Bruce Rising

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Meanwhile, at 52 Springsteen still looks as if he just strolled off the cover of Born in the U.S.A. As E Street Band member No. 9 in a black sleeveless undershirt and tan work pants, he moves across the stage like a camp counselor, all energy and encouragement as the group struggles to get the new songs down: "I know this stuff is hard. Don't worry; we'll get it, and it's gonna be fabulous! Now what we're gonna do this time..." During a break, Springsteen bounds out into the house seats. He thinks the pace of the band's learning curve is fine. He is happy to be playing with his old friends. But he is also not satisfied. "If I have a good trait, it's probably relentlessness," he says. "I'm a hound dog on the prowl. I can't be shook!"

When not near a guitar, Springsteen tends to be quiet, serious and very still. With a Fender in his hands, he's a horse that can't wait to run. He loves playing music for anyone, anywhere, anytime. "Ultimately," he says, "it's not anything near a selfless experience. It's very self-fulfilling and revitalizing. I'm up there trying to fire myself up. When the metal hits the pedal--bang!--I got a destination that I am moving toward, and I'm not gonna be satisfied till I get there. For me." Of course, Springsteen's pleasure is famously infectious. Springsteen feeds off the crowd, which feeds off him in an endless cycle of stadium euphoria.

When he is onstage, Springsteen says, he sometimes feels like a preacher, and on the last E Street Band tour, he did a mock monologue in a fire-and-brimstone voice about the power of music. "It was one of those things that was joking but serious at the same time," he says. Springsteen is a lapsed Catholic, but whether he is telling Scialfa that he wants her backup vocals to be "more gospel" or asking his listeners to "come on up for the rising," he understands that spiritual revival is a necessity and that it has to be a communal experience. "I think that fits in with the concept of our band as a group of witnesses," he says. "That's one of our functions. We're here to testify to what we have seen." And to hear the testimony of others.