Talk About a Dream: The Essential Interviews of Bruce Springsteen (4 page)
What Springsteen does is compress a broad collection of scenes into song, leaving the listener to draw his own truths, realities. He, thus, provides a puzzle for his audience to assemble. Clues, rather than the answers.
“There’s a certain understatement that is important to maintain,” he explained—speaking slowly—a bit uncertain about how much an artist should reveal of himself.
“People don’t want to see things in black and white,” he continued. “Songs have to have possibilities. You have to let the audience search it out for themselves. You can’t say, ‘Here it is. This is exactly what I mean’ and give it to them. You have to let them search.”
Despite his reluctant, withdrawn manner off-stage, Springsteen brings a sense of drama with him on stage. It’s not the staged theatrics of an Alice Cooper, but the strong sense of a powerful, charismatic performer. He has the same cold, intent, determined, uncompromising stance that Dylan brings on stage.
Wearing a white undershirt (not a T-shirt) and black pants that underscore the street roots of his music, Springsteen, also wearing dark glasses that make his music all the more mysterious, attacks the microphone with a sudden barrage of words, retreats like a prizefighter to a neutral corner as the band plays, then returns for another assault.
On the second number, he picks up an electric guitar and later, more in the style of Elvis than Dylan, points the neck to the ceiling and twists his way across stage. It was done more in the sense of relieving tension in his music than, as Elvis would have done, to elicit shrieks from female fans.
Springsteen’s no sex symbol. He’s more a challenger, a stimulator of thoughts and emotions.
Despite the many Dylan comparisons, it was Presley who first pushed Springsteen toward music. He remembers seeing Elvis on the
old Ed Sullivan television show. Springsteen was just nine at the time, but asked his mother for a guitar. She got him the guitar but also made him take lessons which he hated so much he ended up discarding the guitar.
It wasn’t until the Beatles arrived in 1964 that he picked up the guitar again. This time he taught himself how to play. Within six months he had formed his first band.
“Before that I didn’t have any purpose. I tried to play football and baseball and all those things. I checked out all the alleys and just didn’t fit. I was running through a maze. Music gave me something. It was a reason to live.”
Over the next few years, Springsteen was in and out of several bands, eventually moving from school dances to bars, clubs and even a couple of cross-country tours. He played the Fillmore West in San Francisco when he was 18 and auditioned for Fillmore Records while on the coast but was turned down. He was signed by Columbia in 1972.
“I never got into being discouraged because I never got into hoping,” he said with a laugh. “When I was a kid, I never got used to expecting success. I got used to failing.
“Once you do that, the rest is easy. It took a lot of pressure off. I just said, ‘Hell, I’m a loser. I don’t have to worry about anything.’ I assumed immediately nothing was happening.
“But that’s not the same,” he said, pausing to emphasize the difference in concepts, “as giving up. You keep trying, but you don’t count on things. It can be a strength. Because I know some people who sweat out winning so much it kills them. So in the end, they lose anyway. They win, but they lose.”
He’s now looking forward to recording his third album and expanding his band (it now includes organ, piano, saxophone, guitar, bass, drums) with more horns. Unlike most of his songwriting contemporaries, he prizes the music as much as the lyrics.
“You’ve got to work on the different levels,” he said.
Ed Sciaky, of WMMR Philadelphia, was one of the first disc jockeys to champion Springsteen; the impact of that support in what would become the career-long fan stronghold of Philly can’t be overestimated. For this, one of their many on-air chats, Sciaky was surprised not only that Bruce actually showed up at the studio the day after a Tower Theater show, but that he also brought along several others members of the band. On the one hand, Springsteen isn’t so much forthcoming in this setting; on the other, he’s clearly relaxed and enjoying himself. With plenty of goofing around, he even does an on-air advertisement for Santori wine and ad-libs “you can pour it all over your face.” More consequentially, Springsteen brought along a tape of “Born to Run,” his new song that would be released the following summer. It is the studio recording’s worldwide premiere. Asked how he likes hearing it on the radio, Bruce only responds, “Do I get to do another commercial.”
I’m sure a lot of people would like to know the honest and true story of the actual history of you and the bands and so on. When
you started and all that stuff. Also I’ll mention that you told me once you don’t really like to do interviews
.
It’s the same old story.
That’s why I really appreciate you coming down here today
.
It’s the same as everything else, every other kid, 13, pick up the guitar, scrub away on it. I had a succession of every sort of band you could imagine. Ten piece bands, three piece bands, power trios. Everything. We played down in Virginia a lot. That’s where we made our living, between Virginia and New Jersey.
One day I was sitting on my porch and this guy said, Hey, come on up to New York and meet this guy. I said, Nah, I don’t want to go to New York, I don’t want to meet this guy. A week or so later he came by and said “I’m coming up tonight, it’s a nice night.” I was totally bored so I said okay and I got in the car and met Mike [Appel]. He said, “I want to be your manager.” I said I’d think about it. I went away for about five months. I went to California.
How old were you at this time?
I don’t know. Jesus, I must have been, this must have happened when I was about 22. Twenty-one or 22.
And how old are you now?
I’m 25 [
laughter in studio
].
Looking back on your youth, Bruce
.
Good idea, let’s look back on it.
You had a band called the Steel Mill. Was that the name at the time? Were there other names?
There were other names.
But you never made any records. Just kind of hung around the bars?
I did make one when I was about 16. I made it in Bricktown, New Jersey, in this country and western studio.
Was it released?
No. It was released to the extent that for $100 you get a hundred of them.
Do you have any left?
I have one that doesn’t play very well.
What was the tune?
I don’t know. I did that when I was about 16. That’s about it.
[
Sciaky asked about Springsteen’s audition for John Hammond
]
I had this guitar, this little guitar. Its neck was broke when I brought it up into the office. I was brought there by the guy that is my manager now and at the time I always took the attitude that nothing was going to come of anything because that’s usually the way it always worked out. I had been playing down in Jersey in the bars for like nine years.
Wow, that long?
Yeah, and I heard some good bands down there. And, “Hey I’m going to bring down the manager to see you guys tonight” and you sit there until three in the morning. Anyhow, I went up there, and we went in and I introduced myself and met the guy and sat down. And my manager, he jumped up and started to give him this big hype already. I didn’t play a note! I said, Oh no. So I played a few things. I played “Saint in the City,” and he liked it. He was really enthusiastic about it, and we went in the studio with him and we did 13 or 14 songs on demo tape with him. And that was, like, the day that never comes. I felt like I was going to go outside and get hit by a car after that.
It was all over, right?
Yeah. That’s what I figured. Yeah, that was a day.
[
At some point, Bruce took over doing an on-air promotion for Akadama Wines
.]
Santori Akadama. [
He reads note from Sciaky
.] “Feel free to ad lib.” There are lots of ways you can enjoy Santori Akadama wine. Did you know that, Ed? You can drink it chilled. You can drink it on the rocks with ice and soda. You can pour it all over your face. Akadama red wine makes a fine sangria, it says right here. You can own one square of English earth, oh, wrong commercial. Akadama red wine and orange juice is one of the better ways to start the day. Goes great with apple juice, ginger ale, tonic water….
That’s all they have time for
.
How am I doing, fellas?
That’s all the time they paid for
.
Must read, it says here at the bottom.
Read that
.
These guys are gonna be mad. Akadama wines are imported … Oh, this part. And don’t forget to pass the Akadema [
laughter
] … They spelled it wrong!
It is imported by Santori International. They used to be one of our sponsors. What better authority on wine than Bruce Springsteen to surprise us here. You’ve drunk a bottle of wine in your time, Bruce
.
No, I hate wine. You don’t like wine? Okay.
Believe it or not, Bruce is actually here. I didn’t know if you were going to make it, Bruce. You didn’t seem too enthusiastic last night about getting out today
.
Yeah, it’s hard to tell.
Well we are going to start off by playing the tune—you have not heard it yet on the radio
.
No I haven’t.
One called “Born to Run.” Well, I’ve been waiting. I’ve had some calls on it, but just in case you came here today I thought I’d save it and play it. Go out into the hall and you can listen to it on the little radio—go ahead out there. All go out in the hall now. Now while Bruce can’t hear me [
laughter
] … No, Bruce can hear me. Bruce I hope you are out there. He hasn’t heard it on the radio. And there’s a thing about hearing a song in the studio it sounds a lot different than when you get it onto your little transistor radio. Everyone knows that out on the beach at Asbury you’ve got to hear it on the radio and that’s how you know how it sounds. So here it is, “Born to Run” on a small radio. [
Song plays
]
“Born to Run,” Bruce Springsteen. I like it. How do you like it, Bruce?
Do I get to do another commercial?
No, not yet. So what have you been doing with yourself, Bruce? Making a new record?
Yeah, yeah, make another album. Working on my band, working with my band. Trying to make it better. That’s about it. Going to Texas after tonight. I guess we go to Texas tomorrow.
How you going? You going to fly?
In the magic bus.
You going in the magic bus huh? They got a spiffy green bus, I’ve got to say it’s real nice
.
Sort of
Exorcist
green.
How long do you think it will take you to drive to Texas?
I don’t know.
When’s your gig?
I don’t know that either.
You don’t know where you’re going, but you know where you’re coming from, I guess. We have Max [Weinberg] and Roy [Bittan] with us here. And Garry [Tallent] also. Max and Roy, the new guys on the block. Say hello. [
Shouts of hello
]
That’s Max, and that’s Roy [
laughter
].
Max is a drummer, and Roy is a piano player. I was telling you that people were concerned about what was happening with you and the band, and I can tell them that everything is working out fine including your new violin player
.
That’s Suki. The guy who does the engineering on the album, on our albums, Louis Lahav, that’s his wife. And she’s a girl, she did all the voices on “Sandy.” She sings all the background on “Sandy” on the
Wild, the Innocent
album. She’s been playing with us for two, three weeks. It sounded nice.
Come on in, Garry. Garry is one of the old guys. He’s been around for a while. All sorts of folks here today. We’ve talked, not here on the air, a lot about what Bruce is into and how long it’s taken for Bruce to break out nationally and it’s gotta happen soon
.
Why, why.
You don’t care too much, huh
.
Uh, you know.
You’re pretty mellow about it, I guess. But the people who are enthusiastic about you really want it to go real big so everybody will know about you. Do you want everybody to know about you, Bruce?
I don’t think about it that much, about that aspect of it. What happens now is when you are doing gigs like last night, which is really nice, really nice gig, the audience was a great audience. And we just came from Boston where we got a nice reception up there too. But we actually haven’t ever been in the Midwest at all. I don’t think the records get played out there at all. You can’t concern yourself about too many of those kinds of things. Business is tough enough. You can’t get the music straight, can’t get it clear enough.
Do you have time to write still? You play an awful lot
.
Now we do “Jungleland,” that’s a new song. We do “She’s the One,” that’s a new song. “A Love So Fine,” that’s a new song.
Which used to be something else
.
I’ve got about six other things that we’re gonna work on. So there’s time. It manifests itself when it does.
[
Sciaky asks about other songs Springsteen performs
.]
We pick up different things. We do different songs all the time. We’ve been doing a Crystals song.
“And Then He Kissed Me.”
What else have we been doing? “Spanish Harlem” we’ve been doing.
“Spanish Harlem” is real good, real good. I half expected you to go into “Rosalita” right after that, but it wasn’t the right place for it
.
