Q 01/05

What is Bruce Springsteen's famous nickname?

A) The King

B) The Chief

C) The Boss

D) The Big Man

Answer · why

C) The Boss

The Boss stuck from his bar-band days, when he collected the night's pay and shared it out among the players; the name is also said to owe something t...

Q 02/05

Famed for Asbury Park, Springsteen grew up in which New Jersey town?

A) Freehold

B) Toms River

C) Long Branch

D) Red Bank

Answer · why

A) Freehold

Freehold is where he went to Catholic school and then Freehold High, where he felt so out of place that he skipped his own graduation; Long Branch was...

Q 03/05

Which Columbia scout, who had signed Bob Dylan, signed Springsteen in 1972?

A) John Hammond

B) Clive Davis

C) Ahmet Ertegun

D) Berry Gordy

Answer · why

A) John Hammond

John Hammond's name helped get the young Springsteen compared to Bob Dylan, which made him so self-conscious that he soon moved away from that wordy s...

Q 04/05

Which critic wrote in 1974 that he 'saw rock and roll future, and its name is Bruce Springsteen'?

A) Lester Bangs

B) Greil Marcus

C) Jon Landau

D) Robert Christgau

Answer · why

C) Jon Landau

Jon Landau wrote the line after a show at the Harvard Square Theater, then crossed from critic to collaborator: he co-produced Born to Run and went on...

Q 05/05

In October 1975, which two magazines put Springsteen on their covers in the same week?

A) Rolling Stone and Creem

B) Time and Newsweek

C) Life and People

D) Esquire and Playboy

Answer · why

B) Time and Newsweek

Time and Newsweek coincided because Time's writer heard Newsweek had a Springsteen story coming and talked his editor into a rival cover; Newsweek's p...