Carlin's book depicted the essence of Springteen very nicely: his creativity, discipline, his temper and his humanity. After reading the book, I appreciated Springsteen as a hard working musician much more, and I admired the fact how Bruce channeled all his demons towards his music.

A great page turner for this who love the Boss. Loved every word.

This is a run of the mill bio with several factual errors.

Compelling read that reveals a great amount about the man, the band, the music, the times and the journey. A very satisfying experience for any fan.

Excellent!!!

Springsteen is amazing but the author's rendition of his life was drawn out and boring.

Overall a well written and very detailed bio. The story of Bruce Springsteen's life and career is truly amazing and singular in modern day entertainment history. If it wasn't (mostly) true, you could not make it up. After reading, I still have the feeling that we're still not getting the full behind the scenes story. At least not while all participants are still marketing their public images and shaping their historic legacies. Actually, the more I think about it it's probably a good thing we only get a taste of the darker side; all that should matter is the music and it's personally mattered to me for all my life. A person's personal life should remain as personal as they want to keep it. Still, major kudos for the many on-the-record interviews and insights from family, friends and band mates that have not been found in any other bios. These provide a much deeper insight on the very early days and Springsteen's dogged, single-minded vision to succeed on his (and only his) terms. One major complaint, the misquotation of Jon Landau's famous "rock and roll future" quote - can no author get this right? Especially when other parts of his article are correctly referenced earlier in the text. Another observation is that there is no real discussion of Springsteen's place in rock history from his influences, contemporaries and disciples. It would have been interesting to read what Dylan, Joel, Seger, Mellencamp, Costello, etc. have to say about Springsteen's legacy. That's probably another book! As close as we'll probably get to a definitive, independently written biography. Well done.