Bruce Springsteen: the legend

Bruce Springsteen

The legend

To talk about a legend like Bruce Springsteen is a daunting task, a career that began in the early 1970s for a character who is still filling stadiums around the world.

In this our series of articles we will start with the official and unofficial discography and then move on to an overview of the concerts that have always followed the releases of his records.

Bruce Springsteen's first album dates back to 1972.

bruce-springsteen-1972-Greetings-from-Asbury-Park- NJ

bruce-springsteen Lost in the flood - AI generated image

1972 - #01 - Greetings from Asbury Park, NJ

It's a record with many words, rhymes, linguistic games, fast songs and strange characters, certainly autobiographical with events experienced or imagined by Springsteen himself. Legend has it that Bruce auditioned with manager John Hammond, the same one who looked after - for example - Bob Dylan, not the latest arrival, and convinced him with just one song: It's hard to be a saint in the city.

The most significant songs are For You, Blinded by the light, Spirit in the Night, Lost in the flood; some of them are still played in the most recent tours. In the next articles of this blog we will analyze the "life" of these songs and we will see that more than 50 years later these are still absolutely new.

In truth, the album was not an immediate success; it is said to have initially sold 25,000 copies, not a huge number; as with its successor, The Wild, the innocent and the E-street shuffle, they were good records that began to make Bruce Springsteen's name known but not to make him a star. This happened 3 years later, in 1975 with Born to Run, we'll get to that in the next post.

bruce-springsteen-1973-TheWildTheInnocent

bruce-springsteen New York City serenade - AI generated image

1973 - #02 - The wild, the innocent and the e-street shuffle

A year after "Greetings", which received good critical acclaim but not as much success with the public, "The wild" was released. Also in this case these are songs with very dense lyrics and unlikely and curious characters. Curiously, what happened with the first album is repeated: great enthusiasm from critics and few sales.

Some songs, however, are spectacular and are still considered top-notch: Kitty's back, Incident on 57th street, Rosalita and New York City serenade are probably part of the DNA of every self-respecting Springsteenian.

In "The wild" the legendary E-street band begins to take shape, although destined to change over the years: