Springsteen: Point Blank

By Christopher Sandford

In 1958 a young boy was watching television with his mother when on came Elvis Presley. Turning to his mother he said, ‘I wanna be just … like … that.’ The boy was called Bruce Springsteen, and his fate had just been determined. Soon after his mother would buy him his first guitar, and his journey would begin.

A loner with a distaste for formal education, music was not merely a hobby but what he did, yet in 1975 it had reached make-or-break point. Born to Run was the title of this, Springsteen’s third, album … and it made him.

Becoming one of the world’s bestselling artists, Springsteen has won numerous awards in the course of his career, from Grammys and Golden Globes to an Academy Award. As with so many artists people responded to Springsteen’s legend, and in time the line between the man and the myth became blurred.

In Springsteen: Point Blank Christopher Sandford re-establishes the line and paints the definitive picture of the ordinary yet gifted Jerseyan who came to be known as “the Boss”.

Christopher Sandford is the critically acclaimed author of nineteen biographies, including Clapton: Edge of Darkness. Before this he enjoyed careers in public relations and cricket and music journalism, with articles appearing in the Seattle Times, Rolling Stone, the Spectator and The Observer amongst others, as well writing fiction.