On Tour: Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band digital subscription

Two of the best tracks on Bruce Springsteen's debut album Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J.—“Blinded by the Light” and “Spirit in the Night"—featured the man who became Boss backed by musicians that he knew from the Jersey Shore. Springsteen liked the sound so much that, for the next 15 years, the same musicians—after some early changes, the lineup remained remarkably stable—played with him on nearly every album and accompanied him on every tour. And from the moment he hit it big, he and his raucous, powerful band were bound together. “My musicians grew from well-appointed sidemen,” he wrote in his 2016 autobiography, “into the E Street Band.” Those sidemen—drummer Max Weinberg, guitarist Steve Van Zandt, organist Danny Federici, pianist Roy Bittan and saxophonist Clarence Clemons—became one of the best bands in rock ’n’ roll. And while the group has been disbanded and reunited and expanded over the last three decades, its members still combine to make the ultimate Springsteen machine; their styles, their talents, their camaraderie, suit him perfectly. Springsteen is undeniably great on his own. But with the E Street Band, he can be transcendent.