Talk About a Dream: The Essential Interviews of Bruce Springsteen Read Online Free PDF

advertisement for Santori wine and ad-libs “you can pour it all over your face.” More consequentially, Springsteen brought along a tape of “Born to Run,” his new song that would be released the following summer. It is the studio recording’s worldwide premiere. Asked how he likes hearing it on the radio, Bruce only responds, “Do I get to do another commercial.”
    I’m sure a lot of people would like to know the honest and true story of the actual history of you and the bands and so on. Whenyou started and all that stuff. Also I’ll mention that you told me once you don’t really like to do interviews .
    It’s the same old story.
    That’s why I really appreciate you coming down here today .
    It’s the same as everything else, every other kid, 13, pick up the guitar, scrub away on it. I had a succession of every sort of band you could imagine. Ten piece bands, three piece bands, power trios. Everything. We played down in Virginia a lot. That’s where we made our living, between Virginia and New Jersey.
    One day I was sitting on my porch and this guy said, Hey, come on up to New York and meet this guy. I said, Nah, I don’t want to go to New York, I don’t want to meet this guy. A week or so later he came by and said “I’m coming up tonight, it’s a nice night.” I was totally bored so I said okay and I got in the car and met Mike [Appel]. He said, “I want to be your manager.” I said I’d think about it. I went away for about five months. I went to California.
    How old were you at this time?
    I don’t know. Jesus, I must have been, this must have happened when I was about 22. Twenty-one or 22.
    And how old are you now?
    I’m 25 [
laughter in studio
].
    Looking back on your youth, Bruce .
    Good idea, let’s look back on it.
    You had a band called the Steel Mill. Was that the name at the time? Were there other names?
    There were other names.
    But you never made any records. Just kind of hung around the bars?
    I did make one when I was about 16. I made it in Bricktown, New Jersey, in this country and western studio.
    Was it released?
    No. It was released to the extent that for $100 you get a hundred of them.
    Do you have any left?
    I have one that doesn’t play very well.
    What was the tune?
    I don’t know. I did that when I was about 16. That’s about it.
    [
Sciaky asked about Springsteen’s audition for John Hammond
]
    I had this guitar, this little guitar. Its neck was broke when I brought it up into the office. I was brought there by the guy that is my manager now and at the time I always took the attitude that nothing was going to come of anything because that’s usually the way it always worked out. I had been playing down in Jersey in the bars for like nine years.
    Wow, that long?
    Yeah, and I heard some good bands down there. And, “Hey I’m going to bring down the manager to see you guys tonight” and you sit there until three in the morning. Anyhow, I went up there, and we went in and I introduced myself and met the guy and sat down. And my manager, he jumped up and started to give him this big hype already. I didn’t play a note! I said, Oh no. So I played a few things. I played “Saint in the City,” and he liked it. He was really enthusiastic about it, and we went in the studio with him and we did 13 or 14 songs on demo tape with him. And that was, like, the day that never comes. I felt like I was going to go outside and get hit by a car after that.
    It was all over, right?
    Yeah. That’s what I figured. Yeah, that was a day.
    [
At some point, Bruce took over doing an on-air promotion for Akadama Wines
.]
    Santori Akadama. [
He reads note from Sciaky
.] “Feel free to ad lib.” There are lots of ways you can enjoy Santori Akadama wine. Did you know that, Ed? You can drink it chilled. You can drink it on the rocks with ice and soda. You can pour it all over your face. Akadama red wine makes a fine sangria, it says right here. You can own one square of English earth, oh,