protégé, Hammond had gone straight to
the President of Columbia Records, Clive
Davis, who famously rubber-stamped
the whole deal after listening to just one
track. Despite this success, it was still
live on stage that the young Springsteen
made the greatest impact, with his high
octane performances contrasting with
the habit of most contemporary singer
songwriters, who tended to give a more
low-profile performance, either sitting
alone with their guitars or standing still
in the spotlight.
Bruce had spent almost all his initial
record advance putting a new band of
musicians together, and hit the road
as soon as his first album was released
in March 1973, entitled Greetings from
Asbury Park N.J.. Recorded at 914 Sound
Studios, in Blauvelt, New York, and
co-produced by Mike Appel and Jim
Cretecos, the backing musicians featured
on the record were drummer Vini ‘Mad
Dog’ Lopez, saxophonist Clarence
Clemmons, bassist Gary Tallent and
keyboard player David Sancious – all of
whom would go on to form the backbone
of the next Springsteen live band. The
album also featured session-men Harold
Wheeler and Richard Davis. The album
sleeve was based on a mock picture-
postcard of Asbury Park, somewhat
worn around the edges: a suitable
visual metaphor for the forlorn picture
of boardwalk life the music contained
therein depicted. Upon release, the record
was regarded, not unfairly, as overly
self-conscious, with the lyrics tending
to overshadow the music to an almost
unprecedented degree, even for a would-
be ‘new Dylan’.
In spite of this criticism, Columbia
chose to promote the album by releasing
one of the most lyrically verbose songsfrom the record as the first single. Blinded
by the Light was almost choking with
words, and needless to say, it was not a hit,
although Britain’s Manfred Mann would
score a No. 1 in the US charts with their
more musically florid version of the song
in 1976. Similarly, the critical reception
for Greetings from Asbury Park N.J. was
mostly positive, but somewhat lukewarm,
and the album did not sell well either.
Nevertheless, there were several golden
nuggets in amongst the slush-pile of
songs. Not least one of the tracks that had
helped secure Springsteen his record deal,
the epochal It’s Hard to Be a Saint in the
City, which closed the album and pointed
the way in which later, more musically
adept Springsteen albums would evolve.
It’s Hard to Be a Saint in the City
was covered by David Bowie for his
Young Americans album in 1975, and
although it never made the final cut,
Bowie, then enjoying the first flush of his
huge worldwide success, let it be known
how much he loved the album. Bowie
expressed his admiration for Greetings
from Asbury Park N.J. by recording a
second track from the record, Growin’
Up, and though that also failed to
make the final Young Americans track-
listing, the publicity was invaluable, and
suddenly Springsteen had one of the
most-discussed albums of 1973.
Other first-album tracks like Spirit in
the Night and Lost in the Flood are also
worth a special mention as they went
on to become live favourites for years.
Spirit in the Night was a funky R&B
number you could actually dance to,
unlike most of the other relentlessly edgy
tracks on the album. Whilst, Lost in the
Flood was an apocalyptic soul-bearer that
prefigured some of Springsteen’s later,
more decidedly downbeat moments like
The River. This was juxtaposed by Does
This Bus Stop at 82nd Street? a song that
sounded as if it could have been written
for an earlier generation by a young,
chain-smoking, Benzedrine-swallowing
Jack Kerouac.
Despite the dense lyrical undergrowth
of so much of the album, according
to Springsteen much of it was actually
written quickly with barely any second
thoughts. Springsteen claimed that tracks
like the ballad For You which recounted
the final minutes of a life, and The Angel
a view of life’s highway taken astride a
purring motorcycle, were written in under
fifteen minutes. ‘I see these situations
happening when I sing them, and I know
the characters well – they’re probably
based on people I know... It’s like if
you’re walking down the street, that’sBruce Springsteen performing live in October 1984.