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Singer-songwriter-guitarist Bruce Springsteen,
b. Freehold, N.J., Sept. 23, 1949, is one of the most important
and charismatic rock figures to emerge in the 1970s. In 1965
he began appearing in New York's Greenwich Village, forming
the bands Steel Mill and Dr. Zoom and the Sonic Boom. His
first album, Greetings from Asbury Park (1973), was not a
commercial success, but it won him widespread critical attention
and inaccurate comparisons with Bob Dylan. His second, The
Wild, the Innocent and the E Street Shuffle (1973), elicited
the same response. By 1974, Springsteen had solidified his
permanent backup group, the E Street Band, with Roy Bittan,
Danny Federeci, Clarence Clemmons, Gary Tallent, Max Weinberg,
and, added later, "Miami" Steve Van Zandt. Accompanied
by a massive publicity campaign, the release of Born to Run
(1975) proved him to be a powerful and passionate songwriter
and performer and won him commercial success.
Enmeshed in legal disputes, Springsteen was prevented from
releasing his next album, Darkness on the Edge of Town, until
1978. The artist's live concerts, however, remained high-energy
spectacles, and his tours were always sold out. The River
(1980) was critically praised and commercially successful.
Departing from his characteristic heavily produced recording
style, Springsteen released Nebraska (1982), opting for the
spare sound of his own guitar and harmonica without the E
Street Band on a program of deeply introspective and somber
material. Born in the U.S.A., released in 1984, raised Springsteen
to the status of musical spokesman for the American working
class. He won the Grammy award as the best male rock vocalist
in 1985 for "Dancing in the Dark," a song from the
Born in the U.S.A. album. The album Bruce Springsteen and
the E Street Band climbed to the top of the charts at the
end of 1986. Among his other albums are Nebraska (1982), Tunnel
of Love (1987), Chimes of Freedom (1988), and Human Touch
(1992).
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