Glory Days -
Dave Marsh
Hardcover
(Pantheon Books, March 15, 1986)
This book is both a biography and as close to a Springsteen autobiography as we are likely to get, and illustrated with 48 pages of photos (many never before published), Glory Days is essential reading for every Springsteen fan. It balances a look behind the scenes of rock-and-roll, and the industry that supports it, with a sharp perspective on the culture and society out of which that music and industry grew. Dave Marsh is as much at home assessing the role of the solo Nebraska album, the seventeen-time-platinum Born in the USA, and the unprecedented five-record album Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band Live, 1975-1985, as he is concerned with Springsteen's work with the unemployed, homeless, and hungry, and with the political use of Springsteen's work and image made by establishment politicians. Glory Days is the story of the life of a ma, a study of the archetypal rock star, and an overview of all the issues that touch on and help create popular culture. Marsh also probes its meaning for Bruce Springsteen as a very private human being, and its consequences for the millions of Springsteen fans who see him as an icon of hopes and dreams and commitment to justice and equality make the most appealing performer of his time.