Bruce Springsteen grew from a dishevelled, bearded singer of youthful street ballads to become the hottest name in the rock world — twice. The resilience of the New Jersey troubadour has seen him top the album charts in four successive decades, and his epic world tours with the legendarily hard-working E Street Band are still sell-outs well into the new millennium. Once seen as another Bob Dylan wannabe, Springsteen became rock's definitive chronicler of blue-collar life and inheritor of the spirit of Woody Guthrie. When the world needed a compassionate artistic statement, he delivered. This guide examines the growth of Bruce Springsteen's career, from the optimistic youth who wrote Born To Run to the respected heavyweight songwriter of today.
