Confession of a Springsteen fan

I love Bruce. It wasn't always that way.

I grew up in a country and gospel household where rock and roll was not played. My mom had every Kenny Rogers and Oak Ridge Boys and Alabama LP that was available The closest thing to rock was a K-Tel album of soft rock love songs.

I didn't know who Bruce was until I was 12 and "Dancing in the Dark" came onto MTV. Even then I didn't see what the big deal was. Then came "Born in the USA" and I was hooked. So I bought that tape and every album since. I've been to 2 concerts and plan on seeing him this spring.

But it wasn't until I bought the "Live at Hammersmith Odeon" album that I really got into the pre- "Born to Run" stuff. I'd never been that interested because you never heard anything from the first 2 albums on the radio and I can't recall him even playing songs from them live. The turning point was the performance of "Lost in the Flood" on the Hammersmith CD. "Spirit in the Night" and "It's Hard to Be a Saint in the City" also opened my eyes.

So today, a mere 26 years into being a fan of Springsteen, I finally bought "Greetings from Asbury Park". It was like a revelation. He was 23 freaking years old when this album was released. I was still trying to graduate college at 23 and here Bruce was writing and performing songs that should have launched him into stardom. Somehow this album didn't and it wasn't until "Born to Run" that he made it big. That this album didn't go supernova when it came out is a reflection/condemnation of popular music back in 1973.

I still need to pick up "The Wild, The Innocent and the E-Street Shuffle" to throw off the self-branded title of poseur. Aside from Rosalita I have not much familiarity with that album, so I'm hoping it's as much a discovery as "Asbury Park" was.