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DISCO GODDESS
Springsteen wrote “Protection” for Summer’s 1982 LP Donna Summer.
“My producer, Quincy Jones, called
and said, ‘I got a song for you called “
Protection.” Bruce is going to come over.’ My
husband, Bruce Sudano, just loved
Bruce’s music, so I had gotten very into
it as well. When Bruce came into my
house, he played the song. We sang it.
He told me to make it my own.
“Bruce was humble. I think he always
sees himself as a kid from Jersey. Then,
when he’s onstage, once he flips that
switch, boy, it’s like a tornado roars
through there. You can tell by his words,
you can tell by the rasp in his voice, that
he’s been through something, and behind that quiet there’s a storm brewing.
“When Bruce Springsteen performs,
you’re getting a workingman. That grit
tells you you don’t get that way from
nothing. You get that way from abuse,
use, work, getting through things. When
people see him onstage, they relate and
align themselves with him, no matter
where he goes in life, because he started
in a place they all understand.”
A photo taken for 1982’s stark, often bleak Nebraska album
GUITARIST
Lofgren has played with the E Street Band
since 1984 (and offers online lessons
through the Nils Lofgren Guitar School).
“When I joined the E Street Band, I
moved into Bruce’s house in New Jersey
to get ready for the Born in the U.S.A.
tour. He suggested we wake up and go
for a leisurely
five-mile jog
every morning.
We’d eat break-
fast by 9: 30,
then get our
tennis shoes on
and run down
near the Jersey
Shore. Then I’d
shower up and
get on with my
studies of the
With Nils Lofgren, left, 2008
songs because we had these massive
rehearsals headed our way. Early on in
the rehearsals Bruce approached me.
He knew I'd been doing a backflip while I
played the guitar in my own show. He
asked me: ‘If you did it 100 nights, how
many times are you going to fall?’
“ ‘Probably in 100 nights I might fall
once on my ass and get embarrassed
but not hurt,’ I said.
FILMMAKER
The self-proclaimed “number one Bruce
Springsteen fan” directed Philadelphia,
for which Springsteen composed the
Academy Award–winning theme song
“The Streets of Philadelphia” in 1993.
“When I was doing Philadelphia, I called
Neil Young to get him to write a real kick-ass, American-dude anthem that would
put all the homophobic white males who
had come to the movie in a reassured
mode. A week later I got this hauntingly
beautiful, delicate song called ‘
Philadelphia’ that was (CONTINUED ON PAGE 68)
