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1990 February Bruce starts working on a new album. Apart from drummer Jeff Porcaro, Bruce works with session musicians. As an E-Street Band member, Roy Bittan, is the most important guest who was called in to help Bruce out with some writers block and recording problems. July 25 Patti and Bruce become parents for the first time when she gives birth to a baby boy named Evan James Springsteen. November 15 Bruce appears on the cover of Rolling Stone November 16-17 Bruce performs at two Christic Institute Benefit shows. Bonnie Raitt and Jackson Brown are also present. The two emotional solo acoustic shows rank amongst Bruce’s best even though he was extremely nervous not having performed for a long time. At the start of both shows he asked the audience for some quiet while he was playing because it’d been a long time and the clapping and cheering would put him off. Bruce premiered a total of 10 new songs he'd been working on. 1991 June 8 Bruce and Patti get married at their Beverly Hills home. Summer The Human Touch album is nearly completed and ready to be released in December. Bruce however records one more song called “Living Proof” dealing with the birth of his son and starts writing more songs. He continues recording and makes what would become the album “Lucky Town”. September 26 Bruce makes an appearance at the Stone Pony joining Steven Van Zandt and Southside Johnny who is filming a video for his song “it’s been a long time”. Miami Steve and Bruce will both appear in the video. December 30 Bruce and Patti become parents for the second time when Patti gives birth to a daughter, Jessica Rae Springsteen. Little Steven announces the birth to millions of viewers during his New Years Eve performance on Time Square. 1992 March 31 Human Touch and Lucky Town are released simultaneously. May 6 After assembling a new band (Roy Bittan - keyboards, Shane Fontayne - guitar, Tommy Sims – bass, Zach Alford – drums, Crystal Taliefero – sax, guitar, vocals and Patti Scialfa – vocals and guitar) Bruce plays a closed concert for Sony executives at the Bottom Line in NY. Eventually, the band will also include singers Bobby King, Carol Dennis, Angel Rogers, Cleo Kennedy and Gia Ciambotti. May 9 The band makes it first public appearance on Saturday Night Live in NY when Bruce appears on live television for the first time. June 5 A rehearsal show in California shows another real glimpse of what the shows would look like. The shows are rock and gospel oriented and mostly concentrates on the new material with an old hit here and there. Bruce himself is a calmer and settled person who seems happier with himself now that he’s become a family man. He also doesn’t shy away from making fun of himself and how his albums are doing on the charts (or aren’t doing, as they are not the chart toppers he’s had before. At one of the shows during the tour, a magazine with the billboard chart would get thrown on stage and Bruce would make comments about how his albums are slipping down the chart) June 15 The tour, Bruce’s first in 4 years starts in Sweden, Stockholm. There is lots of media coverage and a nervous band takes the stage, playing a 3-hour show. They get through it alright, but the fans have mixed feelings. Born to run is missing from the shows for the first time since 1975 (only to reappear a few days later in Milan, Italy). Some fans crave for the “old days” with The E-Street Band. August 6 Bruce appears on the cover of Rolling Stone July 23-August 13 Bruce is back in NJ to play his first shows since 1985. The 11 Meadowlands shows are a new start as many of the new songs are replaced with older, favorites. July Bruce records a show for MTV called "Bruce Springsteen In Concert: "MTV UnPlugged". Or at least that was the idea, as Bruce decided his touring band wasn't ready and played only one acoustic song (Red Headed Woman) which was the first song. Afterwards, Bruce plugged in and played his normal set. October The Tour continues. Even though both albums have dropped out of the top 200 and are considered to be failures, Bruce puts more emphasis on the new material. November 18 “In Concert: Plugged” is broadcast for the first time. December 17 The North American Tour comes to an end in Lexington, KY. 1993 January 12 Bruce inducts Creedence Clearwater Revival into the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall Of Fame. Rolling Stone’s “Top 100 Music Videos includes “Atlantic City” at #37, “Brilliant Disguise” at #64 and “Rosalita” at #71. February “Human Touch” gets 2 Grammy nominations for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance and Best Rock Song but does not win either. March 23 A rehearsal show in Red Bank, NJ for a new European tour takes place. Since then, Bruce started pulling out songs, not played since the 70’s, if played live at all, and unreleased songs only found on bootlegs see the light of day. After years of rather predictable and well thought-out live shows setlist-wise, Bruce suddenly loosens up and becomes completely unpredictable. March 31 The European tour opens in Glasgow, Scotland. “Lucky Town” is shown on MTV. The show now starts with 3 acoustic songs showing us a glimpse of were Bruce is headed in the future. The shows have changed a lot since the last legs. April 24 “In Concert: MTV Plugged” is released as a limited European only release. A US release would not be available until 1997. June 1 The last show of the tour takes place in Oslo, Norway June 24 Bruce sets up two benefit shows in NJ and NY. The NJ show at the Meadowlands is called “Concert to fight hunger” and becomes a four hour-long party atmosphere with guest appearance by Clarence Clemons, Max Weinberg and Steven Van Zandt. As Roy Bittan and Patti Scialfa were already present, half of the E-Street Band was on stage, fuelling rumors and raising hope that Bruce wants to set up a reunion. June 25 It’s David Letterman’s last night. He tells the audience that there’s really only one guest he’s wanted to have on the show for all those years and that tonight that would all change. With that, Bruce walks onstage and plays Glory Days with Paul Shaeffer and the David Letterman band, even jumping on Paul’s piano. A very relaxed and funny television appearance. June 26 The second benefit is in support of the Kristin Ann Carr fund. At one point during the show, Terence Trent D’Arby is booed by some people. (It’s been said those people misunderstood Bruce and believed Clarence would come onstage). An angry Bruce rushed through the rest of the show and thus ending the tour and the collaboration with a different band on a sad note. The tour was worth it for most of the fans, although some complained about the way the older songs were played (“it’s just not the same…”) Summer-Winter Bruce takes some well-deserved time off. Johnathon Demme asks Bruce to write and record a song for his movie “Philadelphia”. Bruce comes up with “Streets of Philadelphia” which he records in his home studio. The song would be his biggest and most successful hit of the 90’s. 1994 January 5 Bruce and Patti’s third child, son Sam Ryan Springsteen is born. January 23 Bruce wins a Golden Globe for “Streets of Philadelphia” March 31 Bruce wins an Oscar for “Streets of Philadelphia” and also performs the song live. Summer-Winter Bruce produces the album “American Babylon” for friend Joe Grushecky. Bruce also works on an album of his own, but the album would never be released. September 8 Bruce is at the MTV Music Awards and wins an award for Streets of Philadelphia (Best Song From A Movie). Bruce also performs the song live. 1995 January 9-12 After rejecting it for two decades, Bruce finally accommodates Sony’s requests to make a Greatest Hits cd. He also wants to record some new material and with only 72 hours notice, Bruce gets the entire E-Street Band back into the studio at the Hit Factory in New York. The entire band had not been together in the studio since 1983 and Nils Lofgren had never recorded with Bruce and the band together. The sessions were recorded on video and would later be released as an 80-minute documentary called “Blood Brothers”. February 21 Bruce and the band perform at Tramps in NY. They are there to shoot a video (directed by Jonathan Demme) for the new single “Murder Incorporated”. The video shoot turns into a 2-hour gig with many favorite songs played. Hopes of a definite reunion and even tour are not far away. February 28 "Greatest Hits" is released. March 1 Bruce wins four Grammy awards, all for "Streets of Philadelphia" (Song Of The Year, Best Song In A Motion Picture, Best Rock Song, Best Male Rock Vocal) March 18 Greatest Hits debuts at number one on the billboard charts. It will top the Billboards for two weeks and top the UK Album charts for two weeks. April 5 Bruce and the band tape a performance for David letterman’s show. In the evening they perform for Sony employees. The two-hour gig is taped and parts of the footage would be used in documentaries, but never released in full. Bruce also does some TV interviews. April Bruce hits the Top 40 with "Secret Garden" May Bruce starts work on an acoustic folk album, to be finished by late summer. July 9 In a strange, odd move, Bruce turns up at Café Eckstein in Berlin, Germany for a video shoot for “Hungry Heart”. A band consisting of Wolfgang Niedecken and other German musicians is promptly put together. Rumors of other European appearances never materialize. Instead Bruce and family, decides to spend his holidays with Tom Hanks on the Canary Islands. September 2 The E-Street Band reunites for the opening of the Rock ‘n’ Hall of Fame Museum in Cleveland. Rumors of a tour in support of Greatest Hits are still going around, but a tour never happens and the band would not play again (officially) until 1999. October 10-18 Bruce joins Joe Grushecky’s band, The Houserockers, for what is now known as “the October assault”. Bruce plays some great guitar at 6 shows in small clubs in order to promote Joe’s album “American Babylon”. October 28 Another appearance at Neil Young’s Bridge Benefit. Bruce uses the show to debut two songs from his upcoming album "The Ghost Of Tom Joad". November 21 "The Ghost Of Tom Joad", a solo acoustic folk album is released. That same day, Bruce starts touring in small theaters. The acoustic tour begins in New Brunswick, NJ and will continue for the rest of the year, taking Bruce to different cities across the US. The old hits are completely ignored and the shows are focused on the dark, bleak, new material. 1996 January The tour carries on in the US and in Canada. Sean Penn’s movie “The Crossing Guard” includes a 1994 outtake called “missing” and Tim Robbins’s “Dead Man Walkin’” had Bruce writing and performing the title track. February 12 The solo acoustic tour reaches Europe. The first show takes places in Frankfurt, Germany. March 3 "Blood Brothers", the documentary shot during the Greatest Hits session is show on US TV for the first time. The movie will be broadcasted in different countries over the next few months. March 25 The European tour gets interrupted when Bruce flies back to the States to perform “Dead Man Walkin’” at the Oscars. Bruce does not win the award. May 8 The European tour comes to an end in Madrid, Spain. September 16 The acoustic tour returns to US theaters for another leg. September 29 Bruce takes part in a Woody Guthrie tribute playing both Guthrie songs and some of his own. November 8 Bruce plays a benefit show in his old high school in his hometown, Freehold, NJ. The show is for Freehold residents only. In attendance are also some of the nuns who taught Bruce. The setlist is made up of many one-offs and a world premiere called “Freehold”. It’s a song about the town and before singing it Bruce says it would be the one and only performance of the song. He not only forgets some of the words mid song and needs to get out the lyrics, he will also go on to perform the song on a dozen other occasions. November 24-26 Three benefit shows at the Paramount Theater in Asbury Park, NJ. Even though Bruce is still, technically, on the Ghost of Tom Joad tour, the shows are nothing like the shows he’s been doing. Bruce is assisted on numerous songs by many of his friends including E-Streeters and he plays many of his earlier songs, which he hadn’t been playing on the tour. December 14 The last US show of the acoustic tour takes place in Charlotte, NC. 1997 January 27 The acoustic tour starts again with three shows in Tokyo, Japan. Rock ‘n’ Roll hall of Fame’s 500 songs that shaped Rock And Roll includes “Born To Run”, “Dancing in The Dark” and “Rosalita”. February 4 The tour goes down under with 10 shows in total, played in Melbourne, Brisbane and Sydney. February 26 "The Ghost of Tom Joad" wins a Grammy for “Best Contemporary Folk Album”. Bruce performs The Ghost Of Tom Joad live at the ceremony. He was also nominated for Best male rock vocal performance (Dead Man Walkin’) and Best Music Video, Long (Blood Brothers) but lost out on both awards. March “Secret Garden” re-enters the Top 40 when it is used in the movie Jerry Maguire. April “Secret Garden” enters the Top 10. May 5 Bruce and Patti travel to Stockholm, Sweden were Bruce receives The Polar Music Prize. The prize is handed out by the Swedish King and is considered to be the Nobel Prize of music. The American ambassador to Sweden reads a letter of congratulations from President Clinton, Bruce gives an acceptance speech and later performs Thunder Road at the official dinner. Bruce and Patti can be seen sitting in the audience holding hands and are seated next to the Queen of Sweden. May 6 The final leg of the acoustic tour starts in Vienna, Austria. May 9-10 Bruce performs two shows in Warsaw, Poland. They are his first shows in Poland. May 12 Bruce performs in Prague, Czech Republic for the first time and meets the Czech president. May 22 After the show in Naples, Italy, Bruce appears on the outside balcony on the second floor of the theater. He leads the crowd in singing “O Sole Mio”. Next he comes out with a guitar, and guitar tech Kevin Buell holds the words next to him as Bruce sings “Thunder Road”. The crowd sings along with him. May 25-26 Two shows in Paris bring an end to the acoustic tour. The tour had started in 1995 with dark, gloomy songs, but gradually Bruce introduced more fun songs, the atmosphere became more loose and cheerful and Bruce even turned himself into a comedian at some points, entertaining the crowds with amusing, funny stories. September 4 Bruce makes an appearance at the MTV Video Awards in Los Angeles, performing “One Headlight” with the Wallflowers (Jakob Dylan’s band, who’s the son of Bob) In Concert: Plugged is released in the US. Up to then it was only available as an import. Bruce receives an MTV Music Award nomination for Best Music Video for “Secret Garden” but fails to win. Fall Bruce works on a new acoustic folk album. Columbia, however fears that the album wouldn’t sell and it never gets released. December 7 Bruce performs “The Times They Are A-Changing” at the Kennedy Center Honors in tribute to Bob Dylan. President Clinton is in the audience. 1998 Bruce performs at the "Come Together" show in Red Bank, N.J., a benefit for slain police officer, Patrick King. The show has been arranged by Jon Bon Jovi and features a host of New Jersey artists, including Southside Johnny, Little Steven, Bobby Bandiera, Clarence Clemons, Max Weinberg, Patti Scialfa, and others. February "Thunder Road" is nominated for a Best Male Rock Vocal Grammy. March Bruce’s version of “We Shall Overcome” is released on “Where Have All The Flowers Gone: The Songs Of Pete Seger”. April 6 Bruce’s father, Douglas Springsteen, passes away. May Number 27 on VH1: Greatest Artists of Rock ‘n’ Roll Summer A box set, Tracks, of previously unreleased outtakes is in the make. First rumored to be 6 discs, the box is eventually reduced to 4. October 8 Bruce appeared in a British court in hopes of blocking the release of some of his earliest work from 26 years ago. The material was recorded in 1972 and a company named Masquerade Music attempted to sell the work as an LP called Before The Flame. His lawyer stated, "It matters to Mr. Springsteen that he retains control of his artistic output." November 10 "Tracks" is released. The set includes 66 tracks and b-sides with 56 unreleased songs spanning Bruce’s 25-year recording career. The set contains 17 tracks from the mid-70s, 17 tracks taken from the sessions for The River and Born In The U.S.A. albums during the late 70s and early 80s, 18 tracks from the mid- to late 80s, and 14 tracks from the 90s. Springsteen states in the linear notes: "This collection contains everything from the first notes I sang in the Columbia recording studio, my early and later work with the E Street Band, through to my music in the 90s... I'm glad to finally be able to share this music; here are some of the ones that got away." Bruce is included on the list of inductees for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. December Bruce’s court battle to have some of his early work blocked from being released was ruled in his favor when a judge ruled that he owned the songs. Springsteen said of the court fight, "I came here to defend the ownership of my music... it's something I fought for since I was young and I'm really satisfied." December 7 In Europe on a press tour, Bruce reveals that there are plans in the make for an E-Street Band reunion tour. December 8 A press release announcing The Reunion Tour is released. December 10 It is the 50th anniversary of the declaration of Human Rights and Bruce performs a few solo acoustic songs at the Amnesty International show in Paris, France. 1999 February 26 Bruce is a guest on the Conan O’Brien show and performs “Working On The Highway” before taking E-Streeter Max Weinberg, the house band drummer, back with him to NJ for tour rehearsals. March Rehearsals for the tour take place in Convention Hall in NJ. Steve Van Zandt joins the band again. March 18-19 Bruce and the band perform two rehearsal shows at the Convention Hall in Asbury Park, NJ. The shows are open to the public and they’re the first admission shows they’ve played since 1988. Bruce calls these shows the “rebirth of The E-Street Band”. March 25 At a ceremony at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in NY, Bruce is inducted into the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall Of Fame. U2’s Bono gives the induction speech. During Bruce’s speech, Bruce dedicates the honor to his mother who is in the audience and to his father who had recently passed away saying "I have to thank him, because what would I conceivably have written about without him? I mean, you gotta imagine, if everything had gone great between us, it would have been a disaster. I would have written just happy songs and I tried that in the early 90s and it didn't work. The public didn't like it." Bruce also took the time to praise and thank each and every E-Street Band member who were not eligible to be inducted with him. At the end of his speech, he called all of them up to the stage. Bruce and the band then performed four songs in front of the crowd. It was the first time since September 1995 that the entire band had been back onstage in front of an audience. April 9 The Reunion Tour starts in Barcelona, Spain. April 13 "18 Tracks", a compilation of the "Tracks" box set is released. The album also contains three previously unreleased songs. April-June Bruce and The E-Street Band play 36 shows in 26 cities in Europe. June Bruce sets a sales record for tickets when he sells 300.000 tickets in 13 hours for a total of 15 shows at the Meadowlands in NJ. July 15 15 sold out homecoming shows at the Meadowlands in New Jersey begin. During the stand an anonymous fan becomes the one-millionth person to see Bruce in this arena since it was opened in 1981. August-September The Reunion Tour carries on through different cities on the East Coast. There are many multiple night stands and Bruce takes the opportunity to debut many songs which had not been played live since the 70’s and 80’s if they had been played live at all. September 23 Bruce turns 50. October-November The final shows of the 1999 US Tour take place on the West Coast and in the Mid West. After a three-night stand in Oakland, Patti Scialfa perforates an eardrum while on a plane and misses the next few shows. November 29 The 1999 Tour ends in Minneapolis, MN, but Bruce does not leave the stage before telling the crowd he’ll be back on the road in 2000. |