Springsteen on Springsteen: Interviews, Speeches, and Encounters

  OTHER BOOKS IN THE MUSICIANS IN THEIR OWN WORDS SERIES

  Coltrane on Coltrane: The John Coltrane Interviews Hendrix on Hendrix: Interviews and Encounters with Jimi Hendrix Miles on Miles: Interviews and Encounters with Miles Davis Tom Waits on Tom Waits: Interviews and Encounters

  Copyright © 2013 by Jeff Burger

  All rights reserved

  First edition

  Published by Chicago Review Press, Incorporated

  814 North Franklin Street

  Chicago, Illinois 60610

  ISBN 978-1-61374-434-5

  A list of credits and copyright notices for the individual pieces in this collection can be found on pages 406–10.

  Interior design: Jonathan Hahn

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Springsteen on Springsteen: interviews, speeches, and encounters / edited by Jeff Burger.

  pages cm. — (First edition)

  Includes bibliographical references and index.

  ISBN 978-1-61374-434-5 (cloth)

  1. Springsteen, Bruce—Interviews. 2. Rock musicians—United States—Interviews. I. Burger, Jeff, editor of compilation.

  ML420.S77A5 2013

  782.42166092—dc23

  2012045658

  Printed in the United States of America

  5 4 3 2 1

  To my wife and best friend, Madeleine; to our children, Andre and Myriam, who make me proud every day; and to the memory of my parents, Hannah and Chester Burger.

  CONTENTS

  Foreword: Murphy on Springsteen | Elliott Murphy

  Preface | Jeff Burger

  PART I · “FROM SMALL THINGS (BIG THINGS ONE DAY COME)”

  Springsteen struggles for success—and rent money.

  Bruce Springsteen—Live! | BRUCE POLLOCK

  March 1973 | Rock (US)

  Was Bob Dylan the Previous Bruce Springsteen? | STEVE TURNER

  October 6, 1973 | New Musical Express (UK)

  Bruce Springsteen: Say Hello to Last Year’s Genius | JEFF BURGER

  March 14, 1974 | Zoo World (US)

  Bruce Springsteen: It’s Hard to Be a Saint in the City | JERRY GILBERT

  August 1974 | Zigzag (UK)

  Lost in the Flood | PAUL WILLIAMS

  October 13, 1974 | Long Branch, New Jersey

  PART II · “LIGHT OF DAY”

  Born to Run, Darkness, and The River turn Springsteen into a household name.

  Bruce Springsteen and the Wall of Faith | ANDREW TYLER

  November 15, 1975 | New Musical Express (UK)

  Radio Interview | DAVE HERMAN

  July 9, 1978 | King Biscuit Flower Hour, D.I.R. Radio Network (US)

  Radio Interview | ED SCIAKY

  August 19, 1978 | WIOQ-FM (Philadelphia)

  Lawdamercy, Springsteen Saves! | ROBERT DUNCAN

  October 1978 | Creem (US)

  Bruce Springsteen: The Return of the Native | MIKE GREENBLATT

  October 11, 1978 | The Aquarian (New Jersey)

  Bruce Springsteen Takes It to the River | DAVE DIMARTINO

  January 1981 | Creem (US)

  Bruce Springsteen: A Responsible Rocker | RICHARD WILLIAMS

  May 31, 1981 | Sunday Times (London)

  PART III · “GLORY DAYS”

  Born in the U.S.A. produces megafame as Springsteen undergoes changes on the home front and splits with the E Street Band.

  The Bruce Springsteen Interview | DON MCLEESE

  October 1984 | International Musician and Recording World (UK)

  American Heartbeat | ROGER SCOTT AND

  PATRICK HUMPHRIES

  November 2, 1984 | Hot Press (Dublin, Ireland)

  The “Boss” Has Spoken

  January 5, 1986 | Sydney Morning Herald (Sydney, Australia)

  Bob Dylan Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Speech | BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN

  January 20, 1988 | New York

  The Q Interview: Bruce Springsteen | DAVID HEPWORTH

  August 1992 | Q Magazine (UK)

  Live Again, Springsteen Still Has Mettle | GARY GRAFF

  August 9, 1992 | Detroit Free Press (Detroit, Michigan)

  Radio Interview | IAN DEMPSEY

  May 14, 1993 | RTE 2FM (Ireland)

  PART IV · “ROCKAWAY THE DAYS”

  Springsteen issues The Ghost of Tom Joad and looks back with Greatest Hits and Tracks.

  Human Touch | NEIL STRAUSS

  September 1995 | Guitar World (US)

  Don’t Yell Broooce | GARY GRAFF

  January 12, 1996 | Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania)

  Bruce Springsteen Tells the Story of the Secret America | DAVID CORN

  March/April 1996 | Mother Jones (US)

  Hey Joad, Don’t Make It Sad … (Oh, Go On Then) | GAVIN MARTIN

  March 9, 1996 | New Musical Express (UK)

  Bruce Springsteen: The Advocate Interview | JUDY WIEDER

  April 2, 1996 | The Advocate (US)

  Rock and Read | WILL PERCY

  Spring 1998 | DoubleTake (US)

  TV Interview | CHARLIE ROSE

  November 20, 1998 | The Charlie Rose Show, PBS Network (US)

  PART V · “BETTE R DAYS”

  Springsteen enters the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and reunites the E Street Band as politics moves to the fore.

  Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Acceptance Speech | BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN

  March 15, 1999 | New York

  New Glory Days | GARY GRAFF

  April 1, 2001 | Oakland Press (Pontiac, Michigan)

  Springsteen … The Boss Is Back | VERNELL HACKETT

  March/April 2003 | American Songwriter (US)

  TV Interview | TED KOPPEL

  August 4, 2004 | Nightline, ABC Network (US)

  John Kerry Campaign Rally Speech | BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN

  October 28, 2004 | Madison, Wisconsin

  U2 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Speech | BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN

  March 17, 2005 | New York

  A Fan’s Eye View | NICK HORNBY

  July 16, 2005 | Observer Music Monthly (UK)

  The Feeling’s Mutual | STEVE KANDELL

  December 2007 | Spin (US)

  New Jersey Hall of Fame Induction Acceptance Speech | BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN

  May 4, 2008 | Newark, New Jersey

  Barack Obama Campaign Rally Speech | BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN

  November 2, 2008 | Cleveland, Ohio

  PART VI · “KINGDOM OF DAYS”

  Springsteen and the E Street Band remain a powerful force, but they lose their star sax player.

  Brucie Bonus | STEVE TURNER

  June 27, 2009 | RadioTimes (London)

  Interview | ED NORTON

  September 14, 2010 | Toronto International Film Festival (Toronto)

  TV Interview | BRIAN WILLIAMS

  October 7, 2010 | NBC Network (US)

  TV Interview | IAN “MOLLY” MELDRUM

  November 20, 2010 | Sunday Night, Seven Network (Australia)

  Eulogy for Clarence Clemons | BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN

  June 21, 2011 | Palm Beach, Florida

  Keynote Speech | BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN

  March 15, 2012 | South by Southwest Music Festival (Austin, Texas)

  About the Contributors

  About the Editor

  Credits

  Index

  FOREWORD

  Murphy on Springsteen

  I remember when I first heard the name Bruce Springsteen.

  It was 1972, and I was sitting in the office of Paul Nelson, head of A&R at Mercury Records, ready to play my demo with
“Last of the Rock Stars,” “How’s the Family,” “White Middle Class Blues,” and a few other original songs. Paul Nelson was a legendary figure who had gone to school with Bob Dylan and started one of the first folk magazines, The Little Sandy Review. Paul liked my demo so much he handed me a promo copy of an album he suggested I listen to carefully: Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. It was by another unknown singer-songwriter, Bruce Springsteen, who was pictured on the album sleeve with a beard and a thoughtful expression.

  I took that album back to Long Island, and as soon as I played it, I knew I had found a kindred spirit. I was captivated by Bruce’s words and voice, his sense of love and redemption, and his bittersweet romanticism. Some months later, in early 1973, Paul Nelson took me to see Bruce perform at Max’s Kansas City, where I myself would start doing gigs over the next five years. I remember Bruce’s incredible energy on that small stage. After the show, we shook hands and looked each other in the eye, and I’m glad to say that we’ve remained friends ever since. We’re the same age—class of 1949—and both of us grew up in the suburbs surrounding Manhattan, he on the Jersey shore and I in the Long Island flatlands. And you could say the bright lights of the big city lured us both to make our stand down in Jungleland.

  Paul Nelson was unable to sign both the New York Dolls and me to Mercury Records (heavy glam makeup won out over songs about The Great Gatsby), but I quickly found a deal at Polydor Records and recorded my own first album, Aquashow. One of the first people I played it for was Paul, and he just stood there and gave the faintest smile, which meant, of course, that he loved it. He promised to do what he could to help spread the word about it.

  Some months later—in Rolling Stone magazine, no less—Paul gave Aquashow a glowing review under the headline, “He’s the Best Dylan Since 1968.” A review of Bruce’s The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle appeared on the same page, right after Paul’s piece. Immediately, a kind of press frenzy began around Bruce and me. I don’t think Bruce was as haunted by the New Dylan curse as I was, probably because he didn’t play harmonica on a rack like I did, and as my career stalled, Bruce hit the road and established himself as an indefatigable rock-and-roll road warrior.

  Early in the 1980s, when the term “singer-songwriter” was a dirty word and the radio seemed full of punk, new wave, and disco, I was playing a show at a club in Asbury Park called the Alley, and Bruce came down. After the show, we went back to his rented farmhouse and talked music until dawn. This was before his marriage and family, and Bruce was really living with just himself and his music—no extra baggage. In fact, he told me that when he left a rented house, he would leave any furniture he’d bought behind so as not to be weighed down. And he said that with his royalties from The River he had bought himself two cherished objects: a Yamaha grand piano and a Corvette convertible. When he showed me around the house, I was impressed that the band’s rehearsal space was right in the living room—the finest room in the house—and that’s where all the gear was set up, from Clarence’s saxophone to Bruce’s Telecaster.

  Later that night, we ate Philly cheesesteak sandwiches (don’t even ask me what those are!), and Bruce played me some of the music he was listening to. He was really into the Sex Pistols at the time, and he also played me a new track of his own, “Roulette,” which had the same raw and fast energy as the music of the punks. Often, when I ask Bruce what he’s been up to, he replies that he’s been listening to a lot of music, and I believe he does and always did. Mention a band to Bruce Springsteen, and nine times out of ten he can sing the chorus to one of their songs.

  The first time Bruce and I sang together was in 1992, when he invited me onstage at Bercy Arena in Paris, almost twenty years after we had first met. We sang “Rock Ballad” from my 1977 Columbia album Just a Story from America, and it was an extraordinary moment for me, although I have to admit I was nervous as hell. As I walked to the stage with Bruce’s late and truly missed assistant, the formidable Terry Magovern, I think I was visibly shaking. Terry put his large hand on my shoulder and said, “Elliott, it’s just like the old days, only more people.” That calmed me right down, and Bruce and I settled into the song in front of eighteen thousand fans.

  Hearing our voices together was kind of an epiphany—the blend was better than I would have imagined. And so when it came time for my next album, I wrote a song for Bruce and I to sing together called “Everything I Do (Leads Me Back to You)” with the hope that he would agree to add his vocals. I had been living in Paris for a few years already, so the next time I visited the United States, I drove down to New Jersey to play Bruce the demo of my song. We ended up sitting in his car and listening to the cassette. It was a moment out of the book Rock Dreams: two New Dylans sitting in a Jeep deep in New Jersey, with the rain pouring down and the windshield wipers keeping time to the music. After the song finished, we sat in a hushed silence until Bruce nodded his head and said, “Yeah, I could sing something on that.”

  Now, I was expecting him to merely put some backgrounds on the chorus. But when I received the tapes back, he had not only sung on the chorus but also done a whole verse alone, about how you keep riding even when your tires are flat. I guess he couldn’t resist the automobile metaphor. Trust me when I say that Bruce is a man who keeps his promises and has proved his friendship and generosity to me in countless ways, so many times. Having him on my album Selling the Gold opened up my music to the world of Bruce fans and for a month “Everything I Do (Leads Me Back to You)” was the most downloaded song on the net in those early days of digital downloads.

  One overlooked aspect of Bruce’s many talents is his ability to express his hopes, dreams, and dedication so eloquently in interviews and speeches. His 2012 keynote address at South by Southwest (which appears at the end of this book and in which I was proud to be mentioned) was nothing less than a master class in the history of this music that matters so much to all of us.

  I think Springsteen on Springsteen is a fine and necessary addition to the literature on this incredible artist, performer, and man, whose universal message might be summed up in his own words: “It ain’t no sin to be glad you’re alive.”

  —ELLIOTT MURPHY

  Paris, 2012

  PREFACE

  You’re forgiven if your initial reaction to this volume was, “The last thing anyone needs is another book about Bruce Springsteen.” After all, there are already enough of them out there to fill more than a few library shelves. You can find everything from fan-oriented projects like The Bruce Springsteen Scrapbook to scholarly works such as Reading the Boss: Interdisciplinary Approaches to the Works of Bruce Springsteen. There’s also fiction (Dear Bruce Springsteen and Meeting Across the River: Stories Inspired by the Haunting Bruce Springsteen Song), plus tales of how his music has affected listeners (Walk Like a Man: Coming of Age with the Music of Bruce Springsteen). There are books dedicated to individual albums, books in numerous languages, trivia books, and more. Lots more.

  So why am I adding to the list? Because, surprisingly, there’s a dearth of books that deliver what this volume offers: an extensive look at the artist’s own words over the past four decades, via articles that take a question-and-answer format, speeches, and features that incorporate significant interview material.

  It’s a noteworthy focus, I believe. After all, no one is better qualified to talk about Springsteen than the man himself. And, as it turns out, he’s often as articulate and provocative in interviews and speeches as he is emotive onstage and in records.

  One reason may be that while many rock artists seem to suffer through interviews, Springsteen has welcomed them as an opportunity to speak openly, thoughtfully, and in great detail about his music and life. As he told critic Neil Strauss in 1995, “I don’t just grind [interviews] out. If I have some work that I’ve done and want to talk about it, that’s why I end up doing interviews. I think the main thing is the quality.” Concluded Strauss: “Springsteen takes his interviews as seriously as he takes his music. During th
is interview, he stared intently across the table … and set about answering each question as meaningfully as he could.”

  Other journalists speak similarly. Steve Turner, who has met twice with Springsteen, noted that the singer “enjoys self-reflection…. During the interview, he grips both his knees and rocks back and forth rhythmically as he carefully elucidates his thoughts and feelings.” And, observed Q magazine’s David Hepworth, “Springsteen has little small talk. His answers to questions are all long, often mazy, and frequently beyond the reach of punctuation, but they are always answers and do betray the signs of having had some considerable thought expended on them.”

  Clearly, Springsteen likes to discuss his work—but he also simply enjoys talking with people. Witness this extraordinary response to writer Dave Marsh, who had asked Springsteen for a 1981 Musician magazine interview whether being famous caused problems for him. Could he still walk down the street without fear?

  What you gonna be afraid of, someone coming up to you? … The other night … we were in Denver…. Went to the movies by myself, walked in, got my popcorn. This guy comes up to me, real nice guy. He says, “Listen, you want to sit with me and my sister?” I said, “All right.” … And he had the amazing courage to come up to me at the end of the movie, and ask if I’d go home and meet his mother and father. I said, “What time is it?” It was eleven o’clock, so I said, “Well, OK.”

  So I go home with him…. And for two hours I was in this kid’s house, talking with these people…. They cooked me up all this food, watermelon, and the guy gave me a ride home a few hours later.

  I felt so good that night. Because here are these strange people I didn’t know, they take you in their house, treat you fantastic, and this kid was real nice, they were real nice. That’s something that can happen to me that can’t happen to most people…. You get somebody’s whole life in three hours. You get their parents, you get their sister, you get their family life, in three hours. And I went back to that hotel thinking, “Wow, what a thing to be able to do. What an experience to be able to have, to be able to step into some stranger’s life.”