I became a Bruce Springsteen fan in the summer of 1978 which was the summer after I graduated from high school. It was the summer that Springsteen released “Darkness on the Edge of Town”.
Growing up in rural South Dakota, I did not hear anything but a little pop and a lotta country music on the radio. I relied on Rolling Stone magazine to help me shape my music tastes. Dave Marsh’s review of "Darkness" in July 1978 was so glowing that I felt I’d be missing out if I didn’t own the album.
It was my first Springsteen album. “Born to Run” followed shortly thereafter (“Darkness” and “Born to Run” made my favorites list) and I owned “Greetings from Asbury Park” and “The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle” by the time I packed my vinyl collection for college that fall.
By the time I arrived at Creighton University in the fall of 1978, I was a full fledged “Boss” fan. When I joined a fraternity second semester, it just so happened a couple of my new "brothers" were from Jersey and were Bruce disciples. They inspired me to go on a two week tour following Springsteen and the Creighton Bluejays a year later. I'll save that for another post!
Friday afternoons in the dorm consisted of backgammon or Spades games with the E Street Band as the soundtrack. I played the grooves thin on those first four Springsteen album.
