Bruce Springsteen on Tour, 1968-2005

Dave Marsh is not what you'd call an unbiased journalist. Nor should he be. He is basically the official Springsteen biographer, and his previous books have documented his rise (the first book), then his popular explosion (his second book), which have been collated in the terrific "Two Hearts". Here, he provides a tour-by-tour analysis/memoir/scrapbook of the career of Bruce Springsteen. I am a huge Springsteen fan. Just huge. I devoured this book and begged for more. There are literally hundreds of killer little details that will delight anyone who has seen a Springsteen show. If this book is given to a Springsteen fan who by chance has not yet seen him live, it will make them want to donate a kidney to do so. The most frequent comments I internally made while reading this tome were "I wish I was there", or " I wish that would come out on CD or DVD", or "That must have been amazing" and usually ending with " I must find a way to get tickets to his next concert!" No other musician could have a book like this. Many of his beloved onstage stories are reproduced here. Accounts of particularly historic shows (The Bottom Line, The Roxy, Nassau, the Coliseum), guest performers (Ronnie Spector, his mom requesting an encore)...the way he went from band tours to solo shows... Bottom line (no pun intended) is that this is a mandatory purchase for any Bruce fan!

Purchased as a gift for an all time super fan of Springsteen. He loved the book. A must have for any Springsteen fan.

My boyfriend is an avid Springsteen fan and he loved this book. I recommend it to all Bruce fans!

Springsteen fans have been very lucky as of late as he has been putting out more and more product. While non-fans may wonder what all the fuss is about, let's face it, if there is one rock ledged who is sorely lacking in the way of specialty releases, it's the Boss. How nice then to finally see things like the '75 London concert DVD and CD released last year, a revamped Seeger Sessions disc with songs that popped up on the tour and during rehearsals we otherwise would not have had on the actual release and items like this book and the coinciding "Greetings from E-Street..." Some bands (The Stones being the most glaring example) seem to have a new hardcover book on the shelves every year or two (sometimes multiple books). While there are previous Springsteen books out there, there are few in the way of this and the "E-Street" release: Hardcover, put together with a lot of care, vivid pictures and special time capsule items. While "E Street" has the nifty distinction of including actual replicas of setlists, tickets, coasters and other memorabilia items, as a book, I think "On Tour" has the edge. "E Street" is a great time capsule full of rare mementoes, but "On Tour" is the perfect coffee table book. Well written by Dave Marsh, a close friend of the Boss and knowing Springsteen insider, in a chronological, personal, easy to read fashion that is both informative and enjoyable, "On Tour" is a terrific journey through the Boss' life, career, albums, and - of course - tours. Filled with anecdotes and memories, it is also a great flashback to moments fans will no doubt be grateful to relive. But the best part of this book - and what makes all the best high-gloss, hardcover, coffee tables so exciting, is the pictures. I have a lot of photos I have come across of Springsteen over the years saved on my computer, mainly because there was never a release such as this to combine any of these great photos. Bruce just seems to photograph well live and, unlike a lot of artists, his live intensity shows through with even just a photograph. This one has a bunch of great pictures, from the time he was just a teenager through to last year's excitingly intimate stripped down "Devils and Dust" tour. What a keepsake for the true fan! While I still pine for more releases of past and current projects (from the infamous "Darkness Outtakes" to an acoustic compilation from "D & D," to A Seeger Sessions live DVD and/or CD - the tour stuff is far and away better than the album), releases like this make me optimistic for the future of Springsteen releases.

I am a life long Bruce Springsteen fan, and so, I have become more objective with my opinions of this spectacularly gifted musician. In Dave Marsh's 'Bruce Springsteen on Tour 1968 -2005, the reader is taken deep into the movement that the Boss has set out, transforming American rock n roll, and in many ways putting a kick back into the American music industry. What is most fascinating in this biography is the wonderful and mostly unseen photographs of Springsteen and crew on tour. There are nearly 350 pictures or so, and nearly each of them tells a unique story of the movement that is Bruce Springsteen. Very rarely has a performer transformed a nation; however, Bruce Springsteen, from his beginning told a generation that was finding its way that it was great to be an American, and great to be part of this thing we cheerish called freedom. This is a wonderful tribute to a man who got into the veins of a nation.