Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band

Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band biography

The E Street Band has been rock musician Bruce Springsteen's primary backing band since 1972.

The band has also recorded (both individually and as a band) with a wide range of other artists including Bob Dylan, Meat Loaf, Bonnie Tyler, Air Supply, Dire Straits, David Bowie, Peter Gabriel, Stevie Nicks, Tom Morello, Sting, Ian Hunter, Ringo Starr, Ray Davies, Ronnie Spector, Gary U.S. Bonds, Darlene Love, Southside Johnny, The Grateful Dead, Santana, Lucinda Williams, Steve Earle, Emmylou Harris, Tracy Chapman, Lady Gaga, and Aretha Franklin.

When not working with Springsteen, members of the band have recorded solo material and have 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 his own band, first on Late Night with Conan O'Brien and then on The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien, from 1993 - 2010, and Steven Van Zandt, who starred as Silvio Dante in the television series The Sopranos from 1999 to 2007.

History

Members

The E Street Band was founded in October 1972, but it wasn't formally named until September 1974. Springsteen has put together other backing bands during his career, but the E Street Band has been together more or less continuously for the past four decades.

The original lineup included Garry Tallent (bass), Clarence Clemons (saxophone), Danny Federici (keyboards, accordion), Vini "Mad Dog" Lopez (drums), and David Sancious (keyboards). The band took its name from the street in Belmar, New Jersey, where Sancious' mother lived. She allowed the band to rehearse in her garage. "˜Bruce' tourism to the area often mistakenly believe the house was on the corner of E Street and 10th Avenue, perhaps due to the song Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out about the band's beginnings. The Sancious house was at 1107 E Street with the garage squeezed between the house and the southside fence.

Springsteen's debut Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. appeared in 1972, and the band's first national tour began in October 1972. Sancious, even though he played on the album, missed that first tour. It wasn't until June 1973 that he began appearing regularly on stage with the band.

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 jazz fusion band called Tone. They were replaced in September 1974 by Roy Bittan (keyboards) and Max Weinberg (drums). Violinist Suki Lahav was briefly a member of the band before leaving in March 1975 to emigrate to Israel (where she would later find success as a songwriter and novelist). Steven Van Zandt (guitar, vocals), who'd 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.

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