Bruce Springsteen

Having been a Bruce fan since around 1976, I managed to arrange a work trip from London to New York to coincide with the opening of the Born in the U.S.A. Tour, at the Brendan Byrne Arena in New Jersey. Columbia... read more came up with a photo pass, and I was allowed to shoot only the first four numbers. I didn't know I had this pic until I saw the contact sheets, but it's been my favourite photo ever since. It's been used by dozens of magazines, and a hand tinted version was the cover pic on Patrick Humphries' book Blinded by the Light.

My first professional job as a photographer was to make Bruce Springsteen's first pictures at Columbia Records in February of 1973. It was just before Greetings from Asbury Park was released- I got paid... read more $25. My job was to cover an interview by Bob Sarlin in the 12th floor conference room in "Black Rock" for an in house magazine, which was formed to introduce new artists to the record company staff. Bruce was just a kid from New Jersey, he wandered in with his girlfriend Diane; later John Hammond stopped by as he often did in those days. Bruce was known to some as John's 'latest folly', (Dylan had been an earlier one). Blinded by the light, some thought the kid was faking it when those stumbling tumbling rambling array of lyrics rolled off his tongue, there was even debate about whether he really was a good guitar player. But when he sat down to talk with us, there was no pretence or falseness in the room; he was noticeably good at just being himself. A month later I was lucky to photograph both Arthur Rubinstein and Vladimir Horowitz for Columbia as well as Goddard Leiberson the legendary President of the company; all three in their different ways had a quality that I first spotted in that kid from New Jersey, an unquestionable personal presence, it's just something some people are born with. In Bruce's case, as I learned over the years, it was combined with the highest levels of loyalty as well as personal and intellectual integrity on top of a damn good sense of humour. And energy. As our careers started out together I've always compared my path with his, and despite the fact that for each of my audience members he has a couple of million, I've always felt we were walking parallel paths.

In the spring of '73 that Columbia sent me down again to Philly to be with the band on the occasion of their first arena show at The Spectrum, Bruce was the opening act for Chicago. I was welcomed to... read more shoot from the stage so I stood behind Vinnie Lopez the drummer at the time and watched as a good part of the audience booed and called out for Chicago to come on stage: even the King of Rock and Roll can't sail into a hurricane. Later, when travelling in Jordan on a "listening trip" with Richard Gere and Bernie Glassman, I spied a record shop in Amman whose signage featured a colour painting obviously made from one of the pictures I made that night behind the drummer.

The early Main Point gigs were amazing. A hundred people in a two hundred seat club, Bruce doing essentially the same energetic show he still does today, the best performer in the business then and now,... read more giving, giving, and giving some more. It was then that I really knew the 19-year-old kid I had met was something special. I told people about it. When he came back to the Main Point about a month later - as I recall, he had a hard time getting gigs - I put my reputation on the line and dragged an old friend out of bed, forced him to come out against the wishes of his weary body. Ed Sciaky was, at the time, a leading disc jockey on WMMR in Philadelphia; he was amazed at the performance and Ed started playing Bruce on the radio, it was his first airplay. I'm told that years later Ed talked for half an hour on why I was responsible for "breaking Bruce", it's an obscure kind of fame, but I'll take it. More satisfying was the home run I hit a couple months later as the Crawdaddy softball team rolled over the boys from E-Street. Shortly after the Main Point gigs, Bruce played his first headlining show in New York at Max's Kansas City. There he was discovered by many of the people who later came to write about him with great affection and insight. Bruce was no longer a secret, but it was to be two more years before the general public came to the realization.

In the spring of '73 Columbia sent me down again to Philly to be with the band on the occasion of their first arena show at The Spectrum, Bruce was the opening act for Chicago. I was welcomed to shoot... read more from the stage so I stood behind Vinnie Lopez the drummer at the time and watched as a good part of the audience booed and called out for Chicago to come on stage: even the King of Rock and Roll can't sail into a hurricane. Later, when travelling in Jordan on a "listening trip" with Richard Gere and Bernie Glassman, I spied a record shop in Amman whose signage featured a colour painting obviously made from one of the pictures I made that night behind the drummer.

My first professional job as a photographer was to make Bruce Springsteen's first pictures at Columbia Records in February of 1973. It was just before Greetings from Asbury Park was released- I got paid... read more $25. My job was to cover an interview by Bob Sarlin in the 12th floor conference room in "Black Rock" for an in house magazine, which was formed to introduce new artists to the record company staff. Bruce was just a kid from New Jersey, he wandered in with his girlfriend Diane; later John Hammond stopped by as he often did in those days. Bruce was known to some as John's 'latest folly', (Dylan had been an earlier one). Blinded by the light, some thought the kid was faking it when those stumbling tumbling rambling array of lyrics rolled off his tongue, there was even debate about whether he really was a good guitar player. But when he sat down to talk with us, there was no pretence or falseness in the room; he was noticeably good at just being himself. A month later I was lucky to photograph both Arthur Rubinstein and Vladimir Horowitz for Columbia as well as Goddard Leiberson the legendary President of the company; all three in their different ways had a quality that I first spotted in that kid from New Jersey, an unquestionable personal presence, it's just something some people are born with. In Bruce's case, as I learned over the years, it was combined with the highest levels of loyalty as well as personal and intellectual integrity on top of a damn good sense of humour. And energy. As our careers started out together I've always compared my path with his, and despite the fact that for each of my audience members he has a couple of million, I've always felt we were walking parallel paths.

My first professional job as a photographer was to make Bruce Springsteen's first pictures at Columbia Records in February of 1973. It was just before Greetings from Asbury Park was released- I got paid... read more $25. My job was to cover an interview by Bob Sarlin in the 12th floor conference room in "Black Rock" for an in house magazine, which was formed to introduce new artists to the record company staff. Bruce was just a kid from New Jersey, he wandered in with his girlfriend Diane; later John Hammond stopped by as he often did in those days. Bruce was known to some as John's 'latest folly', (Dylan had been an earlier one). Blinded by the light, some thought the kid was faking it when those stumbling tumbling rambling array of lyrics rolled off his tongue, there was even debate about whether he really was a good guitar player. But when he sat down to talk with us, there was no pretence or falseness in the room; he was noticeably good at just being himself. A month later I was lucky to photograph both Arthur Rubinstein and Vladimir Horowitz for Columbia as well as Goddard Leiberson the legendary President of the company; all three in their different ways had a quality that I first spotted in that kid from New Jersey, an unquestionable personal presence, it's just something some people are born with. In Bruce's case, as I learned over the years, it was combined with the highest levels of loyalty as well as personal and intellectual integrity on top of a damn good sense of humour. And energy. As our careers started out together I've always compared my path with his, and despite the fact that for each of my audience members he has a couple of million, I've always felt we were walking parallel paths.

Then the Bottom Line gigs, first the one in '74 and then the one that broke Bruce's career in '75, when he was simultaneously on the covers of Time and Newsweek. The shows those two years were substantially... read more the same, different material but the same Bruce, the public difference was that the business management had changed, the world opened its doors to another overnight sensation. People really loved those performances; there was joy in the air. I was the staff photographer at The Bottom Line, I had all access for those ten shows and I shot through eight of them, once cutting a hole in the sound booth fabric above the stage to get an unusual angle. And the matured kid from New Jersey had become some kind of intellectual behind my back he could handle all comers at all the different levels, and still his manner was relaxed and open. Now performers were coming backstage to him and most everyone was beginning to admit he was a pretty damn good guitar player.

In the spring of '73 that Columbia sent me down again to Philly to be with the band on the occasion of their first arena show at The Spectrum, Bruce was the opening act for Chicago. I was welcomed to... read more shoot from the stage so I stood behind Vinnie Lopez the drummer at the time and watched as a good part of the audience booed and called out for Chicago to come on stage: even the King of Rock and Roll can't sail into a hurricane. Later, when travelling in Jordan on a "listening trip" with Richard Gere and Bernie Glassman, I spied a record shop in Amman whose signage featured a colour painting obviously made from one of the pictures I made that night behind the drummer.

In the spring of '73 Columbia sent me down again to Philly to be with the band on the occasion of their first arena show at The Spectrum, Bruce was the opening act for Chicago. I was welcomed to shoot... read more from the stage so I stood behind Vinnie Lopez the drummer at the time and watched as a good part of the audience booed and called out for Chicago to come on stage: even the King of Rock and Roll can't sail into a hurricane. Later, when travelling in Jordan on a "listening trip" with Richard Gere and Bernie Glassman, I spied a record shop in Amman whose signage featured a colour painting obviously made from one of the pictures I made that night behind the drummer.

The early Main Point gigs were amazing. A hundred people in a two hundred seat club, Bruce doing essentially the same energetic show he still does today, the best performer in the business then and now,... read more giving, giving, and giving some more. It was then that I really knew the 19-year-old kid I had met was something special. I told people about it. When he came back to the Main Point about a month later - as I recall, he had a hard time getting gigs - I put my reputation on the line and dragged an old friend out of bed, forced him to come out against the wishes of his weary body. Ed Sciaky was, at the time, a leading disc jockey on WMMR in Philadelphia; he was amazed at the performance and Ed started playing Bruce on the radio, it was his first airplay. I'm told that years later Ed talked for half an hour on why I was responsible for "breaking Bruce", it's an obscure kind of fame, but I'll take it. More satisfying was the home run I hit a couple months later as the Crawdaddy softball team rolled over the boys from E-Street. Shortly after the Main Point gigs, Bruce played his first headlining show in New York at Max's Kansas City. There he was discovered by many of the people who later came to write about him with great affection and insight. Bruce was no longer a secret, but it was to be two more years before the general public came to the realization.

Then the Bottom Line gigs, first the one in '74 and then the one that broke Bruce's career in '75, when he was simultaneously on the covers of Time and Newsweek. The shows those two years were substantially... read more the same, different material but the same Bruce, the public difference was that the business management had changed, the world opened its doors to another overnight sensation. People really loved those performances; there was joy in the air. I was the staff photographer at The Bottom Line, I had all access for those ten shows and I shot through eight of them, once cutting a hole in the sound booth fabric above the stage to get an unusual angle. And the matured kid from New Jersey had become some kind of intellectual behind my back he could handle all comers at all the different levels, and still his manner was relaxed and open. Now performers were coming backstage to him and most everyone was beginning to admit he was a pretty damn good guitar player.