The day I finally got “The Boss”

This is another in my occasional series of musical items I have either discovered or returned to in the period since the Covid-19 pandemic began its tiresome journey around the world.

Bruce Springsteen needs no introduction – he’s one of the USA’s all-time biggest musical icons and I’m not going to waste time in this post listing the details of his history and/or how he got to where he is today because most Rusters will already know them and possibly better than I do.

Instead I’m going straight to the occasion the penny dropped for me and I first appreciated just how brilliant he was – as it happened, nearly ten years after he first came to the notice of the worldwide public.

Famously, legend has it that Springsteen’s breakthrough moment came in May 1974 with a review of a concert he had played at Boston’s Harvard Square Theatre penned by music critic Jon Landau for that city’s The Real Paper that included the fateful line:

“I saw rock and roll future, and its name is Bruce Springsteen. And on a night when I needed to feel young, he made me feel like I was hearing music for the very first time …”

That quote became central to the marketing campaign that took him to global stellar status but it was a bit of a knife-edge: it could so easily have become a millstone around the then 25 year old’s neck.

When you receive acclaim of such magnitude, you have to be bloody good otherwise – as likely as not – you’ll sink like a stone.

Fortunately for him, Springsteen was the real deal.

However, despite having heard his name – and been exposed to the frenzy of the media (such as it was at the time, nothing so all-persuasive as it is today) both in North America and in the UK upon the occasions he toured here – I remained unconvinced and dare I say it “cynical” as to whether he was more than just a “B” (or even “C”) lister in the firmament of those seeking to ply their trade in rock music.

Until I saw an extract of this on a British music scene television show – if memory serves, which it may not – it may have been The Old Grey Whistle Test hosted by “whispering” Bob Harris.

It’s ‘live’ footage from a concert played by Springsteen and his band in Phoenix on a tour in 1978 and I’m proud to mention that it convinced me in an instant that he was something really special. I’ve been a committed fan ever since.

See here for Bruce’s performance at Phoenix of his song Rosalita (Come Out Tonight) on that tour, courtesy of – YOUTUBE