ABSTRACT
The Born To Run tour was a triumph not just for Bruce Springsteen, but also for the E Street Band, to which people were beginning to pay special attention. Playing across the country, solidly booked for two months at three-thousand-seat theaters and concert halls, improved everything—the sound was fine, and Marc Brickman’s lights were beginning to reach for unparalleled effects, working on tighter cues than anyone else in rock, bathing the songs in sheets of color that perfectly complemented the music. Most important, the band was growing together musically, knitting into a genuinely individual sound. Springsteen himself had that much more flexibility, able now simply to sing on some songs where previously he had also had to play guitar, able also to accentuate his moves through Max Weinberg’s precision percussion, with demons and Van Zandt standing by to lend dramatic support. The net effect was of a group of professionals who played for much more than money.
