E Street Punks
The Musicians Who Merged Springsteen Songcraft and Underground Attitude
Geoffrey Himes(Author)
Motorbooks (Publisher)
Will be published approx. on 13. May 2027
Book
Hardback
304 pages
978-1-57715-772-4 (ISBN)
Description
Explore the music and careers of the bands that have conjured an unlikely combination of backstreet musical sensibilities and main-street storytelling.
There was a time not so long ago that Bruce Springsteen was persona non grata in certain rock circles-an out-of-touch millionaire stadium act who had forsaken his roots in the smoky blue-collar clubs of the Jersey Shore. But then a funny thing happened: a number of bands across the US, raised on the sonics and cynicism of punk and alternative rock, began drawing comparisons to The Boss thanks to their rich catalogs of narrative lyrics that trod much of the same subject matter, from shady characters and dead-end jobs to unreliable partners and even more unreliable cars.
Veteran music journalist Geoffrey Himes calls these musicians "E Street Punks," in reference to Springsteen's legendary backing band, whose name is synonymous with rootsy, high-energy rock. The bands that Himes names to this canon are also bound by their common willingness to embrace not just Springsteen's lyrical aesthetic but also older American styles that have proven adaptable to punk's loud-fast ethos, including rockabilly, honky-tonk, blues, garage-rock, Celtic folk, Tex-Mex, and Southern soul.
In E Street Punks, Himes examines the most prominent bands and artists in this group:
Drive-By Truckers
The Hold Steady
Jason Isbell
Alejandro Escovedo
Jon Dee Graham
Lucero
Bottle Rockets
Dropkick Murphys
Himes' narratives draw on his decades of interviews with the artists, as well as new interviews conducted for this book, presenting the life and work of these bands-and in the process, naming a rock subgenre. Himes's captivating commentary is supplemented with annotated discographies for each band and a selection of photos, creating the definitive story of this essential school of rock.
If you are a fan of any of these bands or consider yourself an American music history buff, this is a must-have volume for your collection.
There was a time not so long ago that Bruce Springsteen was persona non grata in certain rock circles-an out-of-touch millionaire stadium act who had forsaken his roots in the smoky blue-collar clubs of the Jersey Shore. But then a funny thing happened: a number of bands across the US, raised on the sonics and cynicism of punk and alternative rock, began drawing comparisons to The Boss thanks to their rich catalogs of narrative lyrics that trod much of the same subject matter, from shady characters and dead-end jobs to unreliable partners and even more unreliable cars.
Veteran music journalist Geoffrey Himes calls these musicians "E Street Punks," in reference to Springsteen's legendary backing band, whose name is synonymous with rootsy, high-energy rock. The bands that Himes names to this canon are also bound by their common willingness to embrace not just Springsteen's lyrical aesthetic but also older American styles that have proven adaptable to punk's loud-fast ethos, including rockabilly, honky-tonk, blues, garage-rock, Celtic folk, Tex-Mex, and Southern soul.
In E Street Punks, Himes examines the most prominent bands and artists in this group:
Drive-By Truckers
The Hold Steady
Jason Isbell
Alejandro Escovedo
Jon Dee Graham
Lucero
Bottle Rockets
Dropkick Murphys
Himes' narratives draw on his decades of interviews with the artists, as well as new interviews conducted for this book, presenting the life and work of these bands-and in the process, naming a rock subgenre. Himes's captivating commentary is supplemented with annotated discographies for each band and a selection of photos, creating the definitive story of this essential school of rock.
If you are a fan of any of these bands or consider yourself an American music history buff, this is a must-have volume for your collection.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
United States
Publishing group
Quarto Publishing Group USA Inc
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Weight
839 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-57715-772-4 (9781577157724)
Copyright in bibliographic data is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or its licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Geoffrey Himes has written about music in the Washington Post on a weekly basis since 1977. During that time, he has also written about music for Rolling Stone, Paste, The New York Times, Jazz Times, Nashville Scene, Oxford American, DownBeat, Smithsonian, Texas Music Magazine, and other outlets. He won ASCAP/Deems Taylor Awards for Music Feature Writing in 2002 and 2005.