Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band have been entertaining audiences in one form or another for over 50 years with no signs of slowing down. Regardless of personnel changes or which album they are touring, shows from the Boss and the band have been wowing audiences since the 1970s.
Springsteen began playing music as a teenager, moved by Elvis Presley’s iconic first performance on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1956. The way that Elvis moved and ignited the crowd gave Springsteen a glimpse of what being a rock star looked like.
Springsteen’s next big push in the music world came along with what he called “that snare shot that sounded like somebody kicked open the door to your mind,” describing Bob Dylan’s revolutionary single, “Like a Rolling Stone.”
Dylan’s guile served his unique writing and harsh vocal style alongside particularly bombastic instrumentation that was unlike anything young Springsteen had heard. The song came out when Springsteen was 16 and it cemented the idea in his head that rock ‘n’ roll was the only career path he could see.
Path to Stardom
Springsteen got his start performing in clubs all over New Jersey. He performed everywhere from high school dances to bars, finding the limelight to be an exhilarating new place to stand after being a social outcast for much of his upbringing.
During the first few years of live performances together, the E Street Band began to take shape in the early ’70s, after drummer Vini “Mad Dog” Lopez was replaced by Max Weinberg.
Weinberg, Steve Van Zandt, Gary Tallent, Dan Federici, Roy Bittan and Clarence Clemons was the line-up responsible for most of the band’s music from 1974-1984.
Springsteen’s first album with the E Street Band, Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J., was a quiet and stripped-back album that showed Columbia Records’ intention to groom Springsteen to be a smooth, hip Dylan mimic. Since this album hardly captured the energy of Springsteen’s prolific live shows, he fought back by putting as much of the band as possible in the group’s second album, The Wild, The Innocent, and the E Street Shuffle.
Born to Run, the ensemble’s third album, finally struck a balance between the band’s energy and Springsteen’s lyricism. Its 1975 release kicked off the most successful decade of Springsteen’s career.
The Limelight and Challenges
Darkness on the Edge of Town and The River were hit records, and the band was finally able to share its legendary performances with people all over the world.
Springsteen became a household name during this time, conquering towns across America with shows that could last hours and had a new setlist each night.
The band showcased an incredible talent for improvisation and consistency, as it (to this day) takes requests nightly, both from its own discography and from the American music canon.
Born in the U.S.A. would take the group’s fame to new heights, as Springsteen became a prominent leader of the stadium rock era of the mid-1980s. It would also usher in personnel issues that would result in Springsteen going solo for most of the next 15 years.
E Street would link back up with Springsteen for 2002’s The Rising, and the band has been on good terms and toured together ever since.
The next two decades offered fans a mixed bag from Springsteen, with each of his albums through the 2000s and 2010s featuring varying themes and levels of involvement from E Street Band members.
The group would continue to tour, never losing the energy and chemistry that made its live performances a nearly religious experience for fans who had followed for decades, or those new to Springsteen’s work.
Later Career
Springsteen takes his role as a spokesperson for the working man very seriously, and has fleshed out plenty of takes on blue-collar American life since 2001.
The Rising album from 2002 covers tragedy, loss, loneliness and hope, which was what many Americans needed after the events of Sept. 11, 2001. The title track would become quite well known for its many uses, including being performed at former President Obama’s inauguration.
In 2007, Magic was released. It heavily featured the E Street Band and was seen as a return to rock ‘n’ roll form. Its sentimental songs about a bygone youth mesh with the rebellious, dystopian themes present in the album’s more urgent-sounding tracks.
In 2012, the band earned Rolling Stone’s Album of the Year honor with Wrecking Ball. This album explored the financial crisis of the years prior, with Springsteen harshly pointing a finger at bankers and offering stories of the oppressed working class.
Several years later he began Springsteen on Broadway, alongside the release of his autobiography, Born to Run. It would be a bittersweet dream come true for Springsteen fans clamoring for an intimate concert with the man himself, but this led to ticket prices often hovering just shy of $1,000.
Those curious can now very affordably experience Springsteen on Broadway on Netflix.
Springsteen is back with the band for the collective’s first tour in the States since 2017. Since then, he has released three studio albums: Western Stars (2019), Letter to You (2020) and Only the Strong Survive (2022).
Nobody knows to what extent these works will be present in this year’s tour, but it is a guarantee that Springsteen will switch up the setlist each night.
He has honed his craft as a vocalist as he’s aged. He may not scream as much as he did in his teens and 20s, but he sings with more control than ever.
Notable E Street Band members will not be present, as saxophonist Clemons and organist Federici have both passed away since the band got back together in 2001.
The assembly onstage has changed for each tour over the last 20 years, but the core pieces of the E Street Band have stayed intact. Shows can still be three or more hours long and are as unique and impressive as ever.
Fans of the group’s iconic tracks are sure to be satiated, and longtime fans’ loyalty is always rewarded with surprise obscurities from Springsteen’s deep vault.
Tyler Kirkendall is an editor at CityScene Media Group. Feedback welcome at tkirkendall@cityscenemediagroup.com.
