American musician (1949- )
It ain't no sin to be glad you're alive.
BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN
"Badlands", Darkness on the Edge of Town
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
There was a lot of stuff we loved in it from the music we loved, but there was something else too -- and that something else was quite a sense of dread and uncertainty about the future and who you were, where you were going, where the whole country was going. That found its way into the record.
BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN
interview, Rolling Stone, August 25, 2015
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"
It's very strange, I've always thought, that the first thing that people do, when they come out on tour, is they break the album completely up. They play a few songs here, a few songs there ... it's actually very unusual, considering all the time and the care you take in the sequencing and in the content of the record.
BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN
interview, Backstreets, December 10, 2015
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
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
And she was blinded by the light. Cut loose like a deuce,
Another runner in the night. Blinded by the light.
She got down but she never got tight, but she'll make it alright.
BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN
"Blinded by the Light"
We were very against filming ourselves, and we didn't film ourselves very much. Looking back, that was a mistake. But I was young and a little superstitious, and I didn't want to break the magic by watching the trick too closely, you know?
BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN
interview, Backstreets, December 10, 2015
Now a life of leisure and a pirate's treasure
Don't make much for tragedy.
But it's a sad man my friend who's livin' in his own skin
And can't stand the company.
BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN
"Better Days", Lucky Town
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)"
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
When I was very, very young, I decided that I was gonna catalogue my times because that's what other people who I admired did. That's what Bob Dylan did, that's what Frank Sinatra did, Hank Williams did, in very different ways. You know, The Beatles did, The Rolling Stones did. So I enjoyed artists that engaged in their worlds and then created some reflection of it that people could meditate upon and think upon. So that was just, to me, I was just continuing along doing what I was doing.
BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN
interview, NPR, January 15, 2014
Success makes life easier. It doesn't make living easier.
BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN
Q Magazine, August, 1992
I wanted to make the greatest rock record that I'd ever heard, and I wanted it to sound enormous and I wanted it to grab you by your throat and insist that you take that ride, insist that you pay attention, not to just the music, but just to life, to feeling alive, to being alive.
BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN
interview, Rolling Stone, August 25, 2015
You ride in a limousine the first time, it's a big thrill but after that it's just a stupid car.
BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN
Bruce Springsteen Talking
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
Your success story is a bigger story than whatever you're trying to say on stage.
BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN
Q Magazine, August 1992
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
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