Word: springsteens
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Musically as well as physically, however, Springsteen's striking resemblance to Dylan invites comparison. Both men forged a style of electrified folk demanding powerful back-up bands. Like rock musicians of the '60s, Springsteen dips back to the '50s for the blazing chord colors and nagging syncopations inside his walls of throbbing sound. Yet he has invented no personal mystique, he entertains no holy illusions about himself, he avoids social commentary. "I like to write songs you can dance to," he says...
...intense personal warmth permeating Springsteen's songs is rooted not in social anger but in the pure passion to make music...
While other songwriters are heading for country creeks and watermelon vines, Springsteen celebrates urban lowlife. His songs are ambitious mini-operas populated by punk saints and Go-Kart Mozarts in scenarios laced with schmalz and violence. His territory: the streets of Harlem, tenements, the funky world of the boardwalk's pinball way with its dusty arcades and machines. Bursting with words, images rush along in cinematic streams of consciousness...
...Offstage Springsteen's lyric virtuosity reduced to a mumble in hip, tough dude tones. "We had a bathroom with a big gaping hole in it that looked right out into this convent. I used to tell kids that during the war an airplane crashed into it. To save face, y'know?" Thus he describes the Freehold, N.J., home where he was born in 1949. Home life was not easy, and when his folks went West prospecting for better jobs, Springsteen remained behind. At 16 he was commuting to Greenwich Village to play guitar in cafes. Self-taught, Springsteen...
...loner, Springsteen's lifestyle is music. "I love traveling and performing, love being on the road. The thing I don't like is the business side." Home is a rented apartment in Bradley Beach, N.J. If the commotion over his music has sometimes flattered, sometimes irritated him, he shows no ill effects. He remembers calling his mother in California to tell her he had signed a big record contract...