As ‘Darkness On The Edge Of Town’ is reissued, we delve into the past of New Jersey’s most iconic musician: Bruce Springsteen.
1. He’s now known all around the world, but Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen, born on September 23rd 1949, cut his teeth in numerous bands such as The Castiles, Earth, Steel Mill and Dr Zoom And The Sonic Boom for a decade before the first incarnation of the now-legendary E Street Band formed in 1972.
2. Although Springsteen – nicknamed ‘The Boss’ – has been synonymous with New Jersey’s Asbury Park since the release of his 1973 debut album, ‘Greetings From Asbury Park, NJ’, he’s actually from Freehold, a small town about fifteen miles to the west.
3. In 1968, Springsteen was drafted into the US Army during the Vietnam War. However, days before his physical exam, he went out with some friends and stayed up the entire night and then got the bus with them to take the exam. He failed.
4. For much of his career, Springsteen has performed with the E Street Band, but they’ve never actually been credited on any of his studio albums. Instead, they’ve been listed as individuals. However, they were given full billing on ‘Live/1975-85’, a decade-spanning collection of live songs, and all subsequent live CDs and DVDs.
5. The iconic, anthemic ‘Born In The USA’ song actually started life as a gentle acoustic number he recorded as part of a demo tape that would eventually evolve into 1982’s ‘Nebraska’. Springsteen wrote a note to his manager Jon Landau about the song, saying that it “might have potential”.
6. After the phenomenal success – thirty million sales and counting – of 1984’s ‘Born In The USA’ album, one economist actually blamed the October 1987 stock market crash on the (relatively) poor sales of his follow-up album, ‘Tunnel Of Love’, which was released ten days before Black Monday.
7. Springsteen’s faltering relationship with first wife, actress Julianne Phillips, was the subject of ‘Tunnel Of Love’. They divorced in 1989, after Springsteen began an affair with E Street backing singer Patti Scialfa. They married in 1991 and have two children.
8. Springsteen has never had a Number One single in America or the UK. 1994’s ‘Streets Of Philadelphia’ reached number two in the British charts, while ‘Dancing In The Dark’ hit the same position on the Billboard Charts in 1984. However, Manfred Mann’s cover of ‘Blinded By The Light’ reached the Billboard top spot in February 1977.
9. He is one of the most heavily bootlegged artists of all time, and there are Brucelegs – as his fans call them – dating all the way back to a 1966 studio session he recorded with The Castiles, which was never officially released.
10. During the 2008 Presidential campaign, Springsteen campaigned fervently for Barack Obama. The following December, he was presented with a Kennedy Center award. “I’m the President,” said Obama as he introduced the musician, “but he’s the boss.”
