Bruce Springsteen 1949- Rock Singer

A Life in Music and Lyrics

Discography

Early Years The Wild, The Innocent and the E Street Shuffle - About life in New Jersey as a young man - Cars, chasing women, hanging out, growing up - Musical sound – rock, messy, complicated, too many ideas all there at once (Play a song from album)

Lyrics of ‘Growing Up’ I took month-long vacations in the stratosphere, and you know it's really hard to hold your breath I swear I lost everything I ever loved or feared, I was the cosmic kid in full costume dress Well, my feet they finally took root in the earth, but I got me a nice little place in the stars And I swear I found the key to the universe in the engine of an old parked car I hid in the mother breast of the crowd, but when they said, "Pull down," I pulled up Ooh... growin' up Ooh... growin' up

Breakthrough Born to Run ‘I have just seen the future of rock n roll and his name is Bruce Springsteen.’ Time Magazine 1975 All-American, working class man’s world. Dreams of escaping a boring world (‘Born to Run’, ‘Thunder Road’), love, city life Play part of songs

Lyrics of ‘Thunder Road’ Oh oh, come take my hand We're riding out tonight to case the promised land Oh oh oh oh, Thunder Road Oh, Thunder Road, oh, Thunder Road Lying out there like a killer in the sun Hey, I know it's late, we can make it if we run Oh oh oh oh, Thunder Road Sit tight, take hold, Thunder Road Well, I got this guitar and I learned how to make it talk And my car's out back if you're ready to take that long walk From your front porch to my front seat The door's open but the ride ain't free And I know you're lonely for words that I ain't spoken But tonight we'll be free, all the promises'll be broken There were ghosts in the eyes of all the boys you sent away They haunt this dusty beach road in the skeleton frames of burned-out Chevrolets They scream your name at night in the street Your graduation gown lies in rags at their feet And in the lonely cool before dawn You hear their engines rolling on But when you get to the porch, they're gone on the wind So Mary, climb in It's a town full of losers, I'm pulling out of here to win

Identity changing The next three albums all follow a path Darkness on the Edge of Town, The River, Nebraska. They are moving away from the city to the isolation of the countryside. Springsteen himself was coping with his celebrity status and really wanted nothing to do with it – he was running away from the glitz and glamor. (Play Johnny 99)

Lyrics of ‘Johnny 99’ Well they closed down the auto plant in Mahwah late that month Ralph went out lookin' for a job but he couldn't find none He came home too drunk from mixin' Tanqueray and wine He got a gun shot a night clerk now they call'm Johnny 99 Down in the part of town where when you hit a red light you don't stop Johnny's wavin' his gun around and threatenin' to blow his top When an off-duty cop snuck up on him from behind Out in front of the Club Tip Top they slapped the cuffs on Johnny 99 Well the city supplied a public defender but the judge was Mean John Brown He came into the courtroom and stared young Johnny down Well the evidence is clear gonna let the sentence son fit the crime Prison for 98 and a year and we'll call it even Johnny 99 A fist fight broke out in the courtroom they had to drag Johnny's girl away His mama stood up and shouted "Judge don't take my boy this way" Well son you got a statement you'd like to make Before the bailiff comes to forever take you away Now judge I had debts no honest man could pay The bank was holdin' my mortgage and they were gonna take my house away Now I ain't sayin' that makes me an innocent man But it was more `n all this that put that gun in my hand Well your honor I do believe I'd be better off dead So if you can take a man's life for the thoughts that's in his head Then sit back in that chair and think it over judge one more time And let `em shave off my hair and put me on that killin' line

Born in the USA Springsteen had now moved from city to town to the river to the state and now the whole country. Place is obviously very important to him. The idea of America runs through all of his work. Specifically working class men. Some political ideas begin to emerge – ‘Born down in a dead man’s town, the first kick I took was when I hit the ground’ Play ‘Born in the USA excerpt.

Lyrics of ‘Born in the USA’ Born down in a dead man's town The first kick I took was when I hit the ground You end up like a dog that's been beat too much Till you spend half your life just covering up Born in the U.S.A. I was born in the U.S.A. I was born in the U.S.A. Born in the U.S.A. Got in a little hometown jam So they put a rifle in my hand Sent me off to a foreign land To go and kill the yellow man

Boring Part of Career Blah blah

The Rising Now in his late fifties he seems to have found something anew. It feels like he’s gone back to the romance of ‘Thunder Road’, but with a more mature outlook

The Rising - Lyrics I see you Mary in the garden In the garden of a thousand sighs There's holy pictures of our children Dancin' in a sky filled with light May I feel your arms around me May I feel your blood mix with mine A dream of life comes to me Like a catfish dancin' on the end of my line Sky of blackness and sorrow (a dream of life) Sky of love, sky of tears (a dream of life) Sky of glory and sadness (a dream of life) Sky of mercy, sky of fear (a dream of life) Sky of memory and shadow (a dream of life) Your burnin' wind fills my arms tonight Sky of longing and emptiness (a dream of life) Sky of fullness, sky of blessed life Come on up for the rising Come on up, lay your hands in mine Come on up for the rising Come on up for the rising tonight