Fifty years since Bruce Springsteen's debut album
Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J.
brought a new songwriting talent to the public, Bruce Springsteen is long established as one of the giants of popular music. Through a long career of studio and live albums, archival releases, massive tours with the E Street Band, and more recently solo performances on Broadway, Springsteen has demonstrated a remarkable talent for communicating with a wide audience. Whether acoustic or electric, plainly presented or richly orchestrated, his narrative and character-based songs have captured and reflected the pains, hopes, dilemmas, and dreams of millions.
Bruce Springsteen: Songwriting Secrets, Revised and Updated
presents his music as the starting point for a masterclass in the art of writing powerful—and successful—songs. Songwriting guru Rikky Rooksby surveys Springsteen's rich catalogue and shows how the common techniques they employ can help you:
Structure intros, verses, choruses, and bridges
Write songs using anything from two to seven chords
Arrange instruments for maximum effect
Mimic the sound of Springsteen's chords and progressions
Write lyrics that escape cliché, achieve clarity, and ring true
This revised edition takes into account all the original music Springsteen has released since the first edition of 2004, including
Devils & Dust
(2005),
Magic
(2007),
Working on a Dream
(2009),
Wrecking Ball
(2012),
High Hopes
(2014),
Western Stars
(2019) and
Letter to You
(2020), along with other archival material.