On October 27, 1975, Freehold native Bruce Springsteen appears simultaneously on the covers of Time (“Rock’s New Sensation”) and Newsweek (“Making of a Rock Star”) magazines, in a publicity coup engineered by producer Mike Appel. Springsteen tells Time, “I don’t understand what all the commotion is about…I feel like I’m on the outside of all this, even though I’m on the inside. It’s like you want attention, but sometimes you can’t relate to it.” In Newsweek, he says, “What phenomenon? We ain’t no phenomenon. The hype just gets in the way.”
Source:
Bruce Springsteen timeline. (2023). Available: https://brucespringsteen.net/timeline/page/2
Image: Composite image of Time/Newsweek Springsteen covers. Single image composite of two cropped images to illustrate story consistent with Fair Use Doctrine.
I remember when the Time and Newsweek covers happened. I hated the thought of anybody being compared to Bob Dylan. And so I rejected Bruce Springsteen for decades. Of course, rejecting anybody this big means you’re lying because so many of his songs became anthems that we all loved. Now, 50 years later, reading his Memoir, Born To Run, I once again learn that there is no such thing as an overnight sensation.