What does Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band name mean?
Bruce Springsteen is a rare example of someone who goes under the guise of being a solo artist, but actually isn’t one when you really think about it.
This is because, wherever The Boss has gone over the course of his career, the E Street band have almost always been in tow. In stadiums and arenas throughout every country and continent you could ever imagine, this is far more than a standard rock and roll backup band. They are as integral a piece of the machine as the man himself.
All of this is to say that Springsteen would be nothing without the E Streets, but it also begs the question of how exactly they came to assume such a strong presence by his side, given that many other bands of the same type don’t possess such a powerful precedent as they do. But like most aspects of Springsteen’s life, New Jersey is never far from view.
The name derived from a real place, namely the home of the mother of the band’s original keyboardist, David Sancious, who lived in the Belmar area of New Jersey. In the early days, this is where the band would rehearse and hone their craft, until it was time to hit the road. The trouble was, they had gone for two years without an official name, so it was initially a struggle to come up with a title.
But by keeping things simple, honouring their roots as well as the community and musical scene they were so proud to hail from, the name of The E Street Band eventually stuck. The beauty of that seemingly non-descript suburban street is that it went on to be known all over the world, bringing a piece of the vibrant Jersey life to stages where they could have never originally dreamed of going.
How did The E Street Band begin?
The famous E Street home is somewhere where Springsteen fans understandably flock to en masse, even after all these years – but only if they can find the right address. The street itself is easy enough to locate, but the real Sancious family home was number 1107. Many mistakenly believe that it was on the corner to the neighbouring 10th Avenue, due to the red herring of a song, ‘Tenth Avenue Freeze Out’.
From their original inception in October 1972, Sancious’s mother allowed the fledgling band to rehearse in her garage, outside between the home and its southside fence. It admittedly seemed unlikely at that time that this was going to be the making of a group of stars, given that they were harnessing their craft for over two years without a tagline to be known by.
The E Streets and their native New Jersey have had a palpable presence right through every inch of Springsteen’s work, from the stage to the studio. From The Boss’ 1973 debut with Greetings from Ashbury Park, NJ, as well as its follow-up The Wild, The Innocent, and the E Street Shuffle, they have always been the essential ingredient by his side.
That aspect of Springsteen is obviously never going to change, not just because it’s frankly too late to back out at this point but because you get the impression that wherever life takes him, he simply wouldn’t get up on a stage without the comfort of knowing that his band is also with him. That’s the real meaning of E Street – it’s not just an address, but a way of living.
