Springsteen was already playing in his first bands as early as 1965, and achieved his commercial breakthrough in 1975 with ”Born to Run”. Ever since, Bruce Springsteen has been singing about his homeland, about the roads that criss-cross the country, about the cars that travel along them, and about the people who get held back, lose their way or are only now really putting their foot down. Strictly speaking, the singer-songwriter from the US state of New Jersey, with Italian and Irish roots, is himself part of the American Experience; he was once rightly called the ‘only true musical chronicler from the eternal centre of the action’. The musician has been rewarded with over 160 million records sold worldwide and countless awards (including, amongst others, the Oscar for the song ”Streets of Philadelphia”), but above all with a title that no one can dispute: he is The Boss.
Today he is celebrating his 77th birthday. We wish him a happy birthday. And we’re marking the occasion with Lynn Goldsmith’s lavish photo book “Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band”, we take another look back at the beginnings of his unparalleled career.
→ Available from Taschen.
