Prove it all night
Lynn Goldsmith’s previously unseen pictures of Bruce Springsteen capture a diligent idol-in-waiting
LYNN Goldsmith remembers one of Bruce Springsteen’s regular pre-show rituals from the late 1970s. “He would stand in front of the mirror backstage and practise his moves like Elvis,” she reveals. “He knew he was going to be on stage in front of people, and he wanted to know if he did this move or that move, what would the audience see?” She captured one of those poses in black-and-white, her own reflection caught in the upper righthand corner.
More than 40 years later, that photograph appears in her new book, Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band.
Goldsmith, who began shooting Springsteen in 1977, recalls him being a reluctant subject who wasn’t always at ease in front of
“He wanted to reflect what
Darkness… represented to him” LYNN GOLDSMITH
her camera: “He didn’t like it much at first. Other people I shot, like Patti Smith and Debbie Harry, enjoyed the process, but he wasn’t very comfortable with it. But I’m not the dentist, I’m not there to torture people.”
Springsteen was generally anxious at the time, emerging from a protracted lawsuit that prevented him from touring and releasing albums. Goldsmith started shooting him as he was finishing up Darkness… and followed him on the road with the E Street Band. “He was loved on both coasts, but they didn’t know him in the middle of the country,” she explains. “He played a lot of small venues with his name misspelled on the marquee. He certainly wasn’t thought of as the kind of artist that girls were throwing themselves at, but he was a very attractive man and I wanted to show that.”
As Darkness… re-established Springsteen as a rock star and his crowds got bigger, he grew more comfortable with Goldsmith’s everpresent camera. She was able to capture the onstage spectacle, as well as unguarded moments that haven’t been seen until now. “He did have a clear idea of how he wanted to be seen… He wanted to ref lect what Darkness… represented to him. In the book, there are pictures of Bruce laughing and things like that. They’re very Bruce, but that’s not the way he wanted the public to see him back then.”
Lynn Goldsmith’s Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band is out now, published by Taschen