Music: Along Pinball Way

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Offstage Springsteen's lyric virtuosity reduced to a mumble in hip, tough dude tones. "We had a bathroom with a big gaping hole in it that looked right out into this convent. I used to tell kids that during the war an airplane crashed into it. To save face, y'know?" Thus he describes the Freehold, N.J., home where he was born in 1949. Home life was not easy, and when his folks went West prospecting for better jobs, Springsteen remained behind. At 16 he was commuting to Greenwich Village to play guitar in cafes. Self-taught, Springsteen also became proficient on the piano and harmonica—"If a guy can fix a radio, he can find his way around a TV, y'know?"—and soon he was forming bands of his own. He was "discovered" for recordings by John Hammond, the archetypal artists-and-repertory man whose finds include Benny Goodman, Billie Holiday and Bob Dylan.

A loner, Springsteen's lifestyle is music. "I love traveling and performing, love being on the road. The thing I don't like is the business side." Home is a rented apartment in Bradley Beach, N.J. If the commotion over his music has sometimes flattered, sometimes irritated him, he shows no ill effects. He remembers calling his mother in California to tell her he had signed a big record contract.

"Oh, yeah?" she said. "What did you change your name to?"