s cruelest ‘fates’, and the determination to remain faithful in hopes that that their fate may change. Bruce Springsteen did a phenomenal job of illustrating life’s challenges by creating a merciless atmosphere through his lyrics and melody, which conveys life's challenges and struggles that many are unaware of.
The Ghost of Tom Joad Lyrics (click here)
In the first stanza, Springsteen illustrates how many Americans are forced to live their lives due to what ever reason. For example, “Hot soup on a campfire under the bridge, shelter line stretchin' round the corner, welcome to the new world order, families sleepin' in their cars in the southwest, no home no job no peace no rest” (4-8). Thousands of individuals are trying to figure out how to get by in today’s world, resulting in many having to go to desperate measures. More and more people are becoming homeless, starving, and often not feeling safe at all. In the third stanza Bruce portrays the struggle immigrants undergo on their journey to finding a better life. For instance, “Got a one-way ticket to the promised land, you got a hole in your belly and gun in your hand, sleeping on a pillow of solid rock, bathin' in the city aqueduct”(17-20). Although what these individuals are going through from being hungry, to sleeping on rocks, to bathing in a canal, they still continue plugging along in hopes that the promise land will provide them with better opportunities, and a life that they could only dream of. No matter how tough life gets these people never give up, even when they are at their worst. They just keep, “Searchin' for the ghost of Tom Joad” (12). Alluding to the hero in John Steinbeck's 'Grapes of Wrath', meaning that they keep faith, and keep searching and wishing that things will get better, and that keeps them going. For example, “wherever there's a cop beatin' a guy, wherever a hungry newborn baby cries, where there's a fight 'gainst the blood and hatred in the air, look for me Mom I'll be there” (25-28). All these individuals have taken everything life has thrown at them, but through it all they still have faith and believe that it can’t get any worse, and they hope to see a day when they won’t have to struggle and fight anymore.
In conclusion, life is unpredictable and you could be rich one day and dirt poor the next. However, the individuals’ stories in Bruce Springsteen’s song, The Ghost of Tom Joad, illustrate the refusal to accept life’s cruelest ‘fates’, and the determination to remain faithful in hopes that that their fate may change. Bruce Springsteen did a phenomenal job of illustrating life’s challenges by creating a merciless atmosphere through his lyrics and melody, which conveys life's challenges and struggles that many are unaware of.
The Ghost of Tom Joad Lyrics (click here)
Video
- Bruce Springsteen The Ghost of Tom Joad music video: (click here)
- Baseballs to guitars: (click here)
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