A 6-week Course on Zoom with Pete Elman
“…Last Thursday, I saw my rock’n’roll past flash before my eyes. 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…” Jon Landau, 1974.
Landau would go on to become Bruce’s manager. He didn’t believe Springsteen’s music was simply retro soul and rock and roll, but that he took his musical influences, i.e. Presley, Berry, Orbison, Spector and Dylan, and formed his own distinctive sound.
Springsteen didn’t reinvent rock and roll; he made his own stamp and developed his own signature. Just as you can listen to any Berry song and say, “that’s the Chuck Berry sound,” you can listen to a Bruce song and say, “that’s the Springsteen sound.”
Pete Elman presents his latest course chronologically in six distinct periods in the life and career of Bruce Springsteen, now 72, from his birth in 1949 to the present, celebrating 50 years–and counting–in what may be the most remarkable career in rock and roll.
Week 1: 1949-71; “He only wanted to play the goddam guitar.”
Childhood in New Jersey: Catholicism, family life, alienation, the loner. His first bands; The Castiles, Earth, Child, Steel Mill, Dr. Zoom and the Sonic Boom. Columbia comes calling; John Hammond and the legendary audition, Greetings from Asbury Park.
Week 2: 1973-75: “I have seen rock and roll future, and its name is Bruce Springsteen.”
The “new Dylan” strays from his rock and roll roots, and returns with a vengeance with The Wild the Innocent and the E Street shuffle. Thunder Road and the endless highway: The musically diverse and commercial triumph that was Born to Run; An in-depth look at the members of the legendary E Street band, and a look at the accompanying tours that established them as rock and roll’s premier live act.
Week 3: 1976-82: Legal limbo and professional purgatory.
Bruce writes dozens of powerful songs while the lawyers put his career on hold. Darkness on the Edge of Town is released to unprecedented critical acclaim, as the live show reaches epic levels. The double album, The River, cements Springsteen position as the face of American rock and roll as the Reagan years commence; the political Bruce emerges
Week 4: 1982-85: Introspection, and then superstardom beckons and Bruce responds.
The acoustic album Nebraska and its brutal depiction of American life during the Reagan years.; the seven hit-single phenomenon that was Born in the USA; indoor coliseum and outdoor stadium tours and pop culture calls; fan magazines, remixes, a live double LP hits #1, and love and marriage—with the wrong girl. With the help of therapy, Bruce confronts his depression.
Week 5: 1986-2001: The aftermath of the hurricane
Bruce tries new things and “breaks up” the E Street band. The brilliant break-up album, Tunnel of Love, exit actress Julianne Phillips, enter Jersey girl Patti Scialfa. Bruce moves to LA; CBS releases Human Touch and Lucky Town on the same day; The Ghost of Tom Joad thrusts Bruce back into America’s conscience.
Week 6: 2001-2020: the rock and roller grows up: Back to Jersey to raise a family.
The horror of 9/11 and Bruce’s heartfelt, heroic and historic response, The Rising; the introspective Devils & Dust gives way to the rootsy Seeger Sessions album and subsequent tour.
The rock and roll poet turns 60: E Street Radio, The title song from the Wrestler, the deaths of Danny and Clarence. Barack Obama—with Bruce on board–brings hope and change to America, the Kennedy center and numerous other awards; a slew of albums, each to fit the times. Meanwhile, the greatest rock and roll band on the planet continues, incredibly, to improve with age, conquering the landscape, one city at a time, delivering hope, love, inspiration and community—and kick-ass rock and roll. Born to Run; the definitive autobiography, Bruce on Broadway, Western Stars, Letter to You.