Bruce Springsteen

by Dave Marsh

Bruce Springsteen: Two Hearts is the definitive biography of one of the most important songwriters and performers of the last three decades. Critic Dave Marsh has traced Springsteen's career from its beginning, and has earned the singer's respect through his careful documentation and critical description of Springsteen's work. This biography brings together for the first time Marsh's two previous biographies, Born To Run (which covered Springsteen's early career through the mid-'70s) and Glory Days (which took him through the mid-'80s). Both were widely praised for their insightful and near definitive coverage of Springsteen's life and music. For this book, Marsh has written a new chapter covering major developments in Springsteen's career to today, particularly focusing on his album The Rising and its impact on American culture.

Genres: Music, Biography, Nonfiction

754 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1981

Reviews

[Melody · Rating 3 out of 5]

The very first concert I ever saw was Bruce Springsteen. It was his first big tour, and it pretty much ruined me for all the lukewarm performances of the rest of the 70s. Hell, it pretty much ruined me for everybody except Iggy Pop and Leonard Cohen and Loudon Wainwright III. Nobody ever cared as much as Bruce, and we responded so fiercely to him in the Rust Belt where I first heard him. I've seen him several times and his shows are always balls-to-the-wall flat out intense and wondrous but the magic of that very first show remains shiny in my memory all these decades later. I've married and fallen in love and divorced and worked and played to his music. I've bought (bought!) all of his albums.

I am not an unbiased reader, in other words. I'm not coming to this book a virgin. I don't need to be converted. I already know he's a genius.

Marsh is a bigger fan than anyone, and he makes no secret of it. He knows and loves Springsteen in real life, and his admiration colors the book. His deep musical knowledge brings a lot to the table. The book is very, very analytical as far as the music goes, and less analytical about the life of Bruce. I don't have a sense of Bruce in situ, living his actual life, the way I do of Keith after reading Keith Richards' autobiography- but it's okay. The sense of Springsteen as a private, maybe even shy person is enough. The music is what matters in the end.

As a consequence of reading this book, I've listened to literally nothing but Springsteen songs for a week. I've marinated in Rosalita, wept every single time The Rising played, and still get goosebumps from the title track from Nebraska. It's been fascinating listening and reading at the same time. I feel like I know the songs a little better now.

The book is recommended only for fans, I think. It's repetitive and goes into more detail regarding concert set lists than even I wanted to read. And Marsh says "star-maker machinery" at least once in every single chapter. I wanted to hit him over the head with a Joni Mitchell album after about the hundredth repetition.

[Kirk Kiefer · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is really a combination of two books, one that goes up to around the release/tour of The River, the other that focuses almost exclusively on Born in the USA and its subsequent tour. As a result, half of the book is fantastic, both as an analysis of what makes the Boss and his music so great and as straight biography, while the other half becomes a reptetive "then Springsteen played this show. Lots of people were there. He said some neat stuff before such and such song." This second half is especially tough to get through due to its constant praise of Born in the USA, easily one of Springsteen's most dated works in terms of production, as edgy and modern, as well as the Live boxed set released in its wake, which is built up as the greatest release since Sgt Pepper (and, while not half bad, isn't *quite* that good.) The last 20 years are covered as a quick addendum that is handy to bring things up to date but due to its brevity isn't exactly the most illuminating.

However, the first part of the book makes this a more than worthwhile read and is what my 4-star rating is primarily based on.

[Pam Ferderbar · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love Bruce so I figured this was a slam dunk, but it's NOT Dylan's Chronicles or Keith Richard's Life or Patti Smith's Just Kids. Maybe if Bruce had written it…Marsh seems impressed with himself and almost gloatful (probably not a real word) of the fact that he knows "the Boss." I found this so annoying it distracted me from the rather tedious telling of the story. It's just not all that well written, but it's still interesting if you want to know - from a critic's pov anyway - what makes Bruce tick.

[Keith Blackman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Biography of Springsteen, combining Marsh's two previous books, Born to Run and Glory Days

[Trevor · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting insights into Bruce's career, yet much better writing is available that is devoted towards telling the Story of Bruce.

[Karen Ross · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this

[Craig Werner · Rating 4 out of 5]

As close to a definitive (which is not to say authorized) biography of the early and mid-periods of Springsteen's career as we're likely to get, Two Hearts combines Marsh's two Bruce books--Born to Run and Glory Days--with a new introduction and a coda covering the period from Tunnel of Love through The Rising. Since I've reviewed Born to Run separately, I'll concentrate on Glory Days here. Writing near the end of the absolutely atypical "Bossmania" period of the mid-1980s, Marsh focuses his attention on Bruce's largely succesful struggle to maintain integrity while being subjected to unremitting public attention. He tracks the problems presented by the move from clubs to arenas to stadiums; chronicles the attention (unwanted and distorting) Bruce received from politicians attempting to claim him for conservative (Reagan) or neo-liberal (Bill Bradley) agendas; provides a sympathtic portrait of Bruce's first wife, Julie Phillips; and, most importantly, documents the concerts which embodied Bruce's creative vision. Probably inevitably given the context, there's more detail about record sales, attendance, etc. than in Born to Run and it occasionally slows the pace, as do some extremely detailed reports on particular concerts. As in Born to Run, the high points include Bruce's comments on his creative process and Marsh's brilliant analyses of the logic of concerts--song choice, pacing, the balance between music and story-telling. Marsh has made it clear he's not going to write volume 3 and I understand why, but when I reached the end of Two Hearts, I couldn't help wishing he'd change his mind. Critics who say Marsh has written hagiography haven't paid much attention to the books, but it's clear that no writer will ever approach Springsteen with deeper sympathy and understanding.

[Tom · Rating 2 out of 5]

Decided to pick this one up since my parents got me the second volume Glory Days: Bruce Springsteen in the 1980s. I figured I should read the first volume while I was at it, and have always liked Springsteen. I even got to see him, briefly, while he was stumping for John Kerry in 2004.

This book is fairly informative, and reading it made me listen to Springsteen albums that I had not listened to a whole lot like Darkness on the Edge of Town and The River. That was the best part of it. Seeing some of the lyrics written out I saw the continuity of a lot of his themes even more strongly.

The book only thoroughly covers up through the end of the Born in the U.S.A tours in the late 1980s. That's a bit of a shame, since I was hoping for more on The Ghost of Tom Joad. The author was obviously a fan, and ended up as a friend of Springsteen. He willingly admits this, since apparently he was criticized for it being a hagiography. That seems to be the case with most musician biographies, and it did not seem ridiculously fawning.

[Anne · Rating 3 out of 5]

I finally managed to finish this book which I think I started reading before or during the Working on a Dream Tour in 2009. As several other reviewers, I quite liked the first part of the book and found the second part rather tedious. Maybe that's why the book stranded on my nightstand for a looong time. I'm glad I finished it though and hope that Marsh will do a book on the period from 1987 up to now. Two Hearts touched on 1987-2003, but it was very brief.

[David Burke · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bruce is a God. No doubt. This is actually two books in one. Separately I would give the first book 5 or 6 stars but the second part gets maudlin. Bruce's best work may be behind him but he is still a force to be reckoned with, particularly on stage (Let's see Foo Fighters give a 4 hour concert)
Dave Marsh writes the second book as if it were all over.
The book does not include the death of Clarence Clemons.

[Marina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nakon sto sam procitala knjigu, postala sam jos veci fan njegovih pjesama. Vise, bolje sam ih razumijela. Kao i njega i njegov nacin na koji pjeva, zbog cega pjeva i sto, tj o cemu ljudi pricaju nakon njegovog koncerta. Te emocije, osjecaje, snagu koju ostavi na svakom koncertu, pri svakom albumu kojeg je snimio, kojeg ce snimiti, kao i pjesmi.
Jedva cekam sve ovo sto sam procitala, sve ovo sto sam doživljela dok sam citala o njemu doživjeti i na koncertu. Osjetiti tu navalu adrenalina.

[Adam Sharp · Rating 4 out of 5]

The definitive biography of my favorite musician... Drags in some parts, and skips over some big chunks -- though the latter can be attributed to this being an anthology of two full books, and multiple new forwards, etc., so there are gaps between each of the combined publications. Still a must-read for any die-hard fan.

[Nicholas Doyle · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Kindle version of this book has a ton of mistakes; most notably that 95% of the time the text mentions "Clarence Clemons," it's shown as "Clarence demons." When the text only uses his last name, it's pretty confusing.

[Caitlin · Rating 5 out of 5]

amazing amazing book. i love burce springsteen, he is so inspiring. very well written. i loved it SO much.

[Linda Heffernan]

SO COOL

[Miriam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not only a great history of the Boss but also of rock and roll.

[Maria · Rating 3 out of 5]

surprisingly hard to get through considering Im such a fan

[Sveučilišna Knjižnica Rijeka]

Springsteen, Bruce
Glazbenici - Rock - Sjedinjene Američke Države - Biografije