American musician (1949- )
What I have gotten used to doing is I do delegate a lot more in the studio than I used to, which is nice because I don't think I could work the way I did in my 20s when I, we had a little bit of the half-blind leading the blind in that we all went in and just recorded until a record happened.
BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN
interview, NPR, January 15, 2014
If the angels are unkind or the season is dark,
Or if in the end
Love just falls apart.
Well then here's to our destruction.
Baby let me be your soul driver.
BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN
"Soul Driver", Human Touch
I think what's happening now is people want to forget. There was Vietnam, there was Watergate, there was Iran -- we were beaten, we were hustled, and then we were humiliated. And I think people got a need to feel good about the country they live in. But what's happening, I think, is that that need -- which is a good thing -- is gettin' manipulated and exploited. And you see the Reagan reelection ads on TV -- you know: "It's morning in America." And you say, well, it's not morning in Pittsburgh. It's not morning above 125th Street in New York. It's midnight, and, like, there's a bad moon risin'. And that's why when Reagan mentioned my name in New Jersey, I felt it was another manipulation, and I had to disassociate myself from the president's kind words.
BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN
Rolling Stone, December 1984
Then I got Mary pregnant and man that was all she wrote.
And for my nineteenth birthday I got a union card and a wedding coat.
We went down to the courthouse and the judge put it all to rest.
BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN
"The River"
Now I know your mama she don't like me 'cause I play in a rock and roll band.
And I know your daddy he don't dig me but he never did understand.
Papa lowered the boom, he locked you in your room;
I'm comin' to lend a hand.
BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN
"Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)"
It was terrible, you know. In truth, it was awful, an awful way to make records but it was the only way we knew how. Everybody simply suffered through it and the endless, endless, endless hours I can't begin to explain.
BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN
interview, NPR, January 15, 2014
Well now you say you've found another man who does things to you that I can't,
And that no matter what I do it's all over now between me and you girl.
But I can't believe what you say;
No I can't believe what you say 'cause baby
I don't wanna fade away.
BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN
"Fade Away", The River
The first day I can remember looking into a mirror and being able to stand what I saw was the day I had a guitar in my hand.
BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN
Bruce Springsteen Talking
This music is forever for me. It's the stage thing, that rush moment that you live for. It never lasts, but that's what you live for.
BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN
Time Magazine, October 27, 1975
Poor man wanna be rich;
Rich man wanna be king.
And a king ain't satisfied
Till he rules everything.
BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN
"Badlands", Darkness on the Edge of Town
Your success story is a bigger story than whatever you're trying to say on stage.
BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN
Q Magazine, August 1992
It was a moment when your music was the totality of your identity, and so you were so caught up and so invested in it.
BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN
interview, Rolling Stone, August 25, 2015
Success makes life easier. It doesn't make living easier.
BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN
Q Magazine, August, 1992
Laying here in the dark you're like an angel on my chest,
Just another tramp of hearts crying tears of faithlessness.
BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN
"Backstreets", Born to Run
It ain't no sin to be glad you're alive.
BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN
"Badlands", Darkness on the Edge of Town
I was unrecognizable to myself.
I saw my reflection in a window I didn't know
My own face.
Oh brother are you gonna leave me?
Wastin' away
On the streets of Philadelphia.
BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN
"Streets of Philadelphia"
Your producer is always your first audience.... He's the first guy you play the song for, he's the first guy you are seducing with the music that you've written -- you're trying to get him excited about what he thinks he can do with it -- and then it just, you know, it just starts to become cumulatively explosive, you know.
BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN
interview, NPR, January 15, 2014
These days we don't have to go out and play 150 shows every time the band comes together. You can go out and play 20 shows, if you have something to do -- or if you just feel like it. We're no longer bound by the previous rules of, "You've gotta have a record, then you've gotta go out and tour for two years...." I don't think we have to do that anymore at this point.... You know, you can get the band together and play a few dates -- with an idea behind it, and something that you think the fans might get a kick out of. We'll play the record start to finish, and then we'll play some of the special outtakes that are there, and we'll play some favorites, and it should be a nice night.
BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN
interview, Backstreets, December 10, 2015
There ain't a note that I play on stage that can't be traced back directly to my mother and father.
BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN
Bruce Springsteen Talking
Now I think I'm going down to the well tonight
And I'm going to drink till I get my fill.
And I hope when I get old I don't sit around thinking about it,
But I probably will.
Yeah, just sitting back trying to recapture
A little of the glory of,
Well time slips away and leaves you with nothing mister but boring stories of glory days.
BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN
"Glory Days", Born in the U.S.A.