Fifty years ago, in the Columbia Records office of legendary talent scout John Hammond there sat a tanned, scruffy 22-year-old kid from New Jersey, armed with only his buddy’s acoustic guitar and a bravado threatening to buckle. Given the go-ahead from Hammond, the young man apprehensively launched into his first song. “I had skin like leather and the diamond-hard look of a cobra…,” and that was all it took. After a few more songs, a live show, and a meeting with label president Clive Davis, Bruce Springsteen was officially Columbia’s newest artist.
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