|
|
Concert photography: © Helge Øverås
Must not be used without permission
About Bruce Springsteen
The most important rock figure to emerge during the 1970s, Bruce
Springsteen borrowed from all the best sources in rock, folk, and rhythm &
blues and created a style that has become uniquely his own and itself widely
imitated. A greatly admired and charismatic performer, Springsteen is
renowned for his devotion to his fans, and has built a career pleasing them
with 3- and 4-hour marathon shows that leave no doubt he has given his all.
Since Springsteen's 1973 debut album Greetings From Asbury Park, New
Jersey, his music has shifted from Dylanesque, wordy prose, to Phil
Spector-influenced pop, to hard-driving rock'n'roll, to its current, often
deliberately threadbare lyrical style. The epitome of a musical
perfectionist, Springsteen is well-known for laboring intensely on each of
his albums; the dual result has been infrequent releases and a wide supply
of officially unreleased tracks often bootlegged and circulated among fans.
Indeed, Bruce Springsteen has many fans who are among the most fanatical in
all of rock'n'roll. At the same time, Springsteen's reputation as a live
performer was growing by leaps and bounds. Critic Jon Landau, who would
later become Bruce Springsteen's producer and business associate, penned a
review containing the infamous snippet, «I saw rock'n'roll's future and its
name is Bruce Springsteen». He was right, though, and by 1975, the New
Jersey rocker was simultaneously on the cover of both Time and Newsweek, and
a top 5 star with his classic album Born To Run. While its Phil
Spector-influenced title track climbed into the top 30, Springsteen and his
superb backing group the E Street Band toured and began accumulating what
would soon become a massive base of fanatical fans convinced the singer was
the most electrifying live performer since Elvis Presley...
Growing Young With Rock and Roll
By Jon Landau, The
Real Paper, May 22nd 1974
Tonight there is someone I can write of the way I used to write, without
reservations of any kind. Last Thursday, at the Harvard Square theatre, I
saw my rock'n'roll past flash before my eyes. And I saw something else: I
saw rock and roll future and its name is Bruce Springsteen. And on a night
when I needed to feel young, he made me feel like I was hearing music for
the very first time. When his two-hour set ended I could only think, can
anyone really be this good; can anyone say this much to me, can rock'n'roll
still speak with this kind of power and glory? And then I felt the sores on
my thighs where I had been pounding my hands in time for the entire concert
and knew that the answer was yes. Springsteen does it all. He is a
rock'n'roll punk, a Latin street poet, a ballet dancer, an actor, a joker,
bar band leader, hot-shit rhythm guitar player, extraordinary singer, and a
truly great rock'n'roll composer. He leads a band like he has been doing it
forever. I racked my brains but simply can't think of a white artist who
does so many things so superbly. There is no one I would rather watch on a
stage today...
Read Jon Landau's legendary article
|
