Customer Reviews

Bruce Springsteen on Tour: 1968-2005

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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!

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.

`Bruce Springsteen: On Tour 1968-2005' is an excellent coffee table format book that explores Springsteen's tour history, accompanied by some incredible photography. The writing style is clear to read and the author has obviously done his research and the photos chart his rise from small club gigs to full out stadium rock fests. This is one of those books that is equally suited to dipping into and flicking about and also reading from cover to cover, although you have to do either from the comfort of your armchair as this is quite a weighty and substantial package! If you're a fan of Bruce and want that deeper insight into his life and music then this is an excellent place to go and comes highly recommended.

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As one reviewer observed: Dave Marsh is biased since he is Springsteen's personal biographer. As such, he's rarely critical of Bruce (and I'm not sure fans really even want to read that in a book about The Boss) but can border on the edge of being sycophantic.

As a Springsteen fan, I really enjoyed this book. It was a nice blend of photos, concert details, and touring information. I liked that while the topic was touring, it wove in and out of Bruce's life events and how those and the album releases influenced his touring. This was especially important when writing about his lawsuit against original manager Mike Appel in the 1970s as well as the allegations of infidelity when he was married to Julianne Phillips and hooked up with Patti. It was especially interesting to read how quickly Patti and Nils were added to the band with such short notice before the tours. It was also nice to get an impression of how the non-American audiences acted towards Bruce.

One thing that could make this a real treasure (i.e., 5 stars) would be if it had set lists; maybe not the entire bunch because they change with practically every show but perhaps a few of the better ones from each tour. Or, perhaps a compendium of the songs played on each tour. This information shouldn't be hard to come by, especially based on the way the various songs are documented in the timeline bar at the bottom of most pages of the book. There, rarities are highlighted such as "March xx, 19xx - first time Seaside Bar Song played live". Unless I missed it, I was disappointed to see my town of Milwaukee not mentioned in any of the tour highlights, either for the mid-1970s "Bomb Scare Show" or for the 2000s Harley Davidson Anniversary show.

The photographs were very nice, but I had seen some of them before in other materials. Some more of the behind-the-scenes ones while on tour rather than the "on stage" ones would have been better. There were a few photos that took up both the left and right pages of the book and had no caption on the photo nor could one be found on previous pages.

I'm also a fan of Genesis, and I just read a book called "Chapter & Verse" about them whereby each band member from founding members through their very last incarnation contributed. The style of that book is great; perhaps one can be written like that whereby each E Street Band member gives thoughts about life in the band or touring, sort of like what Clarence wrote recently in his book "Big Man" but a collection of every band member's take on life in the band.

An interesting tale of how a talented musician struggled to become the best rock artist the world has ever seen. Accompanied by a lot of pictures from his career it's truly a beautiful book.

"On Tour" is the perfect complement/finisher to Marsh's "Two Hearts". It fills in the gaps through the Devils & Dust Tour. The verbage is light & the pictures vivid. Fan or not, it's worth the read. Nothing compares to seeing him live, but it follows the energy as well as it can.

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.

This is simply put, a wonderful retrospective of Bruce's career as THE consummate live entertainer. Just saw him in Hartford yesterday for the second time on his WOAD tour and he and the band were nothing short of spectacular.

Highly recommended reading and best done in conjunction with the band's music complementing the chapters. Loved starting with his earlier stuff and reading the early chapters up through the present. A multi-sensory experience I can highly recommend.

Ive bought this book at a discount price of 13 dollars, withs in euros is...about 9 euros so it was a top deal, nice book great quality!

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