The E Street Band is an American rock band that has been the primary backing band for rock musician Bruce Springsteen since 1972. For the bulk of Springsteen's recording and performing career, the band consisted of guitarists Steven Van Zandt, Nils Lofgren, and Patti Scialfa, keyboardists Danny Federici and Roy Bittan, bassist Garry Tallent, drummer Max Weinberg and saxophonist Clarence Clemons. In 2014, the E Street Band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
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.
History Members The E Street Band was founded in October 1972, but it was not 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 since its inception.
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's mother lived; she allowed the band to rehearse in her garage. Tourists to the area seeking early Springsteen haunts 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. was released in January 1973, and the band's first national tour began in October 1972. Sancious, even though he played on the album, missed that first tour. It was not 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 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.Levy, Piet. "Years by Springsteen's side a gift for guitarist Nils Lofgren ". Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Gannett Company, Inc., 29 February 2016. Web. 26 March 2017. 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, guitar, 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 remains unclear. Some press releases refer to her as a "special guest", 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", and some press releases don't mention her at all. When asked about the lack of mention in a press release prior to the Magic Tour, Springsteen just said in response, "Soozie will be with us."
On November 21, 2007, it was announced that Danny Federici would take a leave of absence from Springsteen and the E Street Band's ongoing Magic Tour to pursue treatment for melanoma, and was temporarily replaced by veteran musician Charles Giordano."Statement" , Shore Fire Media, November 21, 2007. Springsteen stated at the time: "Danny is one of the pillars of our sound and has played beside me as a great friend for more than 40 years. We all eagerly await his healthy and speedy return." Federici made his only return to the stage on March 20, 2008, when he appeared for portions of a Springsteen and E Street Band performance at Conseco Fieldhouse in Indianapolis;Backstreets.com: Springsteen News accessed March 21, 2008. he died on April 17 that year at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City, having suffered for three years with melanoma. Springsteen's album Working on a Dream is dedicated to him. Giordano has since become an unofficial member of the band.
Clarence Clemons suffered a stroke on June 12, 2011. While initial signs had been hopeful after his hospitalization and two subsequent brain surgeries, he reportedly took a turn for the worse later in the week and died on June 18. Clemons' nephew Jake has filled his role on the saxophone since 2012. Clemons' death left Springsteen, Sancious, Tallent, and Lopez as the four remaining original members.
On occasions (e.g. their Super Bowl XLIII performance) the lineup has been augmented by a horn section, sometimes referred to as the Miami Horns. Its most prominent members include Richie Rosenberg (trombone) and Mark Pender (trumpet).
Origins in Asbury Park
In the late 1960s and 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, he picked the cherries among Jersey Shore musicians to record — and to 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.
Album credits The E Street Band established its reputation among studio musicians in the 1970s and the 1980s with its 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 such backing bands as the Silver Bullet Band or the Heartbreakers, the E Street Band never received a full credit on a Springsteen studio album. Only individual band members were credited. Even though the band did all or nearly all of the playing on these albums, each was released solely under Springsteen's name. 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 did name the band and list the members.
Concerts were a different story. Live performances were almost always billed as Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band, and Springsteen pointed the spotlight on the brand logo style of the band onstage. In each concert, Springsteen typically would extend one song (between 1974 and 1984, almost always "Rosalita") to involve an elaborate introduction of each member of the band, introducing nicknames, characterizing each player ("Professor" Roy Bittan, "Miami" Steve Van Zandt, "Phantom" Dan Federici, "Mighty" Max Weinberg, and Garry "W." Tallent), whipping the song and 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 Van Zandt also began to establish himself a reputation as a producer/songwriter. Apart from helping out with production on Springsteen albums, he worked with his "other band", Southside Johnny & the Asbury Jukes, as well as with 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 was the first time the band received a full credit. In 1978, Weinberg became an "honorary Juke" when he recorded Hearts of Stone with Southside Johnny.
In the early 1980s, the E Street Band helped re-launch the career of Gary U.S. Bonds, when it provided backup on two albums, Dedication and On the Line. Van Zandt produced both with Springsteen. Each album 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, 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 project; Bonnie Tyler's Faster Than the Speed of Night and Secret Dreams and Forbidden Fire albums; and Greatest Hits from Air Supply, on the cut, "Making Love Out of Nothing at All" which featured an extra expansive Wall of Sound effect from Bittan & Weinberg. Also, Tallent, Bittan, and Weinberg, along with Mick Ronson, recorded an album 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.
Breakup