E Street Band

E Street Band

The E Street Band is a backing band that has toured and recorded with rock musician Bruce Springsteen on and off since 1972.

They have also recorded, both as individuals and as a band, with a wide range of other artists including Bob Dylan, Meat Loaf, Bonnie Tyler, Dire Straits, David Bowie, Peter Gabriel, Sting, Ian Hunter, Ringo Starr, Ronnie Spector, Gary U.S. Bonds, Darlene Love, Southside Johnny, Santana, Lucinda Williams, Steve Earle, Emmylou Harris, Tracy Chapman and Aretha Franklin.

When not working with Bruce Springsteen, members of the band have recorded solo material and have had pursued successful careers as session musicians, record producers, songwriters, actors and other roles in entertainment. The most well-known in their separate careers are Max Weinberg, who has led The Max Weinberg 7 on Late Night with Conan O'Brien since 1993, and Steven Van Zandt, who starred as Silvio Dante in The Sopranos from 1999 to 2007.

History

Members

The E Street Band is considered to have started in October 1972, even though it wasn't officially billed and known as such until September 1974. [1]

The original lineup included Clarence Clemons (saxophone), Danny Federici (keyboards, accordion), Vini "Mad Dog" Lopez (drums), David Sancious (keyboards), and Garry Tallent (bass). In the band's earliest days (before it became the E Street Band), Emmy-winning songwriter Bill Chinnock was among its founding members, though he never received official credit as such.

According to a legend, the band took its name from the street in Belmar, New Jersey, where Sancious' mother lived. She allowed the band to rehearse in her home. In fact, Sancious' status as an original member is in doubt, because after recording Springsteen's debut Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. album with the others, he did not join the tour that began in October 1972. It was not until June 1973 that Sancious began regularly appearing in Springsteen concerts.

In February 1974 Lopez was asked to resign, and was briefly replaced by Ernest "Boom" Carter. A few months later, in August 1974, Sancious and Carter left to form their own band called Tone. They were replaced in September 1974 by Roy Bittan (keyboards), Max Weinberg (drums), and Suki Lahav (violin).

Lahav left in March 1975 when she moved to Israel (where she would later find success as a songwriter and novelist among other things). Steven Van Zandt (guitar, vocals), who had long been associated with Springsteen and had played in previous bands with him, officially joined the band in July 1975.

This lineup remained stable until the early 1980s when Van Zandt left to pursue his own career, a move that was announced in 1984. He would later rejoin the band in 1995. In June 1984 Nils Lofgren (guitar, vocals) was added to replace Van Zandt; Springsteen's future wife, Patti Scialfa (vocals, later guitar) was also added to the lineup.

By 2002 the band also included Soozie Tyrell (violin, vocals). Tyrell had earlier worked with Scialfa touring with Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes and sporadically with Springsteen dating back to the early 1990s. (Whether Tyrell became as full-fledged a member as the others was and is unclear. Some press releases referred to her as a "special guest",[2], the cover notes of Live in Barcelona list her as a "with" member, the liner notes of We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions refer to her as "violinist with the E Street Band", some press releases don't mention her at all,[3], while Springsteen says in response that "Soozie will be with us."[4].)

On occasions the lineup has been augmented by a horn section, sometimes referred to as The Miami Horns. Its most prominent members include The Max Weinberg 7's Richie "La Bamba" Rosenberg (trombone) and Mark Pender (trumpet).

Greetings From Asbury Park

Garry W. Tallent

Roy Bittan

In the late 1960s and the early 1970s there was a vibrant music scene in and around the City of Asbury Park on the Jersey Shore. Prominent in this scene were Bruce Springsteen and Southside Johnny as well as the early members of The E Street Band. Clemons, Federici, Lopez, Sancious, Tallent and Van Zandt honed their skills in numerous bands, both with and without Springsteen. These included Little Melvin & The Invaders, The Downtown Tangiers Band, The Jaywalkers, Moment Of Truth, Glory Road, Child, Steel Mill, Dr.Zoom & The Sonic Boom, The Sundance Blues Band, and The Bruce Springsteen Band. In 1972 when Springsteen gained a recording contract with CBS Records he cherry picked the best of the Jersey Shore musicians to record and tour in support of his debut album, Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. By 1973 they had recorded a second album with Springsteen, The Wild, the Innocent and the E Street Shuffle.

Glory days

The E Street Band's reputation as studio musicians was established in the 1970s and the 1980s with their significant contribution to the Springsteen albums Born to Run, Darkness on the Edge of Town, The River, and Born in the U.S.A.. However, unlike other backing bands such as The Silver Bullet Band or The Heartbreakers the band was never given a full credit on any Springsteen studio album. Only individual band members are credited. Even though the band did all or almost all of the playing on these albums, they were released under the name Bruce Springsteen. Indeed, the E Street Band is not even mentioned as such in any of the literature for these albums until an inside liner note for The River, and then a cover "Performed by:" credit on Born in the U.S.A.. Later albums such as Tunnel Of Love and Greatest Hits do, however, name the band and list the members.

In concert was a different story. There, the act performing was almost always billed as Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band, and Springsteen took great effort to build up this brand. One song during each show would be elongated to contain a lengthy introduction of each member of the band, introducing nicknames or describing characteristics of the player, eventually whipping the audience into a frenzy for the final, over-the-top introduction of "The Big Man", Clarence Clemons. More substantially, Springsteen split concert revenues equally with the band members, a practice almost unheard of for backing bands in the music industry.

Thus in 1979 when Springsteen and the band featured on the No Nukes album and No Nukes film, the live performance was credited to both. The band received their first full credit on a Springsteen album with the release of Live/1975-85, which was credited to Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band. All subsequent live recordings and concert DVDs have also been credited to both.

Southside Johnny, Ronnie Spector and Gary U.S. Bonds

Meanwhile Van Zandt also began to establish himself a reputation as a producer/songwriter. Apart from helping out with production on Springsteen albums, he also worked with his "other band", Southside Johnny & The Asbury Jukes, as well as Ronnie Spector and Gary U.S. Bonds before he launched his own solo career as Little Steven. The E Street Band and Springsteen regularly helped out on all these projects. In 1977 they recorded a single with Ronnie Spector featuring a cover of the Billy Joel song, "Say Goodbye To Hollywood" and a Van Zandt original "Baby Please Don't Go". This is actually the first time the band are given a full credit. In 1978, Weinberg and Tallent became "honorary Jukes" when they recorded Hearts Of Stone with Southside Johnny.

In the early 1980s The E Street Band helped relaunch the career of Gary U.S. Bonds, providing backup on two albums Dedication and On The Line. Both were produced by Van Zandt with Springsteen and featured songs by Springsteen and Van Zandt and a cover of the Cajun classic "Jole Blon". The moderate success of these albums earned Van Zandt a solo recording contract with EMI. Initially without a band of his own he simply borrowed Clemons, Federici, Tallent and Weinberg and an assortment of Jukes, including Rosenberg and Pender, to record his 1982 debut Men Without Women. This was released under the name of Little Steven & The Disciples Of Soul.

Courtesy of The E Street Band

Other artists had also begun to recognize their talents and the band members were never out of work. Producer/songwriter Jim Steinman used Bittan and Weinberg on Meat Loaf's Bat out of Hell and Dead Ringer, on his own Bad for Good and on Bonnie Tyler's Faster Than the Speed of Night and Secret Dreams and Forbidden Fire. Bittan, Weinberg and Tallent, along with Mick Ronson, recorded a song with Ian Hunter titled "You're Never Alone With a Schizophrenic". Bittan and Federici also provided keyboards for Garland Jeffreys on his Escape Artist while the former would make notable contributions to albums by David Bowie, Dire Straits, Bob Seger and Stevie Nicks. Several of these albums acknowledged their contributions with a credit such as "courtesy of The E Street Band".

Throughout the 1980s members of the band were involved with various other projects. In 1985 Bittan and Van Zandt recorded sessions with Bob Dylan for his Empire Burlesque album. Although not used at the time, the recordings later surfaced on Dylan's The Bootleg Series. In 1985 Van Zandt spearheaded Artists United Against Apartheid. An album and single featured Springsteen and Clemons, among others. Tallent also produced a single with Jersey Artists For Mankind which featured Springsteen, Lofgren, Clemons, and Weinberg as well as Carter and Rosenberg. Clemons teamed up with Sancious both on his solo album Hero and on albums with Zucchero Fornaciari. Clemons and Lofgren also went on tour with Ringo Starr and his All-Starr Band in 1989.

The Split

In 1989 Springsteen informed The E Street Band members that he would not be using their services for the foreseeable future. He had already recorded one completely solo album, Nebraska, and Tunnel Of Love, although featuring The E Street Band in parts, never saw the band reach full swing. The last full band activity had been Autumn 1988's Human Rights Now! Tour.

The complete truth behind the split has yet to come out. There was likely some initial confusion and disbelief, as a steady, reliable source of income and professional satisfaction and acclaim had suddenly disappeared. However, Springsteen was reported to have paid them generous severances.

Band members started to go their separate ways and onto separate projects — Tallent to Nashville to work on record production, Federici to California, Clemons to Florida, Lofgren to Maryland to resume his long-time solo activities. Weinberg, besides an abortive try at law school, was putting together the band Killer Joe and recording an album. Scene Of The Crime included a guest appearance from Little Steven, playing guitar on the Springsteen written instrumental "Summer On Signal Hill". In 1992 The E-Street Band and The Miami Horns backed Darlene Love on the single All Alone At Christmas, written by Little Steven and featured on the soundtrack for Home Alone 2.

Springsteen made guest appearances on solo albums by both Nils Lofgren and Clarence Clemons and he joined Max Weinberg, Garry Tallent and Little Steven when they reprised their role as "honorary Jukes" on Southside Johnny's Better Days in 1992.

Springsteen also continued to use assorted members of the band on his forthcoming albums and projects. Roy Bittan would be retained for both Human Touch and Lucky Town. The former included a guest appearance from David Sancious while the latter introduced Soozie Tyrell. Patti Scialfa also provided backing vocals on both. Little Steven produced and played guitar on a remix of the single "57 Channels". However the majority of musicians used on these albums were session musicians. The E Street Band was not used on the subsequent Springsteen tour either, although Bittan was again retained and Scialfa occasionally added backing vocals; both were consequently featured on In Concert/MTV Plugged. The Ghost of Tom Joad saw Danny Federici, Garry Tallent, Tyrell and Scialfa provide backing on some tracks while Federici, Tyrell and Scialfa all turn up sporadically on Devils & Dust.

Although individual members of the band played on Human Touch, Lucky Town, In Concert/MTV Plugged, The Ghost of Tom Joad and Devils & Dust, none of these albums are regarded as E Street Band albums. Tunnel Of Love falls into a grey area and its status is open to debate; Shore Fire Media, Springsteen's public relations firm, does not count it as an E Street Band album. [5]

The Reunion

In 1995 Springsteen released Greatest Hits and The E Street Band was temporarily reunited to record four new songs. In 1998 he released Tracks, a box set collection of unreleased recordings dating back to 1972, many of which featured the band.

Finally, in 1999 Springsteen and The E Street Band reunited on a more substantial basis, ten years after he had dismissed them. They staged an extremely successful Reunion Tour, culminating in an HBO special and collection Live In New York City. There seemed to have been no long-term animosity from the split, although with the exception of Weinberg and Van Zandt the band members had not found any career paths that could match the E Street Band for fortune and fame and thus were unlikely to carry any grudges forward.

In 2002 the reunion was continued with the release of new studio album The Rising and the long, successful Rising Tour. Another important release from this era was The Essential Bruce Springsteen, another greatest hits package combined with more archival material.

The October 2004 Vote for Change tour was the last E Street Band effort for a while. The 2005 Devils & Dust album used scatterings of Federici, Scialfa, and Tyrell, while the 2006 Sessions Band Tour used Scialfa and Tyrell among the largely numbered backing musicians. During the latter, Springsteen mentioned he did plan to work with the E Street Band again in the future, but was vague about details. Finally, in early 2007 E Street Band members separately travelled to Atlanta and recorded on Springsteen's album Magic, and concurrent with the album's release in October 2007, the Magic Tour began. However, after the conclusion of the tour's first leg on November 19, 2007, Danny Federici took a leave of absence from the tour, to pursue treatment for melanoma; he was replaced by Sessions Band member Charles Giordano.

Discography

Albums and singles featuring The E Street Band

With Bruce Springsteen - Part 1

• Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. (1973)
• The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle (1973)
• Born to Run (1975)
• Darkness on the Edge of Town (1978)
• The River (1980)
• Born in the U.S.A. (1984)
• Live/1975-85 (1986)
• Tunnel of Love (1987) (although the band is credited and all incumbent members perform on this album, no tracks feature the entire band)
• Chimes of Freedom (1988)
• Greatest Hits (1995)
• Blood Brothers (EP) (1996)
• Tracks (1998)
• 18 Tracks (1998)
• Live In New York City (2001)
• The Rising (2002)
• The Essential Bruce Springsteen (2003)
• Magic (2007)

With Gary U.S. Bonds

• Dedication (1981)
• On The Line (1982)

Other albums/singles

• Ronnie Spector & The E Street Band: "Say Goodbye To Hollywood" / "Baby Please Don't Go" (1977)
• Musicians United for Safe Energy: No Nukes (1979)
• Various artists: In Harmony 2 (1981)
• Various artists: A Very Special Christmas (1987)
• Various artists: Folkways - A Vision Shared (1988)
• Darlene Love: All Alone At Christmas (1992)
• Various artists: The Concert for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame (1996)
• Varius artists: Enjoy Every Sandwich - The Songs Of Warren Zevon

Albums and singles featuring two or more individual band members only

With Bruce Springsteen - Part 2

These albums are notable for not using the E Street Band; however, a few members of the band appeared on each of them, including singer-wife Patti Scialfa who appeared on all of them.

• Human Touch (1992) (Bittan, Scialfa, former-member Sancious)
• Lucky Town (1992) (Bittan, Scialfa, member-to-be Tyrell)
• In Concert/MTV Plugged (1992) (Bittan, Scialfa)
• The Ghost of Tom Joad (1995) (Federici, Tallent, Scialfa, member-to-be Tyrell)
• Devils & Dust (2005) (Federici, Scialfa, Tyrell)
• We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions (2006) (Scialfa, Tyrell)

With Meat Loaf

• Bat out of Hell (1977)
• Dead Ringer (1981)

With Southside Johnny & The Asbury Jukes

• Hearts Of Stone (1978)
• Better Days (1992)

With Bonnie Tyler

• Faster Than The Speed Of Night (1983)
• Secret Dreams and Forbidden Fire (1986)
• Bitterblue, Roy Bittan (Arranger, Keyboards, Producer) (1991)

Other artists

• Ian Hunter: You're Never Alone With A Schizophrenic (1979)
• Garland Jeffreys: Escape Artist (1980)
• Jim Steinman: Bad For Good (1981)
• Little Steven & The Disciples Of Soul: Men Without Women (1982)
• Clarence Clemons: Hero (1985)
• Artists United Against Apartheid: Sun City (1985)
• Jersey Artists For Mankind: "We Got The Love" / "Save Love, Save Life" (1986)
• Ringo Starr: Ringo Starr And His All-Starr Band (1990)
• Nils Lofgren: Silver Lining (1990)
• Steven Roque: The Hoarse Whisperer (1990)
• Killer Joe: Scene Of The Crime (1991)
• Bob Dylan: The Bootleg Series Vol. III (1991)
• Patti Scialfa: Rumble Doll (1993), "23rd Street Lullaby" (2004)
• Soozie Tyrell: White Lines (2003)