Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J.

About

The first studio album from Bruce Springsteen wa, improbably, a mostly acoustic record made with some backing musicians—a collection of songs on which Springsteen sounds nothing like the long-haired hard-rocker he’d been in his earlier band, nor like the cool-rockin’ daddy he’d later become. Written on an old piano in the back of a beauty parlor, and released in 1973, <i>Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J.</i> is a record full of tall tale, and populated by Jersey Shore legends: the Madman Drummer and Go-Cart Mozart of “Blinded by the Light”; the Ragamuffin Gunner of “Lost in the Flood”; Crazy Janey, Wild Billy, Hazy Davy, and Killer Joe of “Spirit in the Night.” Springsteen once described the songs on <i>Greetings From Asbury Park</i> as “twisted autobiographie,” with names and places changed to protect the not-so-innocent. They’re epic-length song, full of vivid, poetic imagery, with Springsteen leaning on the rhyming dictionary and striving to find his solo voice after years of playing in band. These are the songs that convinced John Hammond, the man who discovered Bob Dylan, to sign Springsteen to Columbia Record. Although the intention was for Springsteen to follow in the footsteps of the singer-songwriters of the mid-1970, and record and perform as a solo artist, that was never his goal. Instead, he managed to sneak his friends and bandmates into the recording session, including some of the same players who’d end up becoming members of the E Street Band, including saxophonist Clarence Clemon, bassist Garry Tallent, and keyboardist David Sanciou. .

via Apple Music

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