Bruce Springsteen: The Boss Turns 60

Image via Wikipedia

This post originally appeared on my music column ‘The Crossroads’ over at Dad Blogs on September 24, 2009.

One of my earliest memories of hearing Bruce Springsteen’s music was as a kid growing up in New Jersey. When I was twelve years old my uncle gave me the ‘Live ’75 to ’85′ boxed set on vinyl for Christmas, which I still have to this day.

I even remember the brouhaha over the New Jersey General Assembly’s proposal to bestow the title of ‘New Jersey Pop Music Ambassador to the World’ on Springsteen and make ‘Born to Run’ the unofficial theme song of the state’s youth. Most of my memory of this is from Robert Wuhl who dissected the lyrics of the song in one of his comedy acts. Springsteen himself even found it interesting considering the song is about trying to get out of Jersey.

‘Born to Run’, which also happened to be the band’s first album, came out in 1975 and has gone down as one of the most important rock and roll albums of all time. Despite including songs like ‘Thunder Road’, ‘Tenth Avenue Freeze-out’, ‘Jungleland’ and the title track, there were no true ‘hit singles’ at the time of its release. Still, many of the tracks from that album have since become classic rock station staples.

The Boss lost me as a fan in the nineties as he went searching for a new direction that took him away from the E Street Band and their sound. Albums like ‘Human Touch’ and ‘Lucky Day’ were generally forgettable to me as compared with his earlier works.

After realizing he has lost his way, Springsteen finally reformed the E Street Band in 1999 and embarked on a highly successful reunion tour that I was fortunate enough to see when I was living in Boston. With 2002′s ‘The Rising’ and 2009′s ‘Working on a Dream’, Springsteen and the E Street Band brought themselves back into the conversation as one of the most influential bands of all time.

Yesterday the Boss celebrated his 60th birthday, which took me back a little and made me reflect on how his music had impacted my life. As a kid knocking around my five piece mother of pearl Ludwig drum kit I always appreciated Max Weinberg’s skill and the economy of movement he used to get such a driving sound out of such a simple set up.

As usual, I turned to my iTunes library and then to YouTube to dig up some of the tracks that resonate most with me.

From the beginning:

To a classic Christmas tune reborn:

To his all time best:

Are you a fan of Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band? What are some of your favorite songs by the Boss?