Bruce Springsteen And The E-Street Band

02/12/2012 - Bruce and the band opened the Grammy's with "We Take Care of Our Own"...
Tough to find a decent video of it on Youtube that lasts more than a day before CBS pulls the plug.
You can see the official video of "We Take Care Of Our Own" here.

>01/24/2012 - 2012 US tour dates announced...
Get the details at brucespringsteen.net

01/19/2012 - New album details
The new album, titled "Wrecking Ball" is scheduled for release in the US on March 6, 2012. The album can be preordered here..

The first single "We Take Care of Our Own" was released on brucespringsteen.net. You can listen to it below.

The album will include a few songs already familiar to Bruce fans including the title track "Wrecking Ball", originally written and performed during a 5-night run at Giants Stadium in New Jersey prior to the stadium being torn down. The other song, "Land of Hopes and Dreams" was a tour favorite in 2003. The album will include :

1. We Take Care of Our Own
2. Easy Money
3. Shackled and Drawn
4. Jack of All Trades
5. Death to My Hometown
6. This Depression
7. Wrecking Ball
8. You've Got It
9. Rocky Ground
10. Land of Hope and Dreams
11. We Are Alive

The special edition of the CD adds two bonus tracks including "Swallowed Up" and a staple of the 2009 tour, "American Land".

01/04/2012 - 2012 European tour dates announced through July 27, 2012.
Get the details at brucespringsteen.net

AKA:    The Boss
Born:   Long Branch, New Jersey - 9/23/1949

Bruce spent his childhood and high school years in Freehold, New Jersey. He was inspired to take up music at the age of seven after seeing Elvis Presley on The Ed Sullivan Show. At 13, he bought his first guitar for $18.

In 1965, he visited Tex and Marion Vinyard, who sponsored young bands in town. They helped him become lead guitarist and subsequently the lead singer of The Castiles. In the late 1960s, he performed briefly in a power trio known as Earth, playing in clubs in New Jersey. He acquired the nickname "The Boss" during this period when tasked with collecting the band's nightly pay and distributing it.

From 1969 through early 1971, Bruce performed with Steel Mill, which also featured Vinnie Roslin and future E-Streeters Danny Federici, Vini Lopez and and later Steve Van Zandt and Robbin Thompson. In January 1970 well-known San Francisco Examiner music critic Philip Elwood gave Springsteen credibility in his glowing assessment of Steel Mill: "I have never been so overwhelmed by totally unknown talent."

Other acts followed over the next two years, as Bruce sought to shape a unique and genuine musical and lyrical style: Dr Zoom & the Sonic Boom (early-mid 1971), Sundance Blues Band (mid 1971), and The Bruce Springsteen Band (mid 1971-mid 1972).

Bruce signed a record deal with Columbia Records in 1972, with the help of John Hammond, who had signed Bob Dylan to the same label a decade earlier. Bruce brought many of his New Jersey-based colleagues into the studio with him, thus forming the E Street Band (although it would not be formally named as such until later).

His debut album, Greetings From Asbury Park, NJ, released in January 1973, established him as a critical favorite, though sales were slow. In September 1973 his second album, The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle, was released, again to critical acclaim but no commercial success. Bruce and the band, including new arrival Steve Van Zandt, spent the next 14 months recording the epic Born To Run album, including 6 months on the title track, Miami Steve had been a long-time friend of Bruce, as well as a collaborator on earlier musical projects and specifically contributed on the horn section of "Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out".

On August 13, 1975, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band began a five-night, 10-show stand at New York's Bottom Line club. The engagement attracted major media attention, was broadcast live on WNEW-FM, and convinced many skeptics that Springsteen was for real. (Decades later, Rolling Stone magazine would name the stand as one of the 50 Moments That Changed Rock and Roll.)

With the release of Born to Run on August 25, 1975, Bruce and the band finally found success. The album peaked at number 3 on the Billboard 200, and while there were no hit singles, "Born to Run" (Billboard #23), "Thunder Road", "Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out" (Billboard #83), and "Jungleland" all received massive album-oriented rock airplay and remain perennial favorites on many classic rock stations.

By the late 1970s, Bruce had earned a reputation in the pop world as a songwriter whose material could provide hits for other bands. Manfred Mann's Earth Band had achieved a U.S. number one pop hit with a heavily rearranged version of Greetings' "Blinded by the Light" in early 1977. Patti Smith reached number 13 with her take on Bruce's unreleased "Because the Night" (with revised lyrics by Smith) in 1978, while The Pointer Sisters hit number two in 1979 with Bruce's also unreleased "Fire".

The 20-song, double album The River in 1980 was followed in 1982 by the stark solo acoustic Nebraska. The album started as a demo tape for new work to be played with the E Street Band, but during the recording process Bruce and producer Jon Landau realized the songs worked better as solo acoustic numbers. During the recording of Nebraska, however, the band recorded several new songs including "Born in the U.S.A." and "Glory Days" which would not be released until several years later.

One of Bruce's most commercially successful albums was Born in the U.S.A. (1984), which sold 15 million copies in the U.S. with seven singles hitting the Top 10. The title track was a bitter commentary on the treatment of Vietnam veterans, some of whom were Bruce's friends and bandmates. Dancing in the Dark was the biggest of the singles peaking at number 2 on the Billboard charts. The music video for the song featured a young Courteney Cox on stage with Bruce.

During the Born in the U.S.A. Tour, Bruce met actress Julianne Phillips and they were married in Lake Oswego, Oregon, on May 13, 1985. Opposites in background, their marriage was not long-lived. Bruce's 1987 album Tunnel of Love described some of his unhappinesses in the relationship, and during the subsequent Tunnel of Love Express tour, as reported by many tabloids, When the tour rolled into Italy, Bruce was famously photographed on a balcony with backup singer Patti Scialfa. Phillips and Springsteen filed for divorce in 1988.

In the fall of 1989 he dissolved the E Street Band, and he and Patti relocated to California. Bruce married Patti in 1991 and had three children: Evan James (b. 1990), Jessica Rae (b. 1991) and Sam Ryan (b. 1994). In 1992, fan dissent grew with claims of Bruce "going Hollywood" (a radical move for someone so linked to the blue-collar life of the Jersey Shore).

In 1995, Bruce temporarily reunited the E Street Band for a few new songs recorded for his first Greatest Hits album. In 1997, following the solo Tom Joad tour, Bruce moved back to New Jersey with his family. A year later, he released the sprawling, four-disc box set of out-takes, Tracks. Subsequently, Bruce would acknowledge that the 1990s were a "lost period" for him: "I didn't do a lot of work. Some people would say I didn't do my best work."

Bruce was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1999 by U2, a favor he returned in 2005. That same year, Bruce and the E Street Band officially came together again and went on the extensive Reunion Tour, lasting over a year. Highlights included a record sold-out, 15-show run at Continental Airlines Arena in East Rutherford, New Jersey to kick off the American leg of the tour.

In 2002, Bruce released his first studio effort with the band in 18 years, The Rising. The album, mostly a reflection on the September 11 attacks, included songs influenced by phone conversations Bruce had with family members of victims of the attacks. He and the band played an unprecedented 10 nights in Giants Stadium in New Jersey, a ticket-selling feat to which no other musical act has come close.

After the release of Magic in 2007 and Working On A Dream in 2009, Bruce and the band performed at the halftime show at Super Bowl XLIII on February 1, 2009, agreeing to do it after many previous offers: "It was sort of, well, if we don't do it now, what are we waiting for? I want to do it while I'm alive." His 12 minute 45 second set, with the E Street Band and the Miami Horns, included abbreviated renditions of "Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out", "Born to Run", "Working on a Dream," and "Glory Days". In early 2010, in a twist of fate, the NFL announced the 2014 Superbowl would be played in Bruce's home stadium, the new "Giants" stadium, bucking a tradition of warm-weather Superbowls.. Maybe if Bruce had waited to say "yes"...Of course, there's always the possibility of an encore in 2014.

On April 1, 2009, Bruce and the band kicked off the Working on a Dream Tour in San Jose, California. The tour featured songs requested by audience members holding up signs - usually garage rock or punk rock classics or older, more obscure entries in Springsteen's back catalog. Toward the end of the tour in late 2009, Bruce incorporated full albums into many setlists including Born In The USA, Darkness On The Edge Of Town and Born In The USA.

During a stretch of five final shows at his home state Giants Stadium, Bruce Springsteen opened the shows with a brand new song dedicated to the "old lady" (and told from its perspective), named "Wrecking Ball". The tour ended as scheduled in Buffalo, NY in November 2009 amid speculation that it was the last performance ever by the E Street Band, but during the show Bruce said it was goodbye "for a little while."

The decade ended with Bruce among the recipients of the Kennedy Center Honors on December 6, 2009, an annual award to figures from the world of arts for their contribution to American culture.

AKA:    The Big Man
Born:   Norfolk, Virginia - 1/11/1942

Clarence Clemons musical roots grew from his grandfather, a Southern Baptist preacher who provided him with the love of Gospel music, his father who gave Clarence a saxophone when he was 9 and his uncle who bought him his first King Curtis album. As a youth Clarence also showed potential as a football player and attended Maryland State College on both music and football scholarships. The day before a tryout for the Cleveland Browns, a serious car accident effectively ended any plans of a career in the NFL.

While at Maryland State College Clarence joined his first band, The Vibratones, playing James Brown covers and staying together for about four years between 1961 and 1965.

The story of how Clarence first met Bruce has entered into E Street Band folklore. They allegedly met for the first time in September 1971 and he has recalled their meeting in various interviews...

... One night we were playing in Asbury Park. I'd heard The Bruce Springsteen Band was nearby at a club called The Student Prince and on a break between sets I walked over there. On-stage, Bruce used to tell different versions of this story but I'm a Baptist, remember, so this is the truth. A rainy, windy night it was, and when I opened the door the whole thing flew off its hinges and blew away down the street. The band were on-stage, but staring at me framed in the doorway. And maybe that did make Bruce a little nervous because I just said, "I want to play with your band," and he said, "Sure, you do anything you want." The first song we did was an early version of "Spirit In The Night". Bruce and I looked at each other and didn't say anything, we just knew. We knew we were the missing links in each other's lives...he was a visionary...and from then on I was part of history.

In July 1972, Bruce began recording his debut album Greetings From Asbury Park, NJ. and when he decided to use a tenor saxophone on the songs "Blinded By The Light" and "Spirit In The Night" it was Clarence he called. By October 1972 Bruce was ready to tour and promote the album and he put together the original, yet still un-named, E Street band featuring Clemons, Gary Tallent, Danny Federici and Vini Lopez. David Sancious, who played keyboard on Greetings, was arguably also a founding member of the band but did not tour with them until 1973.

Throughout the 1970s and 1980s Clarence was prominently featured on Bruce's albums. On Born to Run he provided memorable saxophone solos on the title track, "Thunder Road" and "Jungleland" while Darkness on the Edge of Town featured another notable solo on "Badlands". The River saw Clarence featured on songs such as "The Ties That Bind", "Sherry Darling", "I Wanna Marry You" and "Independence Day" while Born in the U.S.A. saw solos on "Bobby Jean" and "I'm Goin' Down".

Outside of his work with the E Street Band, Clarence has recorded with many other artists. The best known are his 1985 vocal duet with Jackson Browne on the hit single "You're a Friend of Mine", and his saxophone work on Aretha Franklin's 1985 hit single "Freeway of Love". His last collaboration was with Lady Gaga on her 2011 release Born This Way .

On June 12, 2011, Clarence suffered a stroke. After reports that he was improving and would recover, he died quite suddenly on June 18th from complications caused by the stroke.

Various artists reacted on stage to the death of Clarence including U2 at their Anaheim, CA concert the night Clarence passed. During Moment of Surrender, Bono paid tribute to Clarence by reading lyrics from Jungleland and repeated them at the song's conclusion.

AKA:    Phantom Dan
Born:   Flemington, NJ - 1/23/1950

Danny started to play accordion when he was seven years old which he learned from watching The Lawrence Welk Show. After mastering classical music and polka, his mother began booking him at parties, clubs and on radio.

Danny attended high school at Hunterdon Central High School in New Jersey. When he and Vini Lopez started the band Child at the end of the 1960s, they chose fellow Jersey Shore music scene compatriot Bruce Springsteen as their singer. Danny also joined Bruce in other early efforts including Steel Mill.

The sound from Danny's keyboards were a key component of the E Street sound, and sometimes took on a more prominent role, such as on the hit "Hungry Heart". His use of the electronic glockenspiel is also an easily recognized E Street element; he subsequently used electronic keyboards to simulate the glockenspiel sound. Another notable performance is his accordion solo on "4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)".

During the 90's when the E Street Band was inactive, Danny recorded a solo album of jazz instrumentals called Flemington, after his hometown of Flemington, New Jersey. E-Street bandmates, bassist Garry Tallent and guitarist Nils Lofgren supplied backup on the album.

During in-concert band intros, Bruce often referred to him as "Phantom Dan", sometimes said to be a result of an incident in Asbury Park in the 1960s when Danny evaded a police crackdown that resulted in the arrest of numerous others.

On November 21, 2007, Danny announced he would take a leave of absence from Bruce and the band's ongoing Magic Tour to pursue treatment for melanoma, and was temporarily replaced by musician Charles Giordano, a veteran of The Seeger Sessions Tour with Bruce.

Danny rejoined Bruce and the band only once after that in March 2008 in Indianapolis and lost his battle with the disease in April 2008. Bruce's 2009 album, Working On A Dream, is dedicated to Danny, founding and forever member of the E Street Band.

Born:   Detroit, MI - 10/27/1949

Garry Wayne Tallent grew up around the Jersey shore and first learned how to play the tuba and then bass guitar. He started playing with Bruce in 1971 in two earlier bands and then was an original member of the first E Street Band.

Both visually and musically he stays in the background; his most notable bass parts may be on the song "Fire" and the last verse of "Incident on 57th Street". During the E Street Band's early years, he occasionally played the tuba on some of Bruce's quirkier early songs, both in concert and on record (most notably "Wild Billy's Circus Story").

In addition to his work with Bruce, Garry has recorded with numerous other artists. In 1987 he produced the song "Crying, Waiting, Hoping" for Marshall Crenshaw on the La Bamba soundtrack.

During the long time the E Street Band was inactive in the 1990s, Garry moved to Nashville, having an affinity for country and western and rockabilly music.

There he opened the MoonDog recording studio and helped start the D'Ville Record Group label. Garry has produced such artists as Jim Lauderdale and Steve Forbert.

AKA:    Maddog
Hometown: Neptune, New Jersey

Vincent 'Vini" Lopez grew up in Neptune, New Jersey where he attended Neptune High School with both Garry Tallent and Southside Johnny Lyon. After graduating from high school in 1967, Vini worked at the boatyards in Point Pleasant, New Jersey and played with several local bands.

In 1968 the Upstage Club opened in Asbury Park, New Jersey. The club would play a central role in the history of both Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band and Southside Johnny & The Asbury Jukes.

In February 1969 Bruce and Vini got together with Danny Federici and Vinnie Roslin at The Upstage and formed a new band. They initially played as Child but in November 1969 changed their name to Steel Mill.

In the early '70s Vini and Bruce would play together in several short lived bands out of the Upstage including Bruce Springsteen & The Friendly Enemies, The Sundance Blues Band, Dr. Zoom & The Sonic Boom Band and The Bruce Springsteen Band. All of these bands included a core membership of Springsteen, Lopez, Federici, Sancious, Tallent, Van Zandt and Southside Johnny.

In 1972, after Bruce signed with Columbia Records, he returned to The Upstage to recruit a band to record and then tour in support of his debut album, Greetings from Asbury Park, NJ. Together with Federici, Tallent, Sancious and new member Clarence Clemons, they formed the yet unnamed first E Street Band.

Lopez would leave the band under controversial circumstances. Prior to a show at the University of Kentucky on February 12 1974, he accused Springsteen's manager, Mike Appel, of stealing from the band and he got into a fight with his brother, Steve Appel, the band's road manager. After the show he was effectively fired from the band.

However this was not the last occasion that he backed Bruce in concert. In 1974 at The Stone Pony, Vini accompanied Springsteen, Tallent and Southside Johnny for several songs. In 2003 at Giants Stadium during The Rising Tour and again in 2009 at the Wachovia Spectrum, Vini made a guest appearance playing on "Spirit in the Night".

Born:   Asbury Park, NJ - 11/30/1953

David Sancious began to learn classical piano at seven and by eleven he had taught himself guitar. He was only in his teens when he first became involved in the Asbury Park music scene. In the late 1960s and early 1970s he played in various bands that included Springsteen and future members of The E Street Band, as well as Southside Johnny and Bill Chinnock.

In January 1972 David moved to Richmond, Virginia. In June 1972 Bruce asked him to play keyboards on his debut album, Greetings from Asbury Park, NJ. However when Bruce began touring with what is now considered the unofficial start of the E Street Band in October 1972, David was not with them, having returned to Richmond in July.

Although it can be argued that he was not a founding member of the E Street Band, he was certainly an important part of Bruce's first three albums and legend also has it that the band took its name from the street in Belmar, New Jersey, where David's mother lived and allowed them to rehearse.

In 1974 when drummer Vini Lopez left the band, it was David who recommended his friend, Ernest Carter, as a replacement. Later in the year Sancious and Carter helped record the title track of Bruce's third album Born to Run. Sancious and Carter then parted ways with Bruce and the band to form their own band, Tone.

David reunited with Bruce in 1992 to help record the solo effort Human Touch and has gone on to become a popular session and touring musician, most notably for Stanley Clarke, Narada Michael Walden, Zucchero Fornaciari, Peter Gabriel, and Sting among many others.

Beyond the Palace hemi-powered drones scream down the boulevard
The girls comb their hair in rearview mirrors
And the boys try to look so hard
The amusement park rises bold and stark
Kids are huddled on the beach in a mist
I wanna die with you Wendy on the streets tonight
In an everlasting kiss...

Born To Run, 1975

AKA:    Little Steven, Miami Steve
Born:   Steven Lento on 11/22/50

Steve was born in Winthrop, Mass and moved with his family to Middletown Township, New Jersey when he was seven. He grew up in the Jersey Shore music scene, and was was a member of many of Springsteen's early bands and a founding member of the E-Street Band in 1972.

He toured with the Dovells, then worked with Southside Johnny Lyon, helping him form the Asbury Jukes in 1974 and playing with them until he re-joined Springsteen in the E Street Band in early 1975.

During the recording sessions for Born to Run, Springsteen - at a loss for ideas on how to arrange the horn part for "Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out" - called on Steve and his encyclopedic knowledge of soul music for help with the arrangement. In the Wings for Wheels Documentary, Bruce revealed that Steve was partially responsible for the signature guitar line in Born to Run; "Arguably Steve's greatest contribution to my music." It has been long debated if Steve himself is playing guitar on the song.

In 1982, he organized Little Steven & the Disciples of Soul and released Men Without Women. He left the E Street Band on amicable terms in 1984 and released the second Disciples of Soul album, Voice of America, that spring. In 1985, with Steve's left-wing political stance, he organized Artists United Against Apartheid, recording the all-star Top 40 single "Sun City," which increased awareness about apartheid in South Africa.

Van Zandt returned to the E Street Band when it was reformed (briefly in 1995, and on an ongoing occasional basis in 1999) and remains with it to this day.

In 1998, Steve took a core role in The Sopranos, playing level-headed but deadly mob consigliere and strip club owner Silvio Dante. He had no acting experience, but was cast by series creator David Chase. His real-life wife Maureen Van Zandt made occasional appearances on The Sopranos playing Silvio's wife Gabriella.

Since 2002, Van Zandt has also hosted Little Steven's Underground Garage, a weekly syndicated radio show that celebrates garage rock and similar rock sub-genres from the 1950s to the present day.

AKA:    Mighty Max
Born:   Newark, New Jersey - 4/13/1951

Max's earliest influences included Elvis Presley and his drummer, D. J. Fontana, and The Beatles and their drummer, Ringo Starr. His first public appearance came at the age of seven when he sat in on a bar mitzvah band playing "When the Saints Go Marching In". The bandleader became enamored of him and brought him along on other engagements as a kind of novelty act. Max became a local child star, drumming in a three-piece mohair suit at local engagements.

He first met Bruce Springsteen in 1974 when The Jim Marino Band were Bruce's support at Seton Hall. Springsteen had parted ways with his drummer, Vini "Mad Dog" Lopez, earlier that year, and the replacement, Ernest "Boom" Carter, lasted only six months before leaving to form his own band. Max answered Bruce's Village Voice newspaper ad and auditioned with the core E Street Band in August. His drumming on the Fats Domino song "Let the Four Winds Blow" sealed the position and he was offered the $110 per week job. He quit college, six academic credits short of a degree.

Max suffered an acknowledged "drumming slump" around 1980, and his time-keeping skills were criticized by Bruce. Max practiced drumming components for months in order to regain a fine sense of timing. He also suffered from repetitive stress injury and tendinitis, eventually requiring seven operations on his hands and wrists. He studied for a while with noted jazz drummer Joe Morello who Max credits with helpiing him learn how to play with the tendinitis.Despite his injuries, he made a full recovery for 1984's Born in the U.S.A.

Max also played as a session musician, enjoying particular success in connection with songwriter and producer Jim Steinman. He drummed on the very popular 1977 Meat Loaf album, Bat out of Hell, playing on the Steinman-penned tracks "Bat out of Hell", "You Took the Words Right Out of My Mouth", and "Paradise by the Dashboard Light".

In 1983, Max was featured on the #1 and #2 songs on the charts, both by Steinman...Bonnie Tyler's "Total Eclipse of the Heart" & Air Supply's "Making Love Out of Nothing At All".

In July 1993, Weinberg had a chance meeting outside Carnegie Deli with newly selected Late Night host Conan O'Brien, where Weinberg spoke about his ideas for music on the show. The Max Weinberg 7 was formed and the band performed on the show every night since its premiere on September 13, 1993. Weinberg became a television celebrity and his visibility and stature established an image for him beyond The E Street Band.

AKA:    The Professor
Born:  &nbspRockaway Beach, Queens, New York - 7/2/1949

Roy joined Bruce in 1974 when original keyboardist David Sancious left to form his own group, Tone. His nickname, "Professor" is supposedly (but falsely) as a result of his being the only group member with a high school diploma. Bittan's dramatic piano part on Born to Run's epic six-and-a-half minute anthem "Backstreets" is widely viewed as one of the great keyboard performances in rock music history.

When Bruce decided to part ways with the E Street Band in 1989, Roy was the one member kept on, both in studio and on the "Other Band" Tour.

Roy has also made major contributions to recorded work by several other articts besides Bruce. He played piano nearly exclusively on Meat Loaf's seminal 1977 album Bat out of Hell. According to music folklore, composer Jim Steinman pursued Roy for the album due to his love for Springsteen's early work, particularly on the 1975 album Born to Run.

Since then, Bittan has regularly and nearly exclusively collaborated with Steinman, appearing on three more Meat Loaf albums (most notably Bat out of Hell II: Back into Hell), Steinman's solo album Bad for Good, an Air Supply single, a Barbra Streisand single, an album by Pandora's Box, Total Eclipse of the Heart, and more.

 
 
 
The E Street Band - 1985

from left to right,

Garry W. Talent, Danny Federici, Nils Lofgren, Max Weinberg, Bruce Springsteen, Patti Scialfa, Roy Bittan, Clarence Clemons
 
 
 
 

In 1982 Bruce did what nobody expected him to do: the solo effort Nebraska. Bruce did not tour in support of the album but instead guested and jammed with unknown groups of the Jersey scene in NJ and NY clubs and bars. When he called the band back together for the release and tour of Born In The USA, Steve Van Zandt decided not to follow and was replaced by Nils Lofgren.

Patti Scialfa, future wife of Bruce, also joined the band with supporting vocals and later guitar.

The band toured, playing arenas and stadiums, for the better part of the next several years. The latter portion of the time was in support of the Tunnel Of Love album and included The Horns of Love, Ritchie "La Bamba" Rosenberg, Mike Spengler, Mark Pender, Ed Manion and Mario Cruz.

The E Street Band - 1984 to 1989

Bruce Springsteen: guitar, vocals
Clarence Clemons: saxophone, backing vocals
Danny Federici: organ
Max Weinberg: drums
Garry Tallent: bass
Roy Bittan: keyboards
Nils Lofgren: guitar, backing vocals
Patti Scialfa: guitar, backing vocals

Studio albums released during this time :

Nebraska
released September 30, 1982
...solo without the E Street Band
 
 
Born In The USA
released June 4, 1984
 
 
Tunnel Of Love
released October 9, 1987
 
 
 
Live albums released during this time :

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band: Live 75 - 85
released November 10, 1986

AKA:    Lefty
Born:   Chicago, Illinois - 6/21/1951

Nils first instrument was classical accordion, beginning at age 5. After studying classical music and jazz, throughout his youth, Lofgren switched his emphasis to rock music, and focused on the piano and the guitar. By 1969, Lofgren formed the band Grin, with bassist Bob Gordon, and drummer Bob Berberich, and the group played in the venues throughout the Washington, D.C. area.

Nils joined Neil Young's band at age 17, playing piano and guitar on the album After the Gold Rush. Young gave him this role despite his having virtually no experience on the instrument. He maintained a close musical relationship with Young, appearing on his Tonight's the Night album and tour among others. He was also briefly a member of Crazy Horse, appearing on their 1971 LP and contributing songs to their catalogue.

In 1984, he joined Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band as the replacement for Steve Van Zandt in time for their massive Born in the U.S.A. Tour. The E Street Band toured again with Springsteen in 1988 on the Tunnel of Love Express.

In 1989 Springsteen broke up the E Street Band, but Lofgren and Van Zandt rejoined when Springsteen revived the band in 1999 for their Reunion Tour, The Rising Tour in '02/'03, the Magic album and world tour of '07/'08, and most recently for the Working on a Dream Tour in 2009.

Born:  Deal, New Jersey - 7/29/1953

Patti was writing songs from an early age and first worked professionally as a back-up singer for New Jersey bar bands after she completed high school. Together with Soozie Tyrell and Lisa Lowell, she formed a street group known as Trickster. For many years, she struggled to make her way in the songwriting and recording industry in New York and New Jersey before playing at Kenny's Castaway in Greenwich Village, as well as Asbury Park's The Stone Pony.

In 1984, Patti joined the E Street Band, three or four days before the opening show of the Born in the U.S.A. Tour. During the 1988 Tunnel of Love Express tour, Patti took a central role in the sexually-charged stage performances, such as "You Can Look (But You Better Not Touch)," "Tougher than the Rest" and "I'm a Coward", thereby displacing Bruce's traditional on-stage foil, saxophonist Clarence Clemons.

On June 8, 1991 Bruce and Patti married at their Beverly Hills home. The Springsteen-Scialfa union has weathered significant media attention and their partnership in music and life is seen as one of the strongest in the entertainment world.

The E Street Band - 2003 from left to right, Clarence Clemons, Garry W. Talent, Patti Scialfa, Roy Bittan, Max Weinberg, Steve Van Zandt, Bruce Springsteen, Nils Lofgren, Danny Federici, Soozie Tyrell

In 1992 Bruce decided to try to explore new musical directions, and with a totally new band recorded the simultaneously-released Human Touch / Lucky Town albums, performing a long 2-leg tour with them. The new band never entered the heart of Bruce's fan and they probably did not even go near the level of perfection and unionships the old E Street Band had.

In 1995 Bruce did it again. Like 13 years before he tried the 'solo way' to express himself, releasing The Ghost Of Tom Joad followed by a long two years solo tour. Shortly afterward, Blood Brothers, and moreover, Tracks, put the E Street Band together again, with both Nils and Steve for the Reunion tour that began in 1999 and the Rising tour through 2003.

Soozie Tyrell joined the band on a regular basis in 2002 for the Rising tour, playing violin, percussion and acoustic guitar.

After several years off, Bruce and the band returned with new material in the form of 2007's release, Magic and toured in support of the album.

The E Street Band - 1995 to 2007

Bruce Springsteen: guitar, vocals
Clarence Clemons: saxophone, backing vocals
Danny Federici: organ
Max Weinberg: drums
Garry Tallent: bass
Roy Bittan: keyboards
Nils Lofgren: guitar, backing vocals
Patti Scialfa: guitar, backing vocals
Steve Van Zandt: guitar, backing vocals
Soozie Tyrell: violin, percussion, acoustic guitar, backing vocals (joined in 2002)

Studio albums released during this time :

Human Touch
released March 31, 1992
...recorded with select E Street Band members and others
 
 
Lucky Town
released March 31, 1992
...recorded with select E Street Band members and others
 
 
The Ghost Of Tom Joad
released November 21, 1995
...solo without the E Street Band
 
 
The Rising
released July 30, 2002
 
 
Devils and Dust
released April 26, 2005
...solo without the E Street Band
 
 
We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions
released April 25, 2006
...solo without the E Street Band
 
 
Magic
released October 2, 2007
 
 
 
Live albums released during this time :

Bruce Springsteen In Concert - MTV Plugged DVD
released April 12, 1993
 
 
Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band Live In New York
released March 27, 2001
 
 
Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band Live In Barcelona DVD
released November 18, 2003
 
 
Bruce Springsteen & The Sessions Band Live In Dublin
released June 5, 2007

AKA:    Sister Soozie
Born:   Pisa, Italy - 5/4/1957

Soozie is the daughter of a military serviceman and travelled extensively. Eventually her family settled in Florida and she briefly took music theory classes at the University of South Florida. She then relocated to New York City where she became a street musician for many years. Together with Patti Scialfa and Lisa Lowell, she formed a street group known as Trickster.

Soozie began appearing on records with Southside Johnny & The Asbury Jukes' Love is a Sacrifice in 1980. She then led her own country and western band, Soozie & High in the Saddle. Beginning in mid-1980s she worked with David Johansen and his Buster Poindexter alter-ego for fifteen years, appearing on six albums and a number of tours as well as collaborating on the musical Poet's Café.

Soozie first appeared with Bruce Springsteen in 1992 on his Lucky Town album, as a backing vocalist. She subsequently performed on every Springsteen album of new studio material since that time, primarily as a violinist and backing singer, including the albums The Ghost of Tom Joad and Devils & Dust, which were not E-Street Band albums, making her the musician who has performed on more Springsteen albums in the last twenty years than most of the other members of the E-Street Band, with the exception of Patti Scialfa and Springsteen himself.

In 2002 her violin became a key part of the sound on Bruce's album The Rising, and she joined the E Street Band for the subsequent 2002-2003 Rising Tour. She also played a prominent role in his non-E Street, big band folk-oriented 2006 album We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions and the subsequent Sessions Band Tour. She contributed to Bruce's 2007 and 2009 albums Magic and Working on a Dream and was a key facet of Springsteen and the E Street Band's ensuing Magic and Working on a Dream Tours, onstage for every number playing acoustic guitar in addition to violin.

The E Street Band - 2009 from left to right, Charles Giordano, Steve Van Zandt, Bruce Springsteen, Nils Lofgren, Roy Bittan

Not pictured - Clarence Clemons, Garry W. Talent, Patti Scialfa, Max Weinberg, Soozie Tyrell

After the conclusion of the Magic tour's first leg on November 19, 2007, Danny Federici took a leave of absence from the tour to pursue treatment for melanoma. He was replaced by Seeger Sessions Band member Charles Giordano.

Danny made his only return to the stage on March 20, 2008, when he appeared for portions of a Springsteen and E Street Band performance in Indianapolis. He died on April 17, 2008.

Quickly following the Magic tour in late 2008, Bruce released Working On A Dream, concurrently supported by a Super Bowl appearance in February 2009 and a tour that followed shortly afterward. The tour ran through much of 2009 and concluded in November.

Max Weinberg's son, Jay, frequently replaced Max on drums early in the tour while his dad worked with Conan O'Brien on his new Tonight Show assignment. Curt Ramm supported the band on horns as a regular addition near the end of the tour.

The E Street Band - 2008 to 2010

Bruce Springsteen: guitar, vocals
Clarence Clemons: saxophone, backing vocals
Max Weinberg: drums
Garry Tallent: bass
Roy Bittan: keyboards
Nils Lofgren: guitar, backing vocals
Patti Scialfa: guitar, backing vocals
Steve Van Zandt: guitar, backing vocals
Soozie Tyrell: violin, percussion, acoustic guitar, backing vocals (joined in 2002)
Charles Giordano: organ, accordian

Studio albums released during this time :

Working On A Dream
released January 27, 2009
 
 
 
DVDs released during this time :

London Calling : Live In Hyde Park 2009
released June 22, 2010

Born:   1954 in Brooklyn, New York

Charles Giordano may also be familiar to rock fans as the keyboard player for Pat Benatar in the 1980s. His role on five albums was praised was praised by Billboard magazine and he was easily identifiable by his glasses and distinctive array of berets, blazers and 1980s-style ties. Giordano also was a member of The David Johansen Group and went on to perform with Buster Poindexter and The Banshees of Blue.

As a session musician Giordano's playing has included Madeleine Peyroux's 1996 album Dreamland and Bucky Pizzarelli's 2000 album Italian Intermezzo; the latter's mix of opera, Italian folk, and swing presaged his appearance in the similarly genre-mashing Sessions Band Tour with Springsteen.

"Phantom" Danny Federici lost his long battle with melanoma on April 17, 2008. At his funeral in Red Bank, New Jersey on April 21, 2008, Bruce Springsteen delivered a eulogy about Danny that included a few famous and infamous stories, honoring his long-time friend. A small excerpt is below. The entire eulogy can be found at Bruce's official site Farewell To Danny

My pal, quiet, shy Dan Federici, was a one-man creator of some of the hairiest circumstances of our 40 year career...

Maybe it was the "police riot" in Middletown, New Jersey... Danny allegedly knocked over our huge Marshall stacks on some of Middletown's finest who had rushed the stage because we broke the law by...playing too long.

As I stood there watching, several police officers crawled out from underneath the speaker cabinets and rushed away to seek medical attention. Another nice young officer stood in front of me onstage waving his nightstick, poking and calling me nasty names. I looked over to see Danny with a beefy police officer pulling on one arm while Flo Federici, his first wife, pulled on the other, assisting her man in resisting arrest.

A kid leapt from the audience onto the stage, momentarily distracting the beefy officer with the insults of the day. Forever thereafter, "Phantom" Dan Federici slipped into the crowd and disappeared.

The Danny Federici Melanoma Fund was started after his death, and is dedicated to the research and development treatments for melanoma through funding for clinical trials at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York. The fund also aims to help raise awareness for the disease.

You can found out more and donate by visiting The Danny Fund.

After the sudden loss in 2011 of Clarence Clemons, one of the pillars of the E-Street band from the beginning, fans wondered if Bruce and the band could continue. Although they would never be the same without Clarence and he can never be replaced, it's clear to everyone that he would have wanted them to carry on.

2012 started on a bright note with an announcement from Bruce that new music and a tour would be forthcoming in the new year. European tour dates were quickly posted on Bruce's website with a promise of a release date for the new music and US tour dates to follow.

As a life-long fan of Bruce and the band, I know it will not feel right without Clarence and his sax casting a large shadow on stage right when they take the stage for the first time in 2012...but he'll be there, his spirit bigger and brighter than ever.

The E Street Band - 2012

...to be announced

Studio albums released during this time :

Wrecking Ball
released March 6, 2012

That was my first thought when I heard the news about the passing of a legend. It was a nice day in June if I remember, but even though the sun was shining outside, it was like a rainy day at the shore inside me...a very sad feeling knowing something has passed and you'll never be able to get it back.

Bruce, always the eloquent poet, was in fine form delivering Clarence's eulogy. A short excerpt from the end of the reading is below.

Big Man, thank you for your kindness, your strength, your dedication, your work, your story. Thanks for the miracle and for letting a little white boy slip through the side door of the Temple of Soul.

SO LADIES AND GENTLEMAN, ALWAYS LAST, BUT NEVER LEAST. LET'S HEAR IT FOR THE MASTER OF DISASTER, the BIG KAHUNA, the MAN WITH A PHD IN SAXUAL HEALING, the DUKE OF PADUCAH, the KING OF THE WORLD, LOOK OUT OBAMA! THE NEXT BLACK PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES EVEN THOUGH HE'S DEAD, YOU WISH YOU COULD BE LIKE HIM BUT YOU CAN'T! LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, THE BIGGEST MAN YOU'VE EVER SEEN!... GIVE ME A C-L-A-R-E-N-C-E. WHAT'S THAT SPELL? CLARENCE! WHAT'S THAT SPELL? CLARENCE! WHAT'S THAT SPELL? CLARENCE! ...amen.

I'm gonna leave you today with a quote from the Big Man himself, which he shared on the plane ride home from Buffalo, the last show of the last tour. As we celebrated in the front cabin congratulating one another and telling tales of the many epic shows, rocking nights and good times we'd shared, "C" sat quietly, taking it all in, then he raised his glass, smiled and said to all gathered, "This could be the start of something big."

Clarence has moved on but is certainly not gone. His music, spirit and love will live on forever. If you have your doubts, watch, listen and feel the video below of Clarence on his last tour with Bruce and the band and tell me you don't get goosebumps when the Big Man plays his sax...Yup, he's still here, and always will be.

The screen door slams
Mary's dress waves
Like a vision she dances across the porch
As the radio plays
Roy Orbison singing for the lonely
Hey that's me and I want you only
Don't turn me home again
I just can't face myself alone again
Don't run back inside
darling you know just what I'm here for
So you're scared and you're thinking
That maybe we ain't that young anymore
Show a little faith, there's magic in the night
You ain't a beauty, but hey you're alright
Oh and that's alright with me

You can hide 'neath your covers
And study your pain
Make crosses from your lovers
Throw roses in the rain
Waste your summer praying in vain
For a savior to rise from these streets
Well now I'm no hero
That's understood
All the redemption I can offer, girl
Is beneath this dirty hood
With a chance to make it good somehow
Hey what else can we do now
Except roll down the window
And let the wind blow back your hair
Well the night's busting open
These two lanes will take us anywhere
We got one last chance to make it real
To trade in these wings on some wheels
Climb in back
Heaven's waiting on down the tracks
Oh oh come take my hand
Riding out tonight to case the promised land
Oh oh Thunder Road, oh Thunder Road
oh Thunder Road
Lying out there like a killer in the sun
Hey I know it's late we can make it if we run
Oh Thunder Road, sit tight take hold
Thunder Road

Well I got this guitar
And I learned how to make it talk
And my car's out back
If you're ready to take that long walk
From your front porch to my front seat
The door's open but the ride it ain't free
And I know you're lonely
For words that I ain't spoken
But tonight we'll be free
All the promises'll be broken
There were ghosts in the eyes
Of all the boys you sent away
They haunt this dusty beach road
In the skeleton frames of burned out Chevrolets

They scream your name at night in the street
Your graduation gown lies in rags at their feet
And in the lonely cool before dawn
You hear their engines roaring on
But when you get to the porch they're gone
On the wind, so Mary climb in
It's a town full of losers
And I'm pulling out of here to win.