posted
05-21-2000 11:29 PM PT (US) 
Mine was Incident. The imagery was amazing. I was actually living that same kind of life at the time.
posted
05-22-2000 12:13 AM PT (US)
for me, it was thunder road, when i was very young i was just intrigued that he said my name in the lyrics, but as i got older the desperation of the words and the simplicity of the music moved me so much i had to have every album he ever made
posted
05-22-2000 12:23 AM PT (US)
when does he say Seren on Thunder Road? Is it on a bootleg?
posted
05-22-2000 12:57 AM PT (US)
The first song that made me take notice of Bruce was "Born in the USA". I was four, going on five, and it was the greatest thing in my little, kindergarten world. My parents bought me the album (yes vinyl) and I cherish it to this day. I know this song is not Bruce's best, but everytime I hear it, all the old memories come back. That reason, among many others, is why Bruce stands as my favorite musician!
posted
05-22-2000 02:02 AM PT (US)
I was almost too 'ashamed'to respond, but I figured I'd be honest. In 1984 I was 15 and had just really started getting heavily into music. I had listened casually to a few rock bands and listened to rock radio, but pre-'84 Bruce radio was pretty much limited to Hungry Heart as I was too young [11] to really care then.
But I still remember the 'dj' on a top 40 station playing up all day that they were going to play the new single from this Springsteen guy, and how they built it up all day and talked about him in such lofty terms, that I was glued to the radio.Yup, then they played DANCING IN THE DARK. Fluff to all the old timers, yes. But to a very impressionable young mind, it was the best song I heard all that summer. I remember thinking how neat it was that he wrote this song about an author with writers block who is lonely, and made it sound like a vivid story. LOL-little did I know, huh? I had known BLINDED,FOR YOU,SPIRIT by MANFRED MANN, but did not know HE wrote them.
Sometimes I wish I could go back to those days where I was so naive musically, just so I could re-discover magic with eyes wide open all over again.
This is why I NEVER EVER whine about ANY artist's so-called fluff hits-no matter what got our attention, we all end up in the 'promised land'.
And by the way, I still think DANCING is a really fun song...but I guess I'm biased.
posted
05-22-2000 04:17 AM PT (US)
My brother had a tape of Springsteen songs which included Racing in the Street. Initially, I took this at face value and it appealed as I spent the summer evenings and weekends hanging around my big brother as he fixed his old cars, stuffing in bigger and bigger engines, and then going out in the evenings looking for guys to race. Also on the tape was Prove It All Night and I loved the intro to this, since then I've never looked back.
posted
05-22-2000 04:20 AM PT (US)
Just remembered the first time I heard Incident how I was instantly adicted to the WAY he sings "threw away all their switch blade knives and kissed, each other , goodbye" Beautiful
posted
05-22-2000 05:43 AM PT (US)
I got into Bruce almost 10 years ago (damn, is it that long ago already?), with a copy of BUSA that my mother had floating around, and I remember digging the rockers like Bobby Jean and No Surrender (with that immortal line; "we learned more from a three minute record than we ever learned in school").
But my first "HOLY SHIT" reaction to a Bruce song came the first time I sat down and actually listened properly to Thunder Road. There was something very magical about the way the whole song built up, something about the wild innocent hope in the song that grabbed me by the neck. Something almost absolutely perfect about it, the song seemd to give out some radiant warm glow. I still get that feeling when I listen to it today. I don't think Bruce (or anyone else for that matter) has EVER topped that song.
posted
05-22-2000 06:58 AM PT (US)
Screen door slammed....
It's done me in for 25 years. Longer then some of you fellow lakers have been around (LOL). I could listen to the BTR albaum back then for days at a time and still can now.
posted
05-22-2000 07:14 AM PT (US)
Sorry,for me it's nothing else but TGOTJ (that's not very far ).The only other songs I knew where BITUSA and Streets of Philly. This song really surprised me and i thought"Hey, is he really the same guy?"
posted
05-22-2000 07:32 AM PT (US)
Believe it or not but it's the ties that bind for me. far from my fav song but when i bought the river in 1980 it was the first track i played and i sure stood up and took notice there and then.
posted
05-22-2000 08:11 AM PT (US)
Rosalita on the radio in 1974 on WNEW in NY. Ran out and bought the first two albums after that and was hooked. SPent the late summer of 1975 trying to catch the man in Asbury Clubs (never did) and finally saw him at the Bottom Line in August.
posted
05-22-2000 08:45 AM PT (US)
My story is very similar to the one Brillianty Disguised told. I was just getting into music aged 13 when BITUSA & the "Dancing In The Dark" video clip came out. What 13 yr old girl couldn't help but notice that? Don't listen to the song all that much now but when I do it brings back great memories of that time of discovery. It was only in the years following when my addiction to all things Springsteen grew at a rapid rate that I realised that songs I had heard all my life like HH, BTR, Blinded etc were actually Bruce songs
posted
05-22-2000 09:13 AM PT (US)
Imagine me listening to AM pop radio in the mid-seventies. "Tie a Yellow Ribbon", "Billy, Don't Be a Hero" and "Mandy" were playing, and then, a song came on by a guy I had never heard of, couldn't understand a word he was saying. It was called "BORN TO RUN". Maybe you've heard of it. Changed my life.
posted
05-22-2000 09:48 AM PT (US)
In my friends basement, with my first beer and Racin in the Streets on the stereo.
posted
05-22-2000 10:54 AM PT (US)
sometime in the early 70's i was listening to wmmr in phila. and ed shocky played " the fever". ever since that moment i knew who the boss was......
posted
05-22-2000 11:03 AM PT (US)
I was with you Joanne, some 25 years ago...what better time to have just graduated from high school, the world of discovery wide open, and BTR gets released! It was the title track that made me jump up and take notice. The first time I heard 'Born to Run', I felt like it reached down inside and connected me to the purest form of rock 'n roll I've ever known.
posted
05-22-2000 12:59 PM PT (US)
For me, it was "Sandy"(4th of July Asbury Park),this was around 1973, maybe '74? I was dating a guy who turned me on to Bruce. That song was just the epitome of romance to me at that time, the first Bruce song I'd ever heard, I remember falling in love with his voice and the poetry of his lyrics.
I was raised on AM radio until the early 70's or so, and I can remember when FM radio would only play from like 2:00 p.m. until 10:00 p.m., when it would sign off. I would wait every day for a dose of Bruce...and it was usually right before they would sign off, which only added to the romanticism of it all for me, because I would fall asleep to his music.
posted
05-22-2000 01:14 PM PT (US)
I'd have never really appreciated Bruce with the, erm, passion I do now without Born to Run. I would turn it up on the radio whenever it came on and the more I listened, the more it's relentless drive and wild passionate intense image-filled lyrics did me in. I knew BiTUSA, Glory Days, Dancin', Human Touch, I'm On Fire, Brilliant Disguise. All great songs (yeah, GD and DitD included) but I got enough on the radio. Born to Run I decided I MUST OWN. So I picked up GH since it also had the others that the 80's chick in me will always love. And then I heard
Thunder
Road
and Badlands.
My god, I remember thinking, those 3 are all by the same man? What kind of freak genius IS he? As the gods of rock and roll would have it, this purchase coincided with the DC shows last August. I stood in line for tickets. Didn't get them, but I did pick up Born to Run, the album, on which EVERY SINGLE DAMN SONG amazed me. Jungleland and Backstreets and Meeting espeically. A circuit in my mind was blown; an entire album of amazing songs? Weren't there only supposed to be like 3 or 4 and the rest fillers? It was honestly Bruce who taught me differently. I simply, and sadly, hadn't been exposed to that kind of intense quality and integrity before. And I'm his because of it. :)
Thanks for this topic. Sorry if I went on, but it means a lot to me.... I know I'm not alone in that. :)
Sherry Darling
posted
05-22-2000 01:38 PM PT (US)
The first thing that made me sit up and take notice was, believe it or not, a live performance by Bruce and the band. I had never heard his music before seeing him live in late summer of 73. A college friend convinced a group of us to go see this guy, Bruce, at the Main Point, which was a couple of blocks away from the rented house we lived in while at school. We were absolutely blown away! Back then he was performing songs from the first two albums sometimes doing them in their entirety. Also songs like Thundercrack, Then She Kissed Me , Rosalita with an intro of Spanish Harlem, and great theatrical performances of Incident and NYS. I had never seen a performer who could rock, sing, act, dance and be funny, not to mention the sexiness. Needless to say, we went to see him every time he came to the Main Point, what priceless memories. I've also been to shows on every tour he's done since then and I still get the same feelings of amazement, exhilaration and sheer joy that I did back in 73. Went to the 2nd Hartford show a couple of weeks ago and I still can't believe what I saw and heard. Two more to go in MSG, can't!
posted
05-22-2000 01:44 PM PT (US)
I got so excited I forgot the last word - can't wait. Someone posted earlier about feeling so lucky to have grown up and gotten older with Bruce (I think it was Karen?). I feel the same way, what great music to have come of age with, and what a great companion.
posted
05-22-2000 02:28 PM PT (US)
Well, I left for the Cotton Bowl stadium concert Sept 1985. That BITUSA stuff was awesome, and it would be a good day trip with friends. I had no idea what i was in for. Bruce opened up with thunderous BITUSA and everybody and their mother was immediately into it. But all of a sudden other songs were being played; i understood the lyrics; he was talking to me and about things in my life. The songs I remember really sticking in my head were The Promised Land; Badlands; The River; Born to run; Out in the street; Adam raised a cain; Thunder road; Johnny 99; Nebraska. I can't pick one. I even listened to recast of the concert on the drive back. I was used to 16 song concerts from Aerosmith, etc. with bad sound and little passion.
The downer was realizing what i had missed from 1975 forward.
A couple years later TOL hit, which I saw two shows & loved but it was a different feel. HT and LT had good stuff, but i was mad about the breakup. I didn't see that tour. GOTJ I still don't own. But man, this tour was a gift to let me relive a big portion of that night in Dallas (albeit somewhat shorter). I think it is the whole darkness album that really set Bruce apart for me. And boy was it nice to get Tracks for a person in my shoes.
Sorry for the long post but it was more of an immersion in 1985 than any one song.
posted
05-22-2000 02:37 PM PT (US)
New York City Serenade
posted
05-22-2000 03:10 PM PT (US)
Sherry, I love that: "What kind of freak genius IS he?" :)
I remember having a similar question in my head the first time I ever heard the Born to Run album. By the time Jungleland came on, I was convinved he wasn't even human!
posted
05-22-2000 05:30 PM PT (US)
I was about 12 years old and was walking past my sister's room when I heard, "In Candy's room..." I was so intrigued by that voice. Of course being the pesky litlle brother that I am, I asked her to play it over and over. And being the great older sister that she is, she did. Thanks Rox. You helped change my life forever.
posted
05-22-2000 08:46 PM PT (US)
I am surprised no one has said it, but to me it was Jungleland - it made me dream, eyes closed, at age 10, what NYC must be like...
posted
05-22-2000 11:51 PM PT (US)
After thoroughly digesting Led Zep, Floyd, the Beatles, the Stones, and all the rest classic rock had to offer, I finally got around to picking up the Greatest hits album from that Springsteen guy that I heard used to "rock in the seventies."
"Hey what else can we do now except roll down the window and let the wind blow back your hair"
Huh? What was that?
So I played it again and again and again and again and again and again
and...
posted
05-23-2000 12:32 AM PT (US)
I had heard Hungry Heart and Fade Away in the early 80's but was too young to know who he was and then in 1984 my older brother had an extra ticket to the opening night of the BITUSA tour. I remember my brother playing a tape called "the River" and I was blown away and hooked. Out in the Street I think was the one song that really grew on me first, then Ties and then Point Blank, then Ramrod, then You can look, then...the list goes on. I was hooked and have never looked back. My first Springsteen record was naturally BITUSA but then the River and fortunately the Columbia records and Tape club had all the records, yes records. Then when cd's took off it was time to replace them and they were replaced in a different order. Darkness was the first followed by BTR.
posted
05-23-2000 02:54 AM PT (US)
BADLANDS it wasn't the song that got me to buy my first album but it was the song that ,made me get the rest of 'em
posted
05-23-2000 12:26 PM PT (US)
Hey Miami, my real name is mary, seren is just my screen name.............
posted
05-23-2000 01:00 PM PT (US)
Hey Billsbruce-- thanks! Those were my exact thoughts after those 3 songs. AND...keep in my I hadn't even heard Jungleland or Backstreets or Meeting or Incident or NYC Serenade or....
Like I said, I'm his. Bruce? I love ya, man.
:)
Sherry Darling
posted
05-23-2000 09:03 PM PT (US)
I loved "Incident" and "Rosie" first, but what got me forever was the '78 bootleg (Winterlands) of Thunderoad "wow"
Opened a whole new world for me and i never
looked back.
posted
05-23-2000 11:43 PM PT (US)
Boy, have I been a fan for a loooong time. The first song I remember hearing was Prove It All Night. I still remember it was on 93KHJ. An AM radio station in Los Angeles. I think it was back in 1978. But the reason that I still remember it is cuz I recall reading and hearing things about this Springsteen guy. I recognized the title in the song and I thought it was a great song. Not like any of the heavy metal music that my friends listened to. I went out and bought the Darkness album and simply loved it! Funny thing though, for some reasons, the cats kept on pissing on that album. I mean, even if I moved it, the cats would still find it and piss on it. I could never figure out why.
posted
05-24-2000 02:58 AM PT (US)
LOL jim....you know, cats 'piss' to mark territory and claim things...your cat just had good taste in music!!
posted
05-24-2000 03:33 AM PT (US)
BORN TO RUN! It was in the early seventies when I first heard it at home in my kitchen doing ironing for the man I was living with in a very unhappy relationship. The man on the radio cited the famous 'future of rock'n'roll' phrase and then it went off.
As I was hating what I was doing at that point of time I could relate extremely well to the "we're gonna get to that place we really wanna go, we'll walk in the sun, but til then tramps like us, baby, we were born to run'-part.
It changed my life - the relationship broke up soon after, my relationship to Bruce is still going strong, I'm walking in the sun, and some days 'I look back on this, and it' - IS funny!
viv
posted
05-24-2000 07:43 AM PT (US)
For me it was 'Dancing in the Dark'. I wish it had been 'Growing Up' or 'Rosalita' but I was probably as a six year old still listening to nursery rhymes. Anyway I remember the DJ saying 'The Boss is Back' and wondering what he was referring too. He then played 'Dancing' and I was hooked. From this point I began to realise that songs such as Born to Run, The River, Hungry Heart were also Bruce songs that were occasionally played on the radio. I saved my pocketmoney (thank god for the loose change that had fallen behind the couch) and rushed out and bought 'Born in the USA'. The rest is History