In Bruce Springsteen’s cover of ‘Jersey Girl’, the roars that are met whenever he mentions the name of his hometown should be a glowing example of how he feels about it and how it simultaneously feels about him. He is proud to be from New Jersey and drew much of his inspiration from his hometown.
For instance, the E Street Band is named after a street in New Jersey where one of the original musicians in his band lived. On top of that, he took from New Jersey when writing his first album, as the title Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J., suggests. However, just because his hometown always inspired him doesn’t mean it was his only inspiration.
One of Springsteen’s selling points in songwriting is his ability to take from his surroundings and describe the ordinary world in a way that sounds extraordinary. He is the same as an observational comic, as people would listen to his works and rather than be given a new way of thinking, they would have theirs reaffirmed instead. It was a case of people going, “Oh, I didn’t know other people felt like that.”
His ability to observe is present in all of his work, even back in the first album, which has one song in particular about New York that, for many people, cemented Springsteen as a future star. Despite living in New Jersey, Springsteen worked a lot in New York when he was first getting started as a musician, and a lot of his first album was recorded in New York. In a city with so much to talk about, it’s obvious that the king of making observational music would begin to observe.
‘It’s Hard To Be A Saint In The City’ is the product of this, as Springsteen writes about New York and the kind of people who inhabit it. He put himself into the mind of a dangerous romantic who was trying to navigate the city, encountering the likes of pimps, tough guys and gamblers on the way. The song stands out from the debut album and was a moment of realisation for many people around Springsteen when they clocked just how much potential he had.
Springsteen played the song for Josh Hammond at his audition for Columbia Records in 1972. The meeting was only supposed to be short, but the two ended up talking about the track for hours, and Springsteen managed to secure a recording contract. This was also the first piece that convinced his manager, Mike Appel, that he would be a star.
‘The Boss’ became famous because of his ability to write about the world and hold a mirror up to everything we know, showing a reflection of it, but one that is equally beautiful and intricate. With that in mind, it’s only fair that the first time he flexed his ability to do this was the first time people recognised his true potential.
Check out Bruce Springsteen’s ‘It’s Hard to Be a Saint in the City’ below.