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Online Extra
More Glory Days
July 2009
More friends of the Boss share their most intimate insights
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Relive Your Glory Days
Got a favorite Bruce Springsteen song or memory? Celebrate the Boss' 60th by sharing your own Springsteen story in our rock 'n' roll forum
John Hall
A singer/songwriter who founded the band Orleans, he's in his second term as Democratic U.S. representative from New York's 19th Congressional District, in the Hudson Valley.
"When Bruce and I were starting out, I was in a band called Kangaroo, and Bruce was the leader of a band called the Castilles. We used to do six shows a day, starting about two in the afternoon at Café Wha?, a Greenwich Village coffeehouse where kids from Long Island and New Jersey would come in and hear up-and-coming rock bands. We would alternate, six sets each, going on into the night. I think each man got paid six dollars a day and all the potato chips he could eat.
 
"Looking back, was there something that would indicate success and the longevity of his career and the standards that he has lived up to? Sure there was. Every step of the way he ignored trends and what record executives were telling him, instead following his own inspirations. It's been evident in how long he takes to make a recording, because he doesn't rush them out. He's notorious for taking his time until it's perfect. He works like an artist and performs like one, and that's what kept him the loyal audience that he has had all these years.
"I think Bruce has been very careful to pick and choose when to advocate the cause. When we did the No Nukes concerts in 1979, Bruce was responsible for selling out two or three of those nights. It is a tough tightrope to walk. Bruce has been more veiled and subtle and artistic in his way of doing it, and that's the sign of an artist, to be able to say something and leave blanks for the listener to fill in."
Ruth Pointer
In 1978, the Pointer Sisters, looking to move from a jazz-R&B sound into pop, recorded "Fire," written by Springsteen. The song became the Pointers' first-ever gold single.
"We were surprised a little because the song is a bit sexual and a bit not. We got different reactions, but mostly people wondering, what did you mean by that? You could take it any number of ways, not only sexually. People just need gentleness in their lives, they need to be touched—babies, seniors, animals. People like to be touched softly. In the gentleness of that song is something every living thing can relate to: with the slow hand and a gentle approach you can aspire to do anything. That's the way I look at the song, and it lets me know that Bruce has a lot of gentleness in his heart."
Anita Pointer
"Bruce was just so sweet when I met him. I went to a big concert of his in Chicago, and I sent a note backstage saying 'Anita Pointer is here.' We had just done 'Fire,' and I was so nervous to meet him: it was like I was going to meet God. There was a mob of people waiting. Finally, he signaled for me and my friend to come in first—and I was so thrilled. Oh my God, me, Anita Pointer, 'Come back in here, yeah you, Anita Pointer, you come on in.' Oh, wow! We went into the dressing room and he was just finishing his massage. He was so sweet. He gave me a note saying something like, 'I love the way you did the song,' and that he was glad I'd come to see him. I still have that note.
"I just hugged him and thanked him for getting us that song and letting us record it. We never had a gold single till 'Fire,' and it just sent us sailing. I love Bruce. I wish he would give me the publishing [royalties] on 'Fire' for one year. Now that would be nice!"
Steve Earle
Earle says Springsteen inspired him to write the songs for Guitar Town, the first of his 13 albums. Known for his opposition to the death penalty, Earle contributed "Ellis Unit One" to the Dead Man Walking soundtrack, which featured Springsteen's title track.
"I was in Nashville for 12 or 13 years and never got a record deal. Then, in 1985, I saw something on the 'Born in the USA' tour that made everything click for me. I watched Bruce turn a 20,000-seat arena at Middle Tennessee State University into a coffeehouse. He brought everything down to this conversational level. He told stories. I realized that I could apply skills that I had learned in coffeehouses to a bigger audience and to fronting a band. I went home and wrote 'Guitar Town' to be the opening of that record. I finally got a record deal and had a career.
"I didn't meet Bruce until 1988 when my third record came out. We were playing the Palace in L.A. Someone said 'Springsteen and John Fogerty just came in.' I'd been playing [Springsteen's] 'Nebraska' encores on that tour. My steel player came back and said, 'You're not going to play "Nebraska," are you?'
" 'F_ _ yeah, I'm going to play it,' I said. And I did.
"Afterward, Bruce walks into my dressing room and the first thing he says to me was, 'Ballsy cover, man.' It was pretty overwhelming.
"Bruce was the last man standing in the '80s. I think we could have forgotten about how powerful songs were, as disco had a stranglehold on everything. I think Bruce being there, pounding away at it and making those records during that era, sort of helped the idea of the singer/songwriter survive."
President William Jefferson Clinton
A sax player himself, Clinton became a Boss fan early in his political career.
"Bruce Springsteen's music has influenced generations and provided an authentic soundtrack to the lives of hardworking Americans for decades. But equally as iconic as his anthology is his enormous support for progressive causes, from giving back to the communities in his home state of New Jersey to advocating for issues such as poverty or human rights globally. He's always willing to lend his talents and music to support the good causes of others, and arguably has done even more for the world than he has for rock and roll."
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