GLORY DAYS: B SPRINGSTN

by Dave Marsh

Book Overview

Bruce Springsteen is more than a rock star, he's an icon of hopes & dreams, a hero to millions, whose music, marathon stage shows, & commitment to justice & equality make him the most appealing... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0394546687
• Release Date: April 1987
• Publisher: Pantheon
• Length: 478 Pages
• Weight: 2.10 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Lots of documentation

This book is a collection of material documenting Springsteen's activities throughout the 1980s. In writing this book, Marsh, a music writer and long-standing fan of Springsteen's, collected interviews from Springsteen himself and many of Springsteen's friends and colleagues in the 1980s. The book covers roughly the period between the tour after "The River" and the release of the 75-85 Live album. Marsh includes discussions of the makeup of the E Street Band, Springsteen's songwriting and recording processes, critical interpretations of Nebraska and Born in the USA, and blow-by-blow descriptions of tours and some of their individual concerts. The book is illustrated with 3 sections of black and white photographs, mostly tour footage. Since Marsh is such a good friend of Springsteen's, the book presents a very sympathetic biography; in this book, Springsteen can do no wrong or even make any bad decisions. Marsh's accounts of Springsteen's writing processes are quite illuminating. It is fascinating to read how albums such as Nebraska and Born in the USA were written and recorded. On the other hand, Marsh includes voluminous amounts of material that are of lesser interest, such as his critical interpretations of album tracks, or details of events at individual concerts. Marsh also manages to insert some of his personal opinions that are hardly relevant for the topic, such as "most leftists are uncomfortable around rock and roll; they prefer folk music--in particular the pseudofolk produced by white, acoustic urban writer-performers of topical songs". Hmmm...how very interesting....On the whole, if the material in the book had been cut by about half, the remainder would have made a remarkable, readable account of this period in Springsteen's career. As it is, the book is a bit too thick with unnecessary details and opinions, but within all the fluff are some great stories documenting Springsteen's life in music.

Bruce in the 80's

Granted, Marsh is a big fan and friend of Springsteen, but this book is incredibly well-researched and gives you a lot of insight into the music and performances of Springsteen leading up to the Born in the USA phenomenon. A quality read if you're interested in Bruce and I highly recommend it.

Bitter, cynical fans trash this book unfairly!

This is not an awful book, as other reviews have suggested. Dave Marsh's unabashed enthusiasm for Bruce's music should not be taken as gospel. Do you believe everything you read? Heck no! As with any rabid fan's writing, "Glory Days" contains its share of deification, but a closer look might reveal things of which you were not previously aware. "Dancing in the Dark" does indeed possess a rather dark set of lyrics, but I, like many other Springsteen fans, had dismissed it as synthetic fluff. What a mistake! What insight on the part of the writer, in this and many other instances! What a great book!

This book speaks to fans of the BORN IN THE USA Tour

The first review of this book that appears here is way too harsh. It's true, The author is MARRIED to Bruce Springsteen's manager, but still, the attitudes and opinions presented here are for the most part, very reflective of what people attracted to Bruce because of the BORN IN THE USA album have felt about his music. This book does not deal with the earlier, grittier Springsteen of the 70's and 90's, but with the larger than life Pop Icon he became in the '80s. For cryin' out loud, Ronald Reagan was trying to co-opt Bruce's lyrics. So, in my opinion, Marsh's worshipful prose is easily understood once put into context. This book is not a bad edition to any serious Bruce fan's Library. Just consider the source.