Who is Bruce Springsteen

This will be the latest Bruce Springsteen album.

It will be released on October 2, 2007. Pre-order now! Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. Gift-wrap available.

The last time Bruce Springsteen gave up E Street for Folk Street, the band of fiddles, banjos, and accordions - sans audience - was recording 2006's We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions in the informality of his living room.

This time the Boss takes his American-music foray to Ireland for a three-night stint on the north quay of Dublin's River Liffey. The 23 songs drawn from those performances cover most of the songs from the Pete Seeger tribute, but venture drastically into Springsteen's popular back catalog ("Atlantic City," "Highway Patrolman," "Blinded By the Light") while delving further into his affinity for multiple styles of music, from folk and blues to gospel and country.

"If I Should Fall Behind" plays like a tear-jerking last call in a dimly lit pub. "Open All Night" has been shaped into pure swing, complete with pedal steel and sax. And "Jesse James," with its furious banjo, spectator handclaps, and Springsteen howl, could pass for the Pogues, circa 1985. A simultaneously released DVD uses nine cameras to capture every sweat-beaded highlight, from the tin whistle of "Further Up the Road" to an arena bursting out in a "We Shall Overcome" singalong. - Scott Holter

"The fact is when Bruce kicked off at 20.30 pm on that Friday night in The Point Theatre, he played non-stop right to the very end very few performers can sustain such intensity and carry a gig off that would be to us punters unforgettable those night were UNFORGETTABLE!!!!!!!I thought Bruce was never gonna stop and the highlight of the night Bruce lying exhausted over the top of the piano as if he had not a breath left in the world. Dublin was a case of the time the music and the performer - A MOMEMT IN TRUE HISTORY FOR DUBLIN TOWN." - IrishJohnny

"Live In Dublin' was one of those once in a lifetime events that we all wish we had attended. Every reviewer sings praise for this CD and DVD. Veteran concert goers and reviewers say this was the best concert they had ever attended. That is all well and good, but in the end Bruce Springsteen and the Sessions Band care about their fans. You can hear the fans singing along, 'Pay Me My Money Down ', 'Further On Up The Road', 'Erie Canal' and then there is 'Mrs McGrath' an obvious Irish favorite. Just when you think this CD could not get any better, the Boss kicks it up a notch. In fact I was singing along with the rest of'em. The ambience that the live audience gives to this CD is palpable. Springsteen and the audience must have shared the energy and the vibes from the Irish. You can feel the excitement in the air. I thought the Seeger CD was one of the Boss's best CD's, but the 'Live In Dublin' is undoubtabley the best. As my best friend has said, "This is one of the top five CD's ever".

Bruce Springsteen's manager Jon Landau said, "'Live in Dublin' charts the development of a band from an informal gathering in Bruce's living room to an onstage powerhouse. It also documents the growth in Bruce's vision of American music; it includes folk music, blues, Dixieland, country, swing, gospel, rock, down to and including his own writing. It's all performed with Bruce's classic energy and focus. I think it's some of the finest music he's ever made." The 23 songs on this CD are the best of the best. Included are many from his Seegers CD. They all belong in Springsteen's chest of dreams.

This CD and DVD are memorial for the emotions that are so evident in every song. Songs like the antiwar "Mrs. McGrath" and "O Mary Don't You Weep" benefit from these in-concert performances, "and a 17-piece band allows Springsteen to freewheel onto back roads" said Marty Lance. "If I Should Fall Behind" becomes a lovely waltz, "Open All Night" swings like Bob Wills, and "Growin' Up" and "Blinded by the Light" are new arrangements. "The high point, however, just might be "How Can a Poor Man Stand Such Times And Live," the 1929 Blind Alfred Reed song that Springsteen has retrofitted with new lyrics about the government's bungling of Hurricane Katrina's aftermath. Bruce's connection to folk protest deepens, on the rewrite of "How Can A Poor Man Stand Such Times and Live". A Depression era classic that Springsteen found on a Ry Cooder album and then amended with his own brilliantly Bush-baiting verse is perhaps the most politically extreme and, as hammered home here, exultant performance of his career." Even more wonderful is "Eyes On The Prize", sung with Mark Anthony Thompson. "If I Should Fall Behind", a duet with Patty Sciafla, is one of my favorites, and "When The Saints Go Marching In" and "This Little Light Of Mine" rock free and easy. "In short, it's everything Springsteen's big-hearted thoughtfully impassioned take on Americana ever set out to be. Swing out sisters and brothers, swing out." - GAVIN MARTIN

There are not enough superlatives in my repetoire to register the delight of this CD. I have played it many times and will soon listen again. The New Boss Lives On.

The premise was simple. Bruce Springsteen invites a dozen or so New York City musicians - packing banjos, fiddles, accordions and the like - to his New Jersey farmhouse for a three-day hootenanny, and tape is rolling. The results are sublime, his 21st album featuring their versions of songs harvested from Springsteen's dog-eared LPs by Pete Seeger.

Not all written by Seeger, the songs are how the American folk icon interpreted them, and these organic recordings, with no rehearsals or overdubs, pay tribute with the simplicity and spontaneity he intended. It's not hard to link Springsteen's dissatisfaction with American politics to the protest song "We Shall Overcome" or even the Irish ballad "Mrs. McGrath," where he alters the lyrics to read, "I'd rather have my son as he used to be/Than the King of America and his whole navy." But the beauty of these Seeger Sessions are pieces that underscore the mood of the bandleader, which borders on down-home amusement: the bluegrass outlaw ballad "Jesse James," the Dylanesque "Pay Me My Money Down" and the euphoric "Jacob's Ladder," a gumbo-and-whiskey-fueled romp that could pass for the closing hymn at the Church of Asbury Park. -- Scott Holter

This is a DualDisc: Unlike regular CDs, DualDiscs are double-sided. One side contains standard CD audio; the other features DVD content, often including the album in higher-fidelity stereo or a 5.1-channel surround sound mix; lyrics, photos, and computer files; music videos, interviews, and documentaries; and anything else one might find on a regular DVD. Though DualDiscs are slightly thicker than ordinary discs, the DVD side should play in all DVD players, and the CD side should play in all CD players. Here, it contains a 40-minute film about the recording of the album with artist commentary. Includes filmed performances of: John Henry Pay Me My Money Down Buffalo Gals Erie Canal O Mary Don't You Weep Jacob's Ladder Froggie Went A Courtin' Shenandoah

Plus four bonus live tour videos: How Can A Poor Man Stand Such Times And Live (Bruce Springsteen Version) Bring 'Em Home American Land Pay Me My Money Down

In 1975, the weight of the world was on young Bruce Springsteen's shoulders when he and the E Street Band headed for London for the very first time. Constant touring and rave reviews hadn't translated into record sales and his label, which had taken a gamble on him when they signed him in the first place, was about to dump him. Worse, every night he had to face skeptical crowds who wanted to see why critics kept calling this young ruffian from New Jersey "the future of rock and roll." Such was the case in 1975 when they walked out on the stage at the Hammersmith Odeon.

With everything on the line, Bruce Springsteen and the boys played like they had nothing to lose. They were lean, young, and hungry. They played with heart. They played with passion. They played with urgency. And, on this night, they were untouchable. This CD captures that show in its entirety (a DVD of the show is included in the 30th Anniversary box set of Born To Run).

Few bands can match the versatility that Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band display here. Witness the opening tender, wide-eyed rendition of "Thunder Road" followed by a feisty, swaggering version of "Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out." Or "She's The One" which goes from a slow simmer to a full boil in a mere five minutes. Or "Born To Run," which Bruce plays with all of the blue-collar grit and youthful defiance that would later make the song a classic. Or how 'bout the "Detroit Medley," in which the band absolutely ROARS through Mitch Ryder's "Devil With A Blue Dress On," "Good Golly Miss Molly," and "Jenny Take a Ride". He follows THAT with a heartbreaking reading of "For You" before revving things up again, ramrodding through a rollicking version of Gary U.S. Bonds' "Quarter To Three." Are you KIDDING me?

I didn't even mention the absolute insanity of the 17+ minute version of "Kitty's Back," in which Bruce and the guys go out of their freaking minds, did I? Heck, I didn't even mention "Jungleland," my favorite song in the entire Springsteen catalog. No, I didn't mention most of the songs here, because I want you to experience this show for yourself. PLEASE -- do yourself a favor and BUY THIS CD NOW! You won't regret it, I promise.

(By the way, some other reviewers were wondering about the absence of "Pretty Flamingo" from this CD. This show is from November 18, 1975 -- their first show in London. They played a second show at Hammersmith Odeon on November 24, 1975 and THAT was the show that contained "Pretty Flamingo." By most accounts, the second show was even better than the first, if you can imagine that, as Bruce performed 22 songs in nearly three hours.) -- John Orfield (Cincinnati)

Born in the U.S.A. is an album painted in big, broad strokes. But it was still too subtle for some - namely politicians who tried to tap the title track as a jingoistic anthem when it is in fact a bitter diatribe by a Vietnam War vet whose country forgot him.

The rest of the album is a glorious grab bag of radio-ready populist anthems - his best display of pure pop songwriting ever - including "No Surrender," "Dancing in the Dark," "Bobby Jean," and "Glory Days" alongside more circumspect numbers such as "My Hometown" and "I'm On Fire."

It's not true that there's no arguing with success, but in this case Springsteen's widespread acclaim was warranted. With Born in the U.S.A., all those predictions from a decade earlier - that Springsteen was the future of rock - had come true. -- Daniel Durchholz