What do you think?
Rate this book
Streets of Fire: Bruce Springsteen in Photographs and Lyrics 1977-1979 – Stunning Portraits of The Boss Coming Into His Own.
“On a day like this, I remember—I’m the President, but he’s The Boss.”
—President Barack Obama, 2009 Kennedy Center Awards ceremony Compiled by accomplished photographer Eric Meola—who knew “the Boss” when he was just an unknown Jersey kid with big rock and roll dreams— Streets of Fire is an intimate photographic look at Bruce Springsteen during a pivotal year in his life and career. In 1977, Springsteen was coming off the enormous success of his album, Born to Run , and in the studio working on his fourth record, Darkness on the Edge of Town —and these breathtaking candid photos are portraits of a master musician finally coming into his own. A stunning collection of photographs—some never before published—of Bruce and the E-Street Band combined with the haunting lyrics of some of Springsteen’s most unforgettable songs, Streets of Fire offers fans a privileged and rarefied look at one of rock’s most legendary and beloved icons.
—President Barack Obama, 2009 Kennedy Center Awards ceremony Compiled by accomplished photographer Eric Meola—who knew “the Boss” when he was just an unknown Jersey kid with big rock and roll dreams— Streets of Fire is an intimate photographic look at Bruce Springsteen during a pivotal year in his life and career. In 1977, Springsteen was coming off the enormous success of his album, Born to Run , and in the studio working on his fourth record, Darkness on the Edge of Town —and these breathtaking candid photos are portraits of a master musician finally coming into his own. A stunning collection of photographs—some never before published—of Bruce and the E-Street Band combined with the haunting lyrics of some of Springsteen’s most unforgettable songs, Streets of Fire offers fans a privileged and rarefied look at one of rock’s most legendary and beloved icons.
128 pages, Hardcover
First published May 8, 2012
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
August 20, 2021
A beautiful book of words and images from Eric Meola, the photographer of the Born to Run album cover, as well as one of my favorite shots of Springsteen, from the cover of The Promise, showing Springsteen leaning on a convertible with an enormous storm cloud stretching into the distance in the middle of Nevada. Meola discusses the story behind that photo and many others in the book, which date from the recording of Darkness on the Edge of Town. This is my favorite era of Springsteen (and my favorite album, along with the recently released Western Stars), and Meola is able to capture Springsteen in various haunting, isolated, and dark locales, from rundown farm houses to lonely highways and a small New Jersey graveyard. We even see the surreal shot of Springsteen getting a speeding ticket from a highway cop sporting mirrored sunglasses. Bruce is looking down in shy reticence, like a kid who never gets into trouble just receiving a stern “time-out” from an overbearing school teacher.
What is so gripping about these photos is not what they reveal about Springsteen, but what they conceal. There is an air of mystery in these shots, including my favorites in the book: Springsteen sitting on the bed of a messy room and staring out a window or sitting forlornly outside a brightly-lit all-night service station in the dead of night -- the epitome of the Edward Hopper aesthetic. I love these photos for their ambiguity: we don’t don’t know if Springsteen is contemplating the cosmos or wondering what what he wants to eat for dinner. That same sense of mystery and ambiguity pervades most of these photos. I happen to be about halfway through Springsteen’s memoir Born to Run, and he mentions, as does Meola in this book, that he went with another photographer, Frank Stefanko, for the Darkness album cover (equally iconic). I can understand why: that cover photo reveals something intimate about Springsteen, whereas these photos feel more mythic, as if he is a part of a larger landscape -- the mythic landscape of America -- which in its vastness and emptiness is simultaneously full of hope and frighteningly alienating.
Essential for fans of Springsteen (especially in conjunction with both his memoir and the release of The Promise), and highly recommended for fans of rock photography in general. I am already looking into tracking down more of Meola’s books.
What is so gripping about these photos is not what they reveal about Springsteen, but what they conceal. There is an air of mystery in these shots, including my favorites in the book: Springsteen sitting on the bed of a messy room and staring out a window or sitting forlornly outside a brightly-lit all-night service station in the dead of night -- the epitome of the Edward Hopper aesthetic. I love these photos for their ambiguity: we don’t don’t know if Springsteen is contemplating the cosmos or wondering what what he wants to eat for dinner. That same sense of mystery and ambiguity pervades most of these photos. I happen to be about halfway through Springsteen’s memoir Born to Run, and he mentions, as does Meola in this book, that he went with another photographer, Frank Stefanko, for the Darkness album cover (equally iconic). I can understand why: that cover photo reveals something intimate about Springsteen, whereas these photos feel more mythic, as if he is a part of a larger landscape -- the mythic landscape of America -- which in its vastness and emptiness is simultaneously full of hope and frighteningly alienating.
Essential for fans of Springsteen (especially in conjunction with both his memoir and the release of The Promise), and highly recommended for fans of rock photography in general. I am already looking into tracking down more of Meola’s books.
May 20, 2022
The "Darkness on the Edge of Town" era Springsteen is my favorite. Here was a guy who was radiating music. From the numerous bootlegs and outtakes of the Darkness sessions to the later officially released "The Promise" Bruce was creating so much more music than he could use.
As he has said he was "trying to find the album." Trying to find the set of songs (out of the scores of songs that were not only recorded but produced through to completion only to up on archival tapes) that would create the story that he wanted to tell with "Darkness."
Along the same vein, Springsteen was trying to find the images that would convey the "Darkness" story as well as define how he viewed himself (and wanted others to view him) as an artist.
For this he engaged Eric Meola who was responsible for the iconic "Born to Run" album photographs. (As well as Frank Stefanko who ultimately delivered the "Darkness" cover photo.)
Meola and Springsteen engaged in a series of session (across the country) looking the that imagery. Or, to paraphrase Bruce, "trying to find the image." This book documents that.
The photographs are tremendous. There are some that are remakable. The desert scenes in particular.
But the photos of Springsteen himself are great. Here is a guy at, in my opinion, he creative zenith. Young, energized (he is always energized), and hungry. He still had not "made it."
If you are a fan this is a book well worth your time.
As he has said he was "trying to find the album." Trying to find the set of songs (out of the scores of songs that were not only recorded but produced through to completion only to up on archival tapes) that would create the story that he wanted to tell with "Darkness."
Along the same vein, Springsteen was trying to find the images that would convey the "Darkness" story as well as define how he viewed himself (and wanted others to view him) as an artist.
For this he engaged Eric Meola who was responsible for the iconic "Born to Run" album photographs. (As well as Frank Stefanko who ultimately delivered the "Darkness" cover photo.)
Meola and Springsteen engaged in a series of session (across the country) looking the that imagery. Or, to paraphrase Bruce, "trying to find the image." This book documents that.
The photographs are tremendous. There are some that are remakable. The desert scenes in particular.
But the photos of Springsteen himself are great. Here is a guy at, in my opinion, he creative zenith. Young, energized (he is always energized), and hungry. He still had not "made it."
If you are a fan this is a book well worth your time.
November 29, 2013
What an amazing book, a must for any Springsteen fan :) also the pictures are nice to perve on a young Springsteen :)
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews