{"id":50144,"date":"2025-10-27T13:01:04","date_gmt":"2025-10-27T13:01:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/2025\/10\/27\/bruce-springsteen-was-on-the-cover-of-time-and-newsweek-50-years-ago\/"},"modified":"2025-10-27T13:01:04","modified_gmt":"2025-10-27T13:01:04","slug":"bruce-springsteen-was-on-the-cover-of-time-and-newsweek-50-years-ago","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/2025\/10\/27\/bruce-springsteen-was-on-the-cover-of-time-and-newsweek-50-years-ago\/","title":{"rendered":"Bruce Springsteen Was on The Cover of Time and Newsweek 50 Years Ago"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tThere was no shortage of major global events for the weekly news magazines to cover in October 1975. The last smallpox patient on Earth was treated in Bangladesh; Francisco Franco\u2019s dictatorship came to an end in Spain after nearly 40 years; <em>Saturday Night Live<\/em> hit the NBC airwaves for the first time; Muhammad Ali defeated Joe Frazier at the famous \u201cThrilla in Manila\u201d boxing match; the Boston Red Sox vanquished the Cincinnati Reds in a World Series that included one of the most thrilling extra-innings games in history; and President Gerald Ford told New York to \u201cdrop dead,\u201d in the much-quoted words of the <em>New York Daily News<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tBut on Oct. 27, 1975 \u2014 50 years ago today \u2014 <em>Time<\/em> and <em>Newsweek<\/em> both made the extraordinary decision to put <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/t\/bruce-springsteen\/\" id=\"auto-tag_bruce-springsteen\" data-tag=\"bruce-springsteen\">Bruce Springsteen<\/a> on the cover at the exact same time. This is something that hadn\u2019t happened to Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, or even the Beatles at the height of Beatlemania. And even though <em>Born to Run<\/em> was sitting at Number Six on the<em> Billboard<\/em> 200 albums chart that week, Springsteen was still a club act without a genuine radio hit. (\u201cBorn to Run,\u201d the song, stalled at Number 23 on the Hot 100.)<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\t\u201cBruce who?\u201d <em>Newsweek<\/em> asked in its cover story. \u201cHe is still not exactly a household name across America. In San Mateo, Calif., last week, his 13-year-old sister Pam said, \u2018Only one girl at school has his record.&#8217;\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tSpringsteen pulled off this feat thanks to an aggressive marketing effort by CBS Records; writer Jon Landau\u2019s \u201cI saw rock and roll future\u201d quote from Boston\u2019s <em>Real Paper<\/em> that echoed all across the press; and the relentless hustle of his manager, Mike Appel.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tIt began with a call to Appel from CBS publicity VP Bob Altshuler saying that <em>Newsweek<\/em> hoped to interview Springsteen for an inside piece. \u201cI alerted him to the fact that Bruce Springsteen already did the music section of <em>Time<\/em> and that this was of no interest to me,\u201d Appel recalled in the 1992 Marc Eliot book <em>Down Thunder Road.<\/em> \u201c\u2018Bob,\u2019 I said. \u2018I\u2019m really only interested in covers now. Why don\u2019t you see what you can do for me in that regard. I\u2019m prepared to wait for their cover. It doesn\u2019t have to be today.&#8217;\u201d<\/p>\n<section class=\"brands-most-popular \/\/ editors-pick-module lrv-u-margin-tb-2 lrv-u-border-a-2 u-box-shadow-5-5 lrv-u-padding-lr-1 a-span1 u-padding-b-1@tablet u-overflow-hidden\">\n<h2 id=\"section-heading\" class=\"c-heading larva  lrv-u-text-align-center u-border-color-black a-font-theme-primary-xxs lrv-u-color-black lrv-u-text-transform-uppercase u-letter-spacing-0063 lrv-u-padding-t-050 u-padding-b-0375@tablet lrv-u-padding-b-050@mobile-max lrv-u-border-b-2\">\n<p>\t\tEditor\u2019s picks<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/section>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tA week later, Appel received the stunning news that <em>Newsweek<\/em> agreed to a cover story. The writing duties were split between Maureen Orth, Janet Huck, and Peter S. Greenberg. The initial interview at Springsteen\u2019s New Jersey home didn\u2019t go well, at least from Springsteen\u2019s perspective.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\t\u201cAfterwards, Bruce called me up, and I don\u2019t remember him being so mad in my entire life,\u201d Appel recalled. \u201cHe\u2019s always been an intensely private person, and this woman comes to the door, real brassy with plenty of chutzpah, asking him the dumbest questions in the world. It wasn\u2019t her fault, really, she wasn\u2019t there to ask a lot of incisive musical questions about rock\u2026 She was there to ask the right questions for <em>Newsweek<\/em>, while Bruce was thinking <em>Rolling Stone<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tThe call ended with Springsteen saying he\u2019d never agree to another interview. Undeterred, Appel phoned Altshuler and told him to call <em>Time<\/em>, tell them <em>Newsweek<\/em> was giving Springsteen the cover, and offer them one too. \u201cThey\u2019re a pair, don\u2019t you see,\u201d Appel told Altshuler. \u201cThe answer right now is no anyway. We don\u2019t have anything to lose right now.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tMuch to Altshuler\u2019s amazement, <em>Time<\/em> was willing to consider it, but not if the <em>Newsweek<\/em> cover was going forward. This put Appel in a tricky spot, since he desperately wanted the <em>Time<\/em> cover, didn\u2019t want to lose <em>Newsweek<\/em>, and wanted to find a way to get them both. Springsteen, meanwhile, was getting ready to fly to Los Angeles for a series of intimate shows at the Roxy. The last thing he felt like doing was another interview.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Bruce Springsteen-The Roxy, West Hollywood Ca 10-18-1975 (Full Concert)\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/K6vXVoXN5YQ?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\t\u201cA picture just came to me,\u201d Appel recalled telling him. \u201cI see myself in front of a newsstand in L.A. I see Danny Federici and Garry Tallent and the band in front of a newsstand, there you are in front of the same newsstand on the covers of both <em>Time<\/em> and <em>Newsweek<\/em>. And they say to themselves, Look, Brucie\u2019s on the cover of <em>Time<\/em> and <em>Newsweek<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n<section class=\"brands-most-popular \/\/ recirculation-modules lrv-u-margin-tb-2 lrv-u-border-a-2 u-box-shadow-5-5 lrv-u-padding-lr-1 a-span1 u-padding-b-1@tablet u-overflow-hidden\">\n<h2 id=\"section-heading\" class=\"c-heading larva  lrv-u-text-align-center u-border-color-black a-font-theme-primary-xxs lrv-u-color-black lrv-u-text-transform-uppercase u-letter-spacing-0063 lrv-u-padding-t-050 u-padding-b-0375@tablet lrv-u-padding-b-050@mobile-max lrv-u-border-b-2\">\n<p>\t\tRelated Content<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/section>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tArrangements were made for <em>Time<\/em> writer Jay Cocks to fly with Springsteen to L.A. and conduct the interviews on the plane. When they landed, Appel was told that <em>Time<\/em> was probably going with New York mayor Abe Beame on the cover, since the \u201cFord To City: Drop Dead\u201d thing had just happened. They also didn\u2019t want to have the same cover as<em> Newsweek<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\t\u201cYou\u2019ll eventually have to put this guy on the cover,\u201d he told them. \u201cRight now you have a chance to be visionaries. Six months from now you\u2019re functionaries. But if you put that sawed-off little mayor on your cover, if that\u2019s what you think the public wants, I\u2019m going to roll over and die.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tThey buckled. Mayor Beame was moved to the inside. The <em>Time<\/em> cover featured a drawn illustration of a grinning Springsteen with the cover line \u201cRock\u2019s New Sensation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\t\u201cHe has been called the \u2018last innocent in rock,\u2019 which is at best partly true, but that is how he appears to audiences who are exhausted and on fire at the end of a concert,\u201d reads the article. \u201cSpringsteen is not a golden California boy or a glitter queen from Britain. Dressed usually in leather jacket and shredded undershirt, he is a glorified gutter rat from a dying New Jersey resort town who walks with an easy swagger that is part residual stage presence, part boardwalk braggadocio. He nurtures the look of a lowlife romantic even though he does not smoke, scarcely drinks and disdains every kind of drug. In all other ways, however, he is the dead-on image of a rock musician: street smart but sentimental, a little enigmatic, articulate mostly through his music.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\t<em>Newsweek<\/em> went with a live shot of Springsteen and a \u201cMaking of a Rock Star\u201d cover line. The article took a more skeptical look at Springsteen\u2019s rise, and the corporate machinations behind it. \u201cEveryone in the industry is aware of the pitfalls of The Hype and insiders think that the current Springsteen mania might inflict damage on his career,\u201d it says. \u201cWarner Brothers Records president Joe Smith appreciates the \u2018tumult\u2019 Bruce is creating for the industry but is dubious about the extent of his ultimate influence on the development of music. \u2018He\u2019s a hot new artist now,\u2019 says Smith, \u2018but he\u2019s not the new messiah and I question whether he will establish an international mania. He\u2019s got a very long way to go before he does what Elton has done, or Rod Stewart or the Rolling Stones or Led Zeppelin.&#8217;\u201d<\/p>\n<section class=\"brands-most-popular \/\/ recirculation-modules trending-in-article lrv-u-margin-tb-2 lrv-u-border-a-2 u-box-shadow-5-5 lrv-u-padding-lr-1 a-span1 u-padding-b-1@tablet u-overflow-hidden\">\n<h2 id=\"section-heading\" class=\"c-heading larva  lrv-u-text-align-center u-border-color-black a-font-theme-primary-xxs lrv-u-color-black lrv-u-text-transform-uppercase u-letter-spacing-0063 lrv-u-padding-t-050 u-padding-b-0375@tablet lrv-u-padding-b-050@mobile-max lrv-u-border-b-2\">\n<p>\t\tTrending Stories<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/section>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tSpringsteen was by the pool at the Sunset Marquis when the issues arrived. \u201cThe first sight I saw was a madly grinning Steve Van Zandt rushing around the pool like he was late on his Middletown, New Jersey, paper route,\u201d Springsteen wrote in his 2016 memoir, <em>Born to Run<\/em>. \u201cHe was distributing <em>Time<\/em> and <em>Newsweek<\/em> magazines with my mug on \u2019em to any sin city sun worshipper he could get within tossing distance of. He handed two to me. \u2018Isn\u2019t this great!\u2019 I looked at them and thought, \u2018Oh my God,\u2019 and immediately retired to my room.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tAppel\u2019s reaction was nothing but joy. He\u2019d pulled off one of the greatest music PR stunts of the decade. \u201cThe best moment was on the plane coming home,\u201d he said. \u201cI went up front to the men\u2019s room, and on the way back I saw everyone reading either <em>Time<\/em> or <em>Newsweek<\/em>, and there was Bruce\u2019s face looking back at me from both sides of the aisle, as far back as I could see.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/music\/music-features\/bruce-springsteen-cover-time-newsweek-1235448498\/\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There was no shortage of major global events for the weekly news magazines to cover in October 1975. The last smallpox patient on Earth&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":50145,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-50144","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pop","article","has-excerpt","has-avatar","has-author","has-date","has-comment-count","has-category-meta","has-read-more","thumbnail-"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50144","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50144"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50144\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50145"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}