The Upstage Club in Asbury Park, New Jersey, operated by eccentric impresario Tom Potter, is an all-night venue where musicians aren’t obliged to play hits; they come to play the music they love. Eighteen-year-old Springsteen books a “jam slot” at 2:30am, and his ferocious performance and compelling stage presence draw significant attention. He reconnects with Vincent Lopez, and—together with Vinnie Roslin and Asbury Park keyboardist Danny Federici—they form Child, an early incarnation of what eventually became the E Street Band.

Homesteaders

In 1969, Springsteen’s father, wanting a fresh start, moves to California with Springsteen’s mother and younger sister. His older sister, Virginia, now pregnant, moves to south New Jersey with her husband, and Springsteen stays behind to cultivate his burgeoning music career. He and his bandmates take over the family house, and it becomes a chaotic commune of sorts. After a parade of “short-lived tenant[s]” (111), odd characters, fistfights, and broken windows, the landlord evicts them. Lying on a couch atop a flatbed truck, leaving his old neighborhood, Springsteen feels excitement and uncertainty about the future and the “detachment” from his family home and old life. This abrupt severance from his past causes him to revisit his old neighborhood countless times in later years, searching for answers to questions he’s not yet ready to ask.