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Bruce Springsteen

by Adam from Toronto

My hero is a man I admire because of his everlasting determination and righteous qualities. He was born on September 23, 1949, in Long Branch, New Jersey. More commonly known as The Boss, he is a first class rock and roll musician. Due to many factors, which will shortly be illustrated, my hero is Bruce Springsteen.

Putting the fact the I am a huge fan aside for a moment, Springsteen is my hero for several other reasons. He is a humble man who excels at teamwork and is always caring and thoughtful about others. At each performance Bruce will always take a few seconds to recognize a local food bank. Springsteen is often associated with New Jersey Community Food Bank, as he has agreed to be their celebrity spokesman, by doing so he has ensured hundreds of people will get their necessities in their time of need. Working in a band, or a group environment can be stressful and as the leader of the band Springsteen must be doing something right, because like many other bands they have not split up. It must take tremendous amounts of effort to organize the rehearsal and practicing of new songs, not to mention the duties of recording in the studio. Springsteen is never one to take all the credit, he announces the band at each concert and realizes his image is only complete with the E Street Band in the background. Springsteen is a remarkable person, who over the course of his life has been honored with an Emmy, a Kennedy Center Honor and the induction into the Rock

and Roll Hall of Fame.

Springsteen is a determined individual whose courage is moving. He grew up in a small suburban town and his childhood was not too different than mine. He began his pursuit of music when he was just seven years old, and purchased his first guitar at the age of thirteen, for eighteen dollars. Springsteen graduated from high school, but not with pride, as many of his teachers referred to him as, "[A] loner, who wanted nothing more than to play his guitar." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_Springsteen). Springsteen did not do well in school and his most significant academic achievement would be his high school graduation, he did attend college but dropped out after the first semester. His first major band role came in 1965 when he took on the duty of being the head guitarist and lead singer in The Castiles. In 1972, his big break came when he signed a record deal with Columbia Records. The one condition of the contract was that they were only interested in Springsteen if he was performing with a band. So he gathered fellow New Jersey musicians and his band was formed. Their debut album was released in 1972 and was titled, Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J. Next came, The Wild, The Innocent & The E Street Shuffle in 1973. Prior to the release of his second album his band was named, The E Street Band. After his first two albums, which had inadequate success, Springsteen and had developed a cult following which he would not be able to expand out of for years to come. In 1974, Jon Landau, of the Boston Globe newspaper published an article that stated, "I saw rock and roll future, and its name is Bruce Springsteen." (Jon Landau, 1974).


Bruce was not able to break out of the cult following style fan base due to many opposing factors. Firstly, he took the liberty of writing lengthy songs, during the 1970's, long songs were rarely played on the radio, costing him the opportunity of thousands people being exposed to his music. The release of Born To Run, Springsteen's third album, gave him the most publicity he had ever seen, and this was said to be the turning point in his musical career. Soon after the album was released, Springsteen appeared on the cover of Time and Newsweek Magazine, in the same week.


Springsteen was unable to record any albums from 1975-1978 because of a legal altercation with Mike Appel, his manager at the time, so he played a three year tour in attempt to preserve his musical career. In his next few albums his musical status did not change, as he kept trying to make it on the mainstream market. In 1982, the album Born in the USA, was released, it sold 15 million copies in the United States alone and had seven top ten singles. It is considered one of the best-selling albums of all time and lifted Springsteen into the main stage of musicians. After the highly successful album, Born in the USA, Bruce decided to experiment on a solo musical career. After limited success and many attempts, Springsteen decided to reunite with the E Street Band in 2000 for a tour, and they recorded the album, The Rising, in 2002. Since then, Bruce has recorded two solo albums and four with the band. Springsteen has released 16 albums over the course his career, and his seventeenth will be released in 2012 followed by another world tour. It is clear that Springsteen has had an extensive music career, but its not only his talent that justifies him as my hero.

Page created on 1/12/2012 5:20:08 PM

Last edited 1/12/2012 5:20:08 PM

The beliefs, viewpoints and opinions expressed in this hero submission on the website are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the beliefs, viewpoints and opinions of The MY HERO Project and its staff.

Related Links

The MY HERO Project - For Adam's MY HERO Gallery Page featuring "The Boss", Bruce Springsteen.