Born in the USA. That was the hymn that everybody sang in the 80s to be proud of her country, even though it was not the primary intention of his composer. Bruce Springsteen is an American-born songwriter, musician and humanitarian man who has a net worth of $345 million.
Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen was born in Long Branch, New Jersey (USA) on September 23rd, 1949. He spent his childhood and his school years in Freehold Borough, New Jersey. His father, Douglas Frederick Springsteen, was a bus driver of Dutch and Irish descent. His mother, Adele Ann Zirilli, was a secretary with Italian ancestors.
Early years
Educated in a Catholic environment, Springsteen attended the St. Rose of Lima parish school in Freehold Borough, where his early temperament met both the strict morals of the school and other students. In the ninth year, he moved to the Freehold public secondary school, where his dissatisfaction, despite finishing his studies, would be evident in the last years, even avoiding his own graduation ceremony.
The inspiration for music came to him when he saw Elvis Presley performing on The Ed Sullivan Show. At the age of 13, he bought his first guitar for $ 18, and at 16 his mother got a loan to buy a Kent guitar that cost $ 60, an event that he would remember years later in his song “The Wish”. In 1965, he became guitarist of the group The Castiles, in which later would also assume the role of main vocalist. The Castiles recorded two songs at a public recording studio in Brick Township, NJ, and held several concerts, including the local Cafe Wha? from Greenwich Village.
Contract with Columbia Records and first albums (1972-1974)
On May 2, 1972, the scout John H. Hammond was in the Gaslight; This Greenwich Village venue hosted the performance of a twenty-two-year-old boy who played his future in front of the representative of the country’s largest record company, Columbia Records.
His debut album, Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J., published in January 1973, garnered the acclaim of musical criticism, despite its modest sales figures. Due to his lyrical influence and folk rock music on songs like “Blinded by the Light” and “For You”, Springsteen began to be compared with Bob Dylan.
Born to Run and Success (1975-1981)
On August 13, 1975, Springsteen and the E Street Band began ten concerts in five nights at the Bottom Line club in New York. The concerts attracted the mass media, being broadcast by WNEW-FM and serving many skeptics as proof of favorable musical critiques.
With the publication of Born to Run on August 25, 1975, Springsteen was finally successful. Despite not producing singles of special success, the songs “Born to Run”, “Thunder Road”, “Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out” and “Jungleland” were promoted massively in North American radio stations. With his panoramic imagery and lyrical optimism, most of his followers consider Born to Run one of Springsteen’s best works with the E-Street Band. To capitalize on the win, Springsteen appeared on the cover of Time and Newsweek magazines the same week, Oct. 27.
