Today marks the 69th birthday of rock and roll legend, Bruce Springsteen, who released his debut album, ‘Greetings From Asbury Park’ 44 years ago in 1973. Throughout his career, Springsteen succeeded in capturing the hearts and souls of fans all over the world with his raw and unique talent. The musical icon received a wide range of critical acclaim for his musical accomplishments, winning 20 Grammy Awards, as well as being inducted in to The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame by Bono in 1999.
Springsteen’s Tony-award winning show ‘Springsteen On Broadway’ is set to premiere on Netflix on the 15th of December, and is based on his best-selling autobiography, ‘Born To Run’. The show will feature a 14 song set of Springsteen expressing his own personal narrative, accompanied by his acoustic guitar and piano.
The Boss established a distinctive sound throughout his career that was representative of the working class people in America, and incorporated in to his music a variety of themes that contributed to the production of incredible anthems including ‘Born To Run’ and ‘Dancing In The Dark’, as well as melodic hits such as ‘The River’, ‘Streets of Philadelphia’ and ‘Independence Day’. The Boss became a voice of the underdog through his music, and shared observations of what life was like for those who did not come from privilege or wealth. Springsteen prides himself that throughout his career, the thread of where he comes from is still fully evident and ringing true: “My heroes, a lot of my heroes, the people that came before me lose something when they lost a little sense of – I hate to say their ‘roots’ – ’cause you can go any place and you can take it with you anywhere you go. It’s not necessarily being in a physical place – although that may help somewhat. But it’s just that sense of your own history and what your initial motivations were.”
In addition to this, Springsteen’s lyricism depicted sentimental and romantic storytelling, and with his long-time collaborators The E Street Band, gave magical live performances, resulting in sold out concerts around the world. Discussing his experience of performing with the band, Springsteen stated: ‘It’s the long, long ride that it’s all about. It’s that I’ve had these guys and these ladies at my side and we’ve made it this far, and that we’re here to do it. It’s the consistency… Professionalism is alive and well, we hope. We just want to carry on and give some people some smiles and some inspiration.”
In honour of Bruce Springsteen’s birthday, we’ve rounded up some of our favourite live performances from The Boss:
Born In The USA
Thunder Road
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5kXnq5IjdU
The River
Streets Of Philadelphia
Born To Run
Dancing In The Dark
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVJEHt2f5Rk
Drive All Night
Tunnel Of Love
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzkC14OM6-Y
Backstreets
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGDFavEBn0Q
