Springsteen- Point Blank

Bruce Springsteen, the Rolling Stone File: The Ultimate Compendium of Interviews, Articles, Facts and Opinions from the Files of Rolling Stone The Rolling Stone Files is the ultimate collection of articles, facts, and opinions spanning Bruce Springsteen's entire history, featuring interviews, thoughts, and reflections from the Boss in his own words. The book is part biography, part autobiography, part insightful rock hi...	Racing in the Street: The Bruce Springsteen Reader For more than three decades, Bruce Springsteen’s ability to express in words and music the deepest hopes, fears, loves, and sorrows of average Americans has made him a hero to his millions of devoted fans. Racing in the Street is the first comprehensive collection of writings ...	Springsteen Access All Areas Bruce Springsteen is more popular than ever; his most recent performances have been among the hottest selling shows of all time. Going back to the roots of his career, this photographic book chronicles the groundbreaking 1978 Darkness on the Edge of Town Tour, when Springsteen be...	Magic Thirty-five years as a justifiable rock musician allows Bruce Springsteen an opinion on the state of over-the-air radio, and he takes it--and takes the medium to the woodshed on the ruthless "Radio Nowhere." The opening smash sets the tone, with the ageless Boss wondering, "Is th...	It Ain't No Sin To Be Glad You're Alive: The Promise of Bruce Springsteen This highly praised celebration of Springsteen's artistry and influence is the most perceptive portrait yet of the remarkably gifted musician who, since the media anointed him the future of rock 'n' roll in the mid-1970s, has redefined the image of the rock star and emerged a...
Bruce Springsteen: "Talking" Bruce Springsteen has retained his dignity through 25 years as America’s foremost rock performer. Extrovert on stage, introvert off, The Boss has a lot to say about his life and work, and his place in American society.	Runaway American Dream: Listening to Bruce Springsteen A series of new, original, and provocative essays on the music, myth, and meaning of The Boss Bruce Springsteen is an institution unto himself. Over the course of a career now in its fourth decade, he has earned one of the largest, intense followings in all rock 'n' roll. He's s...	Days of Hope and Dreams: An Intimate Portrait of Bruce Springsteen Born and bred in a working class environment in Asbury Park, New Jersey, Bruce Springsteen has, over the past 30 years, established himself as one of the most influential songwriters and performers in American popular music. Winner of three Grammy Awards for The Rising, he contin...	Bruce Springsteen: Two Hearts, the Story Bruce Springsteen: Two Hearts is the definitive biography of one of the most important songwriters and performers of the last three decades. Critic Dave Marsh has traced Springsteen's career from its beginning, and has earned the singer's respect through his careful documentatio...	Born To Run: 30th Anniversary 3-Disc Set (CD/2DVD) The first retooling of any album in the mighty Springsteen catalog is an exemplary labor of love by Columbia. The original 1975 release was the make-or-break record of Bruce's career and arguably still his best collection of material. It is presented here on one disc unsullied by...

Seemed like a good idea at the time.....
Sorry to have to give this a bad review. This sounded like such a great book, and I really liked the title. But yikes, how to figure out what the author is actually trying to say? I find myself reading the paragraphs over and over again and still not knowing quite what happened. Oh well, I'm glad some readers were able to figure it all out, I'll keep trying. At least the author picked a great topic!

Dismal at best...
I've been an avid and captive listener of Bruce Springsteen's music for about three decades. That said, I'm not above reading a juicy/tell-all tome such as this one that Sandford strived to create. The problem is, he just doesn't do it well (mercy, he makes Angela Bowie's teall-all book, BACKSTAGE PASSES; LIFE ON THE WILD SIDE WITH DAVID BOWIE, seem like a masterpiece by comaprison). Being pretty well-grounded and centered as an adult in my forties, I'm a bit beyond the need to have heroes (though I'll be the first to admit that Springsteen was something of a hero to me back when I was in my teens, back in the days when I still was dumb and innocent enough to have heroes in the form of rock stars). So, this book could have revealed that Springsteen spent a chunk of his life slumming around the most seedy places in Time Square...and it really wouldn't diminish the admiration that I have for the fine canon of songs & performances that he's given the world). So, no, there was no offense taken...nor were my sensibilities shattered... by some of the rumors and theories that Sandford tries to put forth in his book. The problem with Sandford's book is that its poorly written. I mean, the writing is downright bad. So bad that I'm surprised an editor didn't demand a complete overhaul of this book before allowing it to go to print. This book is laden with vague/obtuse sentences, along with some of the most awkward paragraph constructions that I've ever tried to wade my way through. To make matters even worse, Sandford clearly has an agenda...and damned if he'll let facts get in the way of his agenda. There's certainly no crime when one tries to take a few feet off of a pedestal. And, really, I'm glad he did this while Springsteen was still alive, rather than after (what I hope will be a far off) death. There's nothing more demonic than the likes of Albert Goldman who've written scathing biographies of folk such as Lenny Bruce, Elvis and John Lennon after they're dead and gone.....and have no way of defending some of his more vile and vitriolic claims on their lives. In the case of Sandford's book, he does such a poor job of masking his agenda that it's unlikely that a cat such as Springsteen gave a rat's behind about what is contained in these pages. Or, equally as plausible, Springsten...like many others whom I've known who've read this book...may have tossed it aside after a few pages of discovering that Sandford gropes with forming a coherent thought or even a decent sentence structure. I am always wary of biographers who approach a subject with an agenda. As mentioned, their agenda often tends to ride roughshod over actual facts. That in itself would cause me to encourage folks to steer clear of this book. There are better and more objective biogrpahies about Bruce Springsteen readily available. But, for those of us who dig a little dirt, Sandford's factual errors....and just plain bad-writing...make this book a trial and a chore to plow through. If one is going to dish out some dirt...and there will ALWAYS be a market for that....then I don't think it's asking too much for an author to get his facts straight and to write it in a style that doesn't read like a shoddy translation into the English language. In a nutshell, this book is poorly researched and poorly written. Really, if one is looking for dirt on Springsteen, then hunt down the article that appeared in ESQUIRE magazine some years back. At least that piece is well-written. This book is nothing less than a hack-job.

I liked it
This is one of those books that people seem to either like or dislike...I have been a huge Springsteen fan since 1974, and I enjoyed every page. This books does a great job of taking you closer to Springsteen than any other book out there. Is Springsteen an narcissist? Probably...A few years ago I wrote down 10 things I wanted to do before I died and one of those ten things was to meet Bruce Springsteen...After reading Point Blank...I don't want to meet him anymore...But I will always carry his music in my soul for the rest of my life.

An effective devolution of the demolition man
The most widely accepted version of Bruce Springsteen has it that abstract objects are distinguished by their causal inefficacy, is he? Concrete objects (whether mental or physical) have causal powers; numbers and functions and the rest make nothing happen. There is no such thing as Bruce not being Bruce. Or maybe causal commerce with the game of chess. And even if impure songs do in some sense exist in space, it is easy enough to believe that they make no distinctive causal contribution to what transpires, the only bruce matters theory of music. Peter and Paul may have effects individually; and they may have effects together which neither has on his own. But these joint effects are naturally construed as effects of two concrete objects acting jointly, or perhaps as effects of their mereological aggregate (itself a paradigm concretum), rather than as effects of some set-theoretic construction. (Suppose Bruce's band tip a balance. If we entertain the possibility that this event is caused by a gig, we shall have to ask which set caused it: the set containing just Peter and Paul? Some more elaborate construction based on them? Or perhaps the set containing the molecules that compose Peter and Paul? This proliferation of possible answers suggests that it was a mistake to credit causal powers to sets in the first place.)

Biographical gibberish
This biography attempts to document Springsteen's meteoric rise to fame, placing emphasis on his music, concerts, politics and personal life. The author's assessment of Springsteen's albums mirrors my own, but he downplays or fails to recognise the extent to which Springsteen so radically changed the nature of rock performance. The intensity, pure exhilaration and uplifting nature of Springsteen's concerts are only hinted at. Sandford's account of Springsteen's political development is expressed in a rather patronising manner, and at times irritatingly mixed in with the author's own seemingly reactionary views. The story of Springsteen's personal life, in particular that concerning his parents and various relationships and friendships, despite much analysis and many words, offers little that Springsteen hasn't expressed more eloquently himself in interviews, especially in recent years. This is a flawed biography, but worst of all Sandford simply can not write. His style is long-winded, repetitive and turgid, and his syntax awful. The book rambles on for over 400 pages in a pseudo-academic manner. The first few chapters, in particular, are poorly structured and at times sentences are incomprehensible and meaningless. Here are just a few examples (I gave up marking the margins after the first three chapters): "No longer would the Boss be the hard-eyed capo who flouted his moll". "Whatever his shin-guard flaws, they were more than matched by his academic scrapes". "Their few talks, hissed through carious teeth, soon left the foreshore of debate for the choppy seas of 'screw you'". "More than once he communicated in a semi-colon". Who does Sandford think he's writing for, never mind impress, with this gibberish? One of Springsteen's great talents is his ability to communicate. It's a pity that Sandford didn't try and follow his example.