#73 - Bruce Springsteen: Greetings from Asbury Park (1973)

Most of Springsteen’s covers are of … well … Springsteen. His first one, though, was definitely a little different.

The only other album cover that does not feature Bruce

I’m a huge fan of old postcards, so I just love this. That particular design was very popular back in the ’20 through ‘50s. Here, for example, is one of my hometown.

Can’t tell if that was a real card or not. Most of what I could find on eBay looked more like this:

The designer for the cover was John Berg, a local boy (well, from Flatbush).  

Berg got started in 1961, and totaled more than 500 credits (including 4 Grammys). He actually did classical, jazz, Streisand, Leonard Cohen, Sinatra, and many, many rock covers as well.

GFAP was Springsteen’s first album, and gained more critical than popular reception. Needless to say, though, the Boss was on his way.

Oh man, my first album!

Asbury Park is a seaside town famous for its music scene, especially the Stone Pony, where Bruce, Bon Jovi, and the Ramones all played.  

Yup, there’s one or two salutes and parodies out there:

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