Guitar Tricks Insider April/May Digital Edition | Page 38

ON SONGWRITING

BRUCE
SPRINGSTEEN:
A SENSE
OF THE
AUDIENCE
BY BRUCE POLLOCK

AD
Few performers in the history of rock and roll
could get away with inviting a ninety-one-yearold lady up from the audience to dance with him
on the stage the way Bruce Springsteen did last
February in St. Paul, Minnesota. Springsteen
has not only gotten away with it for the past 40
years, he’s made it a part of his act. In his first
MTV video for “Dancing in the Dark,” it was the
actress Courtney Cox who jumped up on stage
with him. In 1985, during one of his historic five
nights at the Meadowlands in New Jersey, it was
his own mother, Adele. “It was a great moment,”
he told me back then. “She got a tremendous
round of applause – one of the biggest of the
night.”
38

DIGITAL EDITION

Since 1973 Springsteen has had a unique
bond with his audience. After he signed his
contract with Columbia Records he hit the road
and the stage. During the protracted legal
battles that stalled his career after his second
record, which prevented him from recording, his
audience stood by him during an endless string
of one-nighters at smaller halls and theaters
across America. “Touring was the greatest F