Bruce Springsteen and New Jersey

When Springsteen was growing up in Freehold, his family was far from wealthy. His father usually worked as a bus driver, but had difficulty holding down a steady job. His mother worked as a secretary in order to supplement the family's income. Springsteen grew up in the downtown section of Freehold. This part of the town has been described as "a section called 'Texas,' where a bunch of Appalachian hillbillies had set up in one of the country's less-noted internal migrations" (Lombardi 140). Thus, at an early age, Springsteen developed an attitude toward life which has been called "street smart" (140). This attitude later came to dominate his music and his entire career as a rock and roll artist.

As a child, Bruce Springsteen attended a parochial school called St. Rose of Lima, which

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ng to one writer, Springsteen's early confinement to the New Jersey Shore can be seen as a "blessing in disguise" (Ewen 378). Thus, "he has far more depth than most rock artists because he really had roots in a place-- coastal Jersey, where no record company scouts ever went" (378). It is interesting to note, however, that the working-class dilemmas depicted in many of Springsteen's songs relate more to the industrial cities of New Jersey than to the beach-front lifestyle of Asbury Park and other coastal towns. Thus, "the actual Jersey Shore . . . had always been a service economy; the 'mill' and 'factory' closings Bruce plaintively identified as tangible representations of a 'runaway American dream' were located up north in Jersey City, Paterson, and the Oranges, or way down south in Camden" (Lombardi 141). Nevertheless, it can be seen that many aspects of Springsteen's life and music have been directly related to his experiences as a native of New Jersey. In 1972, Bruce Springsteen began his quick rise to fame as an American rock and roll star. In that year, he met Mike Appel, who was to serve as Springsteen's personal manager for the next few years. Appel introduced Springsteen to the vice-president of Columbia Records,
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)