Bruce Springsteen (#9) - Evan’s 111 Artists

‘87 EBHS Battle of The Bands backstage with Ric Okun - #1 Bruce Fan in our town.

His first song that hit me was Hungry Heart, which is kind of funny, because Bruce actually wrote that song for the Ramones. He was hanging with Joey at the time, but his manager said ‘you’re keeping this one’. Good call.

Then Born in the U.S.A. came out when I was 14. Everyone around me was all in, I was not. I found it pretty cheesy. My brother Eric and many declared their love for Bruce at this moment, I kind of remember Ric Okun bringing the album on the bus to school. With rock radio, MTV, and the magazines I read, I had no choice but to (soon) dive in. That record, easily had 5 masterpieces.

Over the years I opened my eyes and heart to the earlier recordings. Unlike all of the other artists I’ve written about so far, Bruce still had runway for more great work. I actually liked when he left the E Street Band. Tunnel of Love, Brilliant Disguise, and One Step Up hit when I was in high school.

When I was leaving ASU for San Francisco I had no job, no people, but I did have a good CD player and speakers. Lucky Town and Human Touch were important to me. I liked his solo era vibe, and as a rhythm guitarist myself I loved that he stepped in to some solos.

The funny thing is, I looked at Lucky Town as proof that older rockers could still be relevant. Meanwhile, he was in his early 40s, so young!

Being from Jersey it’s kind of strange that I never saw him live until I moved to San Francisco. I moved there to break into the music business. My thinking was, SF felt like a better city to move to without a job. It was meaningful enough to the industry, but not the NYC or LA scene.

So, I bought a dozen tickets to make some easy money, re-selling them. I was waiting tables and doing some telemarketing, so a $200 easy profit and a free ticket felt like a big deal. It’s Bruce, huge demand, right? Huge lesson, not in California in ’92.

It was my first time at Shoreline Amphitheatre. I lost hundreds, my roommates (the Beverly Hills boys) agreed to use ‘some’ of my unsold tickets, and we had a great time. Not sure who had the acid, or Why, but we all took it and had a great time.

It was my first time at Shoreline Amphitheatre. I would return many times on sunny days ahead to see the Dead, Neil Young and much more.

In ‘02 we debuted The Rising on our AOL Music First Listen program (great name, Willig!). The track was a massive deal on many levels. Bruce was back with the East Street Band, it was post 9/11, and it had extra special meaning for those of us, living and working in NYC. The record had a huge sound, we all needed it.

 From a music-business perspective, we debuted a new Bruce & the E Street Band song after an 18- year hiatus, before any other outlet in the world on AOL Music. That was a huge deal at the time, for a massive debut on the ‘internet’, we wound up doing more than 100 of them.

 Columbia Records was pleased with our launch and invited our AOL Music team to see the band play a few warm up shows in Asbury Park that summer in front of hundreds, not thousands.

 We had a beach house that summer with Gerrit & Nadia Meier, friends from BMG who lived a few blocks from us in the West Village, as well as my college roommate Rob Raich and his wife Cara. No kids yet, a perfect summer getaway, so dropping into that show in Asbury Park and then down to our house was pretty perfect Jersey Shore experience.

Nebraska, Born To Run, Greetings From Asbury Park, Darkness on the Edge of Town- I still love them so much. Bruce is a once in a lifetime force of nature, unique soul, and an undeniable inspiration. He’s a leader, a rock historian and a prolific cultural commentator.


——————————————

“Dad, you always say this song is a F*CKING MASTERPIECE… make a list.”

Some of Bruce’s masterpieces are listed below, and more on my 1k+ song Spotify Playlist — Evan’s 111 Artists


Hungry Heart, Glory Days, The River, The Rising, Lucky Town, Darlington County, Nebraska, Atlantic City, 4th of July, Bobby Jean, Thunder Road, Johnny 99, My Hometown, Backstreets, Jungleland, Meeting Across The River


← Back to Evan’s 111 Artists series