The Boss has his Big Birthday.

Bruce back in the day.

His biggest hit single, "Dancing In The Dark".

"Born To Run" is a masterpiece. It will be preserved by the Smithsonian as an item of historical or cultural value to be studied and enjoyed by generations to come. I'm not even a huge fan but I can appreciate the songwriting, composition and above all Bruce's awe inspiring, charismatic performance of his classic.

Still looks good to me.

He's never had a No. 1 hit. But he's the most honored American rock star ever

Bruce Springsteen has never had a No. 1 hit on the pop charts.* * (His biggest hit, "Dancing in the Dark," peaked at No. 2 in 1984).

Over his five-decade career Springsteen has won 20 Grammys, an Oscar, two Golden Globes, a special Tony Award and a Kennedy Center honor, plus numerous American Music Awards and MTV Video Music Awards.

[quote]He's never had a No. 1 hit.

That's surprising. When I was in college it seemed like Born in the U.S.A. (song and album) was played endlessly, but I guess there was a lot of competition on the charts.

This is a favorite of mine. Happy birthday.

The album "Born in the U.S.A." was the best-selling album of 1985 and proved to be the best-selling record of Springsteen's career.

However, the single record, "Born in the U.S.A.," releases on October 30, 1984, peaked at #9 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles charts in late 1984. Number 9? Yes, surprising, isn't it?.

A younger Bruce. Check out the VPL.

In the early 80s, I saw Bruce twice in the same week, in opposite sides of the state. The shows were entirely different in terms of song selection, and both were over four hours long. Both were amazing.

I remember when Bruce celebrated his 30th birthday at the No Nukes concert at MSG in 1979. They brought a cake onstage to sing him Happy Birthday. That was my second concert ever, I was 15 then. Hard to believe it's been 40 years.

My first concert was Bruce at the Capitol Centre in 1979. Happy Birthday, Bruce!!! 😘

Some of the best live shows I've ever been to are Bruce shows. The energy, the focus, and the pure joy of being hearing and seeing the band play is incredible. Happy birthday baby.

R11 Perhaps the best recorded Bruce concert ever is the Capital Theater show on Sept 19, 1978. It is now out legitimately after 40 years as a bootleg. Get it if you can.

Amateur!!!!!! The REAL Boss is 75 !!!

Mary!

[post redacted because linking to dailymail.co.uk clearly indicates that the poster is either a troll or an idiot (probably both, honestly.) Our advice is that you just ignore this poster but whatever you do, don't click on any link to this putrid rag.]

Bruce then and now. Cool photo.

There was a lot of competition back then. But I worked in a record store I’m 85 and it seemed like there was a song from that album on the radio all the time.

Saw him live.a couple of times and agree with everything said so far.

Ha ha. IN 85. I was in high school. Good times.

[quote]He's never had a No. 1 hit.

His albums were the thing, beginning with his third one. My 1975 theme music from across the river in New Jersey.

It don’t get much better than this...

Ass...

Tougher than the Rest

I know he's never been hugely popular with gay guys, but I've always loved his music.

"Backstreets" is one of the most covertly gay songs ever, whether even Springsteen himself realized it or not.

Clarence would’ve WRECKED him...

Fiyah

So sexy

--80s coverboy

[quote]The album "Born in the U.S.A." was the best-selling album of 1985 and proved to be the best-selling record of Springsteen's career. However, the single record, "Born in the U.S.A.," releases on October 30, 1984, peaked at #9 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles charts in late 1984. Number 9? Yes, [bold]surprising, isn't it?[/bold]

No. Most of us bought the album, which came out before the single.

I saw Bruce at the Roxy in LA before Born to Run came out. It was the most amazing live performance I've ever seen. He was walking on table tops, from table to table... almost kicked me and knocked over my beer. Saw him many times after than in arenas and stadiums. Nothing like a live Bruce with the original E Street Band. It was a religious experience. I remember one of his "sermons" in the 90s... ending in "I cannot promise you life everlasting, but I can promise you LIFE RIGHT NOW!!" (Cue Max's backbeat, and power chord from Steven). Happy Birthday Boss.

I do not care if he is older than my dad, he still gets my engine revving!!

Rocker Bryan Adams was sometimes called the poor man's Bruce Springsteen. But Adams had four #1 hit singles (while Springsteen didn't have any) and his big hit single "Everything I Do (I Do It For You") was the best selling single of 1991. He also had more hit singles charting on Billboard than Springsteen so Adams fared out quit well.

You can't compare Bryan Adams' music to Springsteen's.

The composite @ r17 should be shown as an example of what normal, human aging looks like to every fool who thinks "Paul McCartney" is one person.

R33 They were both good rockers with raspy voices but had different styles. Bryan Adams did extremely well in the music business.

Springsteen is 70, and one of the youngest of the big rock stars that are left. A lot of them are in their mid to late 70s and aren't going to be around much longer.

r34 you're very naive if you think Bruce hasn't had some augmentations.

Bruce Springsteen and Bryan Adams jamming together onstage.

r36 a friend and I were just talking about this. We're almost into a new decade, and in the next decade we're going to see a lot of entertainers from that generation pass away. They're not just "older" now, they're downright OLD.

Bruce did not have a great voice. He sounded far worse than raspy but it worked. He knew had to use his limited voice but it was not a dynamic voice. Yet another thing rockers get away with- they don't have to have the best voices or even decent ones to beloved.

R36 Bryan Adams turns 60 this November.

R40 Stop.

I saw the new documentary Western Stars at TIFF. It's really good. He performs songs from his new album in his barn with interludes of Bruce narrating over beautiful images of deserts and old pictures of himself. If you're a Bruce fan, definitely see it.

R42 It is true. He does not have a technically great voice in any respect. He grunts and groans and screams. His voice is surely not pretty. He is not a great voice but a better singer.

Your hair transplant is obvious, Bruce.

A vocal supporter of Gay Rights.

He was talking about police violence decades ago

R44 Technically Picasso had perspective all wrong, and violated many established conventions. Technically Van Gogh barely had control of his brushstrokes. Technically Chuck Berry can't finger pick well, can't read music. Technically James Brown couldn't accomplish a plie, releve, nor saute. Big fucking deal.

Compare John Melloncamp to Bruce Springsteen not Bryan Adams.

Compare Bryan Adams to Richard Marx.

But then there’s Jon Bon Jovi.

He went hard against Trump even when his blue collar audience was pushing back telling him to stick to music. The ultimate rockstar and true to his beliefs.

The Boss covers The Bee Gees

Honestly I find him extremely overrated. But I do love Dancing in the Dark.

John Mellencamp was the poor man’s Bruce, not Bryan Adams.

First saw him on his Born to Run tour in 1984. Remember him saying “I’m 35 years old. I gotta slow down!”

r55 The Born to Run tour was in 1975.

He's older than my parents. And I would still fuck him.

R56 I think R55 meant "Born in the USA" tour. Looking at that history and dates, I'll correct my post above. I saw him in October, 1975 at the Roxy, Born to Run was released in August. I see (and remember) he did two shows a night at venues. He put out so much energy in shows those days, hard to think he was able to do that twice a night.

Bruce and his first wife Julianne Phillips. It didn't last long and there was no lost love between them.

While rejecting religion in his earlier years, Springsteen stated in his autobiography Born To Run that he has "a personal relationship with Jesus. I believe in his power to save, love ... but not to damn". In terms of Catholic faith, he has stated that he "came to ruefully and bemusedly understand that once you're a Catholic you're always a Catholic" and "I don't participate in my religion but I know somewhere ... deep inside ... I'm still on the team.

Guess who knocked Born in the USA to the #2 spot?

The fact is that Madonna has better songs and a more pleasant voice than Bruce.

"Madonna" and "pleasant voice" should never be used in the same sentence.

Guess which album other than BITUSA (and Thriller) was one of three 1980s-released albums to generate 7 top ten Hot 100 hits, but bests BITUSA and Thriller because all of its hits went top five?

How many people today can name even two songs from Rhythm Nation? It was a big hit at the time, but didn't stay in the public consciousness like Thriller or Born In the USA.

^Are you daft? RN has been emulated and had so many of its songs covered and remade over the years that it’s not even funny. And, on a thematic level, it’s certainly more timely in terms of what’s happening in the headlines today than just about any other pop album in history.

r66 Janet faded from the cultural landscape years ago. You just have to accept it.

^That must have been one hefty rock you just crawled out from under. Janet was just inducted into the RNR Hall of Fame, had a number one album a few years ago, and has been touring for the better part of the last three years to packed audiences with no brand new material, having recently just sold out the Chase Center in San Francisco and finishing a successful brief stint in Vegas. Let alone the fact that she's still name-checked by just about every major pop star today as one of their biggest inspirations. I think the one who needs to learn acceptance, my dear, is you.

No, Janet's not really talked about much anymore. Millennials barely even know who she is.

Bruce has always been gay-friendly. He spoke out when almost no one else would. (Garth Brooks did, too, and lost some popularity over it.)

I believe that Terry is a boy. Bruce writes in the voice of his characters, and he is the first to admit, quite engagingly and eloquently, that he hasn’t lived much of what he writes about. He is a storyteller, and a good one. I have seen him in concert countless times and enjoy his stories almost as much as his songs.

[quote]No, Janet's not really talked about much anymore. Millennials barely even know who she is.

Umm...no...

Take it somewhere else, cuntessa r71. Maybe UglyFatBitch Lounge?

^Up your diseased ass with a twirling lawnmower.

Janbot must be on a break from his shift at Popeyes lol!

I thought the cover of "Born To Run" was one of the most perfect album covers ever. Here's the story behind it:

The story goes that New York photographer Eric Meola had been booked by Springsteen’s manager Mike Appel, but the singer’s long hours in the studio across town meant that he consistently failed to turn up for shoots. Finally Meola got “really upset” and issued the ultimatum to Appel that the shoot was “next time or never”.

Springsteen kept the next booking, and brought with him E Street Band saxophonist Clarence Clemons, whom he also wanted on the cover. After a day of posing – Bruce under a fire escape, Bruce tuning a radio, Bruce with a guitar – and some 900 frames of film, a moment of serendipity saw Springsteen lean against his sideman in a wholly natural but instantly iconic ‘buddy’ pose. “That one just sort of popped,” Meola recalls.

That opinion was shared by Columbia art director John Berg, who tweaked the Born To Run cover while Andy Engel took care of the emaciated lettering. “Meola showed up one day,” Berg told the Syracuse website in 2005, “and he boring in the contact sheets and a couple of prints that Bruce liked. The reason I picked [that specific shot] was because it was very charming to show Bruce that way.

“The cover required turning,” Berg continues, “using the front and back at the same time. It was extra money, and it a record jacket cost a quarter to produce, that kind of jacket cost 50 cents, because it was front and back and it opened. It probably took a week of negotiating with the company to do the fold-open cover. It was breaking the code; we didn’t do that unless we had two records.”

It proved to be a worthwhile investment. Born To Run went six times platinum in the US, and Springsteen himself reckoned the cover was a major factor. “It was one of those records that you didn’t have to hear,” he once remarked. “When you saw the cover, you said: ‘I want that one’.”

"Madonna" and "pleasant voice" should never be used in the same sentence."

Also "Madonna" and "better songs" should never be used in the same sentence. Ever.

[quote]"Madonna" and "pleasant voice" should never be used in the same sentence."

[quote]Also "Madonna" and "better songs" should never be used in the same sentence. Ever.

I'll see both of those and raise you "Madonna" and "music" should never be used in the same sentence. Ever.

No one was ever paid more money to give aerobics classes.

Madonna has had some great songs. Her 80s and 90s stuff still holds up.

Madonna was the beginning of the end of music.

Bruce Springsteen and his 3 children, courtesy of his second wife, Patti. 2 boys and a girl.