Read Online Talk About a Dream: The Essential Interviews of Bruce Springsteen by Unknown - Free Book Online Page A

all like bonzo over the whole thing. It’s like, “Whatever you want, whatever you want.” Andthey’ve been doing an incredible job, like down here they did a fantastic job. Columbia is a company that, if they want to, it’s incredible what they can do. They can do anything. And this is the way it should be. We just wanted to team up and make it work out. In most acts’ case, it’s like: pull here, give, take; they’ve got to pull something out of the act, then the act’s got to pull something out of the company. And I think a lot of people didn’t understand my reasoning on some things.
    They might not have understood that you were not scared of not making it. I think many bands give in to what a record company wants, or a manager, because they figure, well, if we fail, it’s not our fault. You have to be pretty strong, and that must be part of the reason for your success: you are obviously that strong. To think, “I can do it. And if I can’t do it, I have at least tried on my own terms, and that makes me happy enough.”
    And there’s also a certain way you have to legitimately care about what you’re doing, intensely. I mean, it has to be one of your only forces, and you have to legitimately
not
care about really making it. I couldn’t have cared less. I had my band, I was out there, I was making more money than I’d ever made before, maybe 150 bucks a week; I had my own house, it was a step up in the world. I was happy, everybody was happy, and we cared intensely about what we were doing. And in a way, we did not care about breaking into the big mainstream. The only thing that matters is your music. And if that’s right, then things come around. But that’s got to be it, that’s got to be what you care about. You’ve got to have your priorities in order.
    So they were dealing with a situation like that, like I was in no big sweat to make it. And they said, “Well, if you don’t do this, this ain’t gonna happen”; and I said, “I don’t care!” They were dealing with an attitude that they couldn’t deal with. That was the key to keeping my sanity and the band’s sanity. If we’re sweating about whether or not we were going to sell 300,000 records next time out, then we ain’t gonna. Anybody caring about that kind of stuff shouldn’t do it. It
shouldn’t
sell.
    That’s hard to handle sometimes for people who are concerned with another aspect of the business. They think you are not in line with what they are doing. If you’re not a very prolific thinker, you don’t come up with the idea that an artist shouldn’t be concerned about what you think he should be concerned about.
    When we were playing in bars it was the same way. We were playing inthe bars, and the band was playing great. Five or six years ago—there’s a videotape of our band at the Student Prince. Somebody found it the other day, a videotape of us at this club in Asbury Park, at the Student Prince. Me, Steve, Davey, Garry, Mad Dog, all of us doing our thing. And Max saw it the other day. I said, “Max, how’s that sound, don’t we sound really good?” [
laughs
]. The band was playing the same way back then, five years ago. Six years ago. We were going on in them bars with the same feeling as last night. Surroundings change, but that’s all superficial stuff. You go out there with what’s inside you; you close your eyes and you could be anywhere. So where you are doesn’t matter.
    Did you change in the way you expose yourself onstage, from a small club to last night? I saw you last year at the Troubadour and I saw you last night, and in my opinion there are certain differences .
    Well, at the Troubadour, with the band you saw last year? That was not a good show from what I remember. Mostly because it takes you a set or two to settle into a club, I’ve found. Even at the Bottom Line that happened to us.
    But when you can see someone’s eyes, when you can see every little movement, even muscle movement, that’s a