Ahmet Ertegun was profiled by George W. S. Trow in The New Yorker in a classic piece back in 1978. Ertegun was the son of the Turkish ambassador to the US and he remained behind in D.C. studying medieval philosophy at Georgetown. Instead of devoting himself to his studies he founded Atlantic Records with his friend Herb Abramson. Trow charted how Ertegun moved from tramping through muddy, Louisiana fields in search of hot new sounds to the whirl of Studio 54. Below the cut are links to the songs mentioned in the article, as best as I could find, in the order in which they appear. [more inside]
posted by Kattullus on Aug 17, 2009 - 25 comments

Have Love, Will Travel is a song with an instantly recognisable opening that was originally recorded by Richard Berry in 1959 and subsequently covered by The Sonics, Paul Revere and the Raiders, Crazyhead, Bruce Springsteen, Jim Belushi & Dan Akroyd, The Black Keys and at least two ukulele duos to name a few. (single song, MLYTP)
posted by slimepuppy on Jul 4, 2009 - 22 comments

Mark Richardson muses about memory, personal history and YouTube. Specifically, he uncovered a storied 1970 Steel Mill gig (with Bruce Springsteen on guitar, audio only) that his wife's uncle MC'ed. And then the 15-year old Boss' garage band, The Castiles. And verified dim memories of seeing Andy Warhol, Bianca Jagger and Steven Spielberg discuss radios in your teeth on TV, and John Cale on a TV game show. And an old Highland Appliances TV ad. That kind of thing.
posted by msalt on Jun 10, 2009 - 10 comments

Suicide's "Dream Baby Dream" YT Link is the duo of Alan Vega and Martin Rev at their most anthemic and uplifting, a different side of their confrontational synth-punk. Bruce Springsteen closed his shows on the 2005 Devils & Dust tour with a fantastic solo cover of "Dream Baby Dream," and is sharing a new split 10" with the NYC electronic pioneers themselves.
posted by porn in the woods on Nov 15, 2008 - 18 comments

The pleasant but hagiographical Pete Seeger: The Power of Song (production company website w/ trailer) is playing in New York and Los Angeles. The movie is entirely uncritical... prompting this response by Ron Radosh who is interviewed in the film, but whose critical comments were left out. But most interesting is this followup article by Radosh describing Seeger's response and a new song against Stalin. The filmmaker comes out worst in Radosh's account... [more inside]
posted by Jahaza on Nov 16, 2007 - 22 comments

An OpEd piece by Bruce Springsteen, announcing the tour of Vote for Change, the umbrella of a new group including the Dave Matthews Band, Pearl Jam, R.E.M., the Dixie Chicks, Jurassic 5, James Taylor and Jackson Browne. (NYT)
posted by semmi on Aug 5, 2004 - 71 comments

Draft Bruce
"A New York concert promoter has mounted an online campaign to 'draft' Bruce Springsteen to headline a rock 'n roll show to upstage the Republican National Convention on the night it nominates President Bush...." Said promoter Andrew Rasiej, "I've spoken to the manager of REM, to Bon Jovi's people and the rest of the names I've mentioned and they all said, 'if you build it, we will be there.'"

I'm not a big fan, but this has the potential to be momentous.
posted by mapalm on Jun 22, 2004 - 31 comments

Born to Run? A group of New Jersey political activists announced a plan to draft Bruce Springsteen to run for the U.S. Senate "as a true representative of the state". But there is a big problem: no one has talked to the Boss about the idea. "Senator Springsteen": how does that sound?
posted by matteo on May 15, 2002 - 18 comments

E Street Band guitarist and erstwhile Sopranos star Little Steven is launching a syndicated radio show to be centered around garage rock of the '60's plus latter day punk as well according to this story. Steve's own site includes some great live reviews and excellent garage rock links . I, for one, am really looking forward to hearing this show. Good luck, Steve.
posted by jonmc on Apr 4, 2002 - 11 comments

Clear Channel bans Bruce Springsteen's "I'm On Fire", The Beatles' "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds," John Lennon's "Imagine," and "all Rage Against The Machine songs" (which I am sure they have wanted to do for awhile), but not The Cure's "Killing An Arab" or anything by Twisted Sister. Sounds a bit fishy to me. Clear Channel owns over 1,170 radio stations. [from FuckedCompany.com]
posted by tranquileye on Sep 17, 2001 - 68 comments

Behind the Lizzie Grubman story Publicist with clients including Britney Spears runs SUV into crowd of 15 outside a club. Her dad is a major recording industry attorney, representing Michael Jackson, Sting, Elton John and Bruce Springsteen. But it's not a good enough story to take national? "Missing interns, shark-bitten 8-year-olds and murdered wives of has-been stars are OK, though."
posted by raysmj on Jul 17, 2001 - 9 comments

Is the Boss really in charge? Tucows is -- supposedly legally -- posting tracks from his early album, "Before the Fame" (though that sounds like a title applied after the fact to *me*).
posted by baylink on Jun 16, 2000 - 2 comments