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Born To Run was that incredible. Right about 1974 or 1975. It was the best on the radio song that I had ever heard. Went to the Fox Theater in Atlanta and saw the band live. Great Concert. Now a days I look at what Bruce has become and just say “what went wrong.” Yet that concert was still in my memory as one of the very best.

I grew up in the NJ/NY/PA area and Springsteen was omnipresent. I get it...he struck a tone with his "working man" lyrics, especially in the Philadelphia area. Further, NJ really had nobody going for it on the rock front (aside from the Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons), so finally the State was relevant for something other than landfill. And, to be as fair as possible, the man gave people a damn good value for their live show dollar. I still give him props for playing 4+ hour gigs. Finally, he had some good players in his band (I personally loved Max Weinberg's playing on Conan, and I heard that he played the basement of a Temple in NYC as recently as ten years ago).

I've heard from several people that Bruce did a lot of charitable things in the Asbury Park area even after he moved to LA, but did it without fanfare. I give him a lot of credit for that. I also know he comes back to the area from time to time and does one-off gigs at The Stone Pony and other venues as a way of giving-back...again, mega-props for the guy. He STILL plays for 3 1/2 hours live. Finally, he is in the Rock Hall and a zillionaire, while people would run away screaming if DoodleBob drove his used car to the local bar and took over at karaoke nite.

That said, I heard more of his songs than I'd care to admit on the radio - Rosalita was pretty interesting though my favorite Springsteen song is Santa Clause is Coming to Town - yet in the end I just couldn't get on the Boss Bandwagon. Of course, lots of Bruce fans didn't like my fav Frank Zappa - maybe it's a function of how we're wired. Your mileage may vary.