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Bruce Springsteen 's incredible career is showing no signs of slowing down anytime soon – the musician is releasing his 20th studio album this week.
The revered American artist is known for socially conscious lyrics that portray the experiences and struggles of a colourful array of characters, from army veterans to working-class Americans and ex-stuntmen.
He is one of the best-selling artists in the world, despite never achieving a number one single in the US or the UK. Among his most adored songs are “Born in the USA” , from his 1984 album of the same name, “Dancing in the Dark” , “Hungry Heart”, “Thunder Road”, and “Badlands”. He has won 20 Grammy Awards, two Golden Globes, an Oscar, and a Tony Award for his Springsteen on Broadway residency at the Walter Kerr Theatre in New York.
Western Stars , his 19th studio album, was released last year to critical acclaim, including a five-star review from The Independent that hailed it as a “late-period masterpiece”.
To celebrate The Boss , members of The Independent’s culture team have picked their favourite Springsteen songs.
Click through the gallery below to see them:
Show all 13 1 /1312 of the greatest Bruce Springsteen songs 12 of the greatest Bruce Springsteen songs
12 of the greatest Bruce Springsteen songs "4th July, Asbury Park (Sandy)" This song is a full-blown Springsteen ballad, which transports the listener to the Jersey Shore boardwalk within seconds. Springsteen's whispered vocals amp up the track's intimacy, which he somehow maintains on the live version performed at Nassau Coliseum in 1985 despite being performed to thousands ("he ain't my boss anymore!"). (Jacob Stolworthy)
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12 of the greatest Bruce Springsteen songs "Brilliant Disguise" Springsteen unfurls the secret truths of his then-recent marriage in this study of masculinity, fragility and doomed romance. "We stood at the altar/ The gypsy swore our future was right/ but come the wee wee hours/ Well maybe, baby, the gypsy lied" remains one of his greatest moments of story-telling. The track also leans on the Eighties stadium-pop sound perfected with "Dancing in the Dark". "Brilliant Disguise" operates as that song's more soulful cousin. (Adam White)
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12 of the greatest Bruce Springsteen songs "Racing in the Street" One of many Springsteen songs about small-timers hoping to escape to something bigger and better, “Racing in the Street” is one of the best, from (arguably) his best album: Darkness on the Edge of Town. It's about that fear of driving away from the familiar and into the unknown, with no certainty of what you’ll find. He twists his formula of upbeat songs with darker meaning – at first the song just sounds like a detailing of a souped-up racer. But he sings about it like you would a eulogy at a funeral – low and mournful. Combine that with a twist on Martha and the Vandella’s joyfully innocent “Dancing in the Street” on the closing lines and you’re left with the lasting impression that this is about the loss of innocence. Because a car, however fast, can only take you so far. (Roisin O'Connor)
Danny Clinch
12 of the greatest Bruce Springsteen songs "Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)" Clocking in at over seven minutes, this is one of the Boss's most epic tracks – a thrill ride from start to finish. It tells the story of a girl whose parents disapprove of the singer's life in a rock and roll band, and was a regular set-closer back in the day. Try not to get chills when Springsteen tells his beloved Rosie that "the record company just gave him a big advance". (JS)
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12 of the greatest Bruce Springsteen songs "Tougher Than the Rest" A weary and well-earned bruise of a love song, “Tougher Than the Rest” finds Springsteen at his gruffest and most romantic, open to kick-starting a new relationship but refusing to deny that he’s failed once or twice before. Moody and softly melodic while burning with sexual energy, it’s one of Springsteen’s most seductively compelling tracks. (AW)
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12 of the greatest Bruce Springsteen songs "Dancing in the Dark" When Springsteen’s co-producer Jon Landau heard Born in the USA for the first time, he told him he thought the album needed a single. Frustrated, Springsteen went and wrote “Dancing in the Dark” in a single night, which went “as far in the direction of pop music as I wanted to go – and probably a little farther”. Yet it proved to be one of his most beloved and timeless songs; E Street keyboardist Roy Bittan takes the lead on those irrepressible synths, while Springsteen’s lyrics voice his frustration and sense of alienation from whatever was really happening out there. (RO)
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12 of the greatest Bruce Springsteen songs "Bobby Jean" A crowdpleaser of the purest form. This track manages to simultaneously evoke elation, sadness, hope – all things that make "Bobby Jean" one of those rare tracks you can play on repeat without getting bored. Altogether now: "Maybe you'll be out there on that road somewhere..." (JS)
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12 of the greatest Bruce Springsteen songs "Secret Garden" Pure Nineties gloss, cemented by its inclusion on the Jerry Maguire soundtrack, “Secret Garden” is nakedly cloying but also genuinely wonderful, underpinned by a shimmering, repetitive synth line and Springsteen at his most awed and vulnerable. It’s very “night-time walk down a quiet suburban street”, but that’s also very much part of its appeal. (AW)
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12 of the greatest Bruce Springsteen songs "Drive Fast (The Stuntman)" Springsteen sounds beaten and fragile on this elegiac song about an ex-addict stuntman reliving his glory days via the scars on his body. Its Seventies California influences are right out of the Burt Bacharach songbook – those sweeping orchestral arrangements recall the score for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, as well as Bacharach and Hal David's hit "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head" from the same film. It's a late example of one of Springsteen's most recognisable characters: a man coming to terms with the reality of being obsolete. (RO)
12 of the greatest Bruce Springsteen songs "Badlands" While the riff may be based on the Animals track "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood", Springsteen's "Badlands" is very much its own beast. Anger and desperation bleed from the Boss' delivery of his lyrics about yearning for a greater purpose in life – the irony being that this very song would go onto inspire future generations over the ensuing decades. (JS)
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12 of the greatest Bruce Springsteen songs "It's Hard to Be a Saint in the City" The greatest Bob Dylan song that has nothing to do with him, “It’s Hard to Be a Saint in the City” is one of Springsteen’s earliest tracks but one of his most colourful. A tale of an adolescent boy in New York struggling to resist the darker temptations the big city offers, it is decorated in striking imagery, from the kid’s aspiration to look like Marlon Brando to the Devil appearing “like Jesus through the steam in the street”. A favourite of David Bowie’s, the song, from Springsteen’s debut album, helped mark him as an extraordinary young talent. (AW)
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12 of the greatest Bruce Springsteen songs "Born in the USA" “Born down in a dead man’s town/ The first kick I took was when I hit the ground.” Such is the indomitable spirit of Springsteen’s voice (which sounds as though he’s been screaming the words for an age with no one to hear them) and the euphoric riff shaped on his Yamaha CS-80 synth – that you almost miss the darkness of those lyrics. It’s why some have co-opted the song as an unofficial anthem of blind patriotism. But Springsteen’s narrator is bitter and angry, and the song gave a voice to the forgotten veterans of the Vietnam War, sent off to fight a fictional enemy. Springsteen has numerous songs about characters wanting to cut and run, but "Born in the USA" portrays the broken men looking for something to stand for. (RO)
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