Bruce Springsteen on the cover of Time Magazine
Does anybody remember the first time they heard Bruce Springsteen on the radio? I do, vividly.
I vaguely recall seeing his picture on that Time magazine cover of October 1975. Because, didn’t every family get Time magazine back then?
I’m not even sure I read the article. My immediate reaction was, “Who’s that bastard wearing a floppy hat indoors in the middle of summer?” So I filed that mental note away and didn’t give it another thought. I don’t know if it was a week later, a month later or what. But there I was on a Saturday afternoon, shooting baskets in the driveway at 15317 Walvern Blvd., listening to WMMS. And out of the tiny FM speaker plugged into the garage socket came this… voice. Singing “Born to Run.” And without anybody telling me, I immediately knew two things:
1. Oh crap, it’s the floppy hat bastard!
2. Holy crap, I gotta hear more of this!
So I spent the next couple years listening to almost nothing but Bruce. Which I’m pretty sure explains about 90% of my adult/relationship issues to this day. Sure, Tom Petty, Elvis Costello, John Mellencamp, David Bowie, Billy Idol, Jim Carroll (Catholic Boy), they got a few licks in. But since that moment in the driveway, my heart has belonged to Bruce! He’s one of the first singers who made sense to me, and who made it OK not to be Steve Perry, Brad Delp (Boston), Robert Plant etc. Fast forward 40 some years, and those are just a few of the reasons we started Trouble in the Heartland. Stay tuned for more!