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ARTISTS : BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN   Bruce Springsteen is a rock & roll working-class hero: a plain-spoken visionary. He is a fervent and sincere romantic whose insights into everyday lives -- especially in America’s small-town, working-class heartland -- have earned comparisons to John Steinbeck and Woody Guthrie. His belief in rock’s mythic past and its potential revitalized pop music and made Springsteen a superstar in the 1980s.Springsteen, of Irish-Italian ancestry, grew up in Freehold, New Jersey, the son of a bus driver and a secretary. He took up the guitar when he was 13 and joined the Castiles a year later. In 1966 the Castiles recorded (but never released) two songs cowritten by Springsteen, and they worked their way up to a string of dates at New York City’s Cafe Wha in 1967. During the summer after his graduation from high school, Springsteen was working with Earth, a Cream-style power trio, and hanging out in Asbury Park, New Jersey. He entered Ocean County Community College in the fall, but dropped out when a New York producer promised him a contract; he never saw the producer again.While in college, he had formed a group with some local musicians, including drummer Vini 'Mad Dog' Lopez and keyboardist Danny Federici. Called Child, then Steel Mill, the group worked the Atlantic coast down to Virginia. In summer 1969 Steel Mill visited California (where Springsteen’s parents had moved); club dates in San Francisco led to a show at Bill Graham’s Fillmore and a contract offer from Graham’s Fillmore Records, which Steel Mill turned down because the advance was too small. The band returned East, and was joined by an old friend of Springsteen’s, Miami Steve Van Zandt, on bass. Springsteen disbanded Steel Mill in early 1971, intending to put together a band with a brass section and several singers. Meanwhile, he formed Dr. Zoom and the Sonic Boom, which played only three dates. Eventually, the Bruce Springsteen Band was formed with Lopez, Federici, Van Zandt (on guitar), pianist and guitarist David Sancious, bassist Garry Tallent, and a four-piece brass section. After the group’s first show, the brass section was dropped and Clarence Clemons, a footballplayer-turned-tenor-saxophonist (a knee injury aborted his pro career), joined the band. The group didn’t last; by autumn 1971 Springsteen was working solo. Springsteen had auditioned for Laurel Canyon Productions, aka. Mike Appel and Jim Cretecos, who had written a hit for the Partridge Family and produced an album by Sir Lord Baltimore. In May 1972 Springsteen signed a long-term management contract and an agreement giving Laurel Canyon exclusive rights to his songs. Royalty rates effective for five albums were set at a low 3 percent of retail price. Appel arranged for his new client to audition for John Hammond, who had signed Dylan to Columbia; after hearing Springsteen sing in his office, Hammond set up a showcase for CBS executives at the Gaslight in New York City and supervised a demo session. In June 1972 Columbia president Clive Davis signed a ten-album contract with Appel that gave Laurel Canyon about a 9 percent royalty. Within the month, Springsteen completed Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. Some of Springsteen’s word-crammed songs were set to acoustic singer/songwriter backup, and some to the R&B-inflected rock of the reconstituted Bruce Springsteen Band. Released in January 1973 and touted as one more 'new Dylan' effort, Greetings initially sold about 25,000 copies, largely to Jersey Shore fans. Springsteen and the band toured the Northeast, playing extended sets that earned him followings in Boston and Philadelphia. A string of dates opening for Chicago, which limited his sets to a half-hour, convinced Springsteen not to open for other bands. With his second album, The Wild, The Innocent and the E Street Shuffle, Springsteen and his band integrated lyrics and instrumental passages into long romantic narratives the average track was over seven minutes. Click on the titel of your interest to view the lyrics of that album Some of the albums have one of the songs playing in the background. At a later time the midi files will also be available for download. This site is still under construction, but it's now coming to the end