Another Book on the Boss Coming This Summer

The much-lauded and highly anticipated autobiography of Bruce Springsteen isn’t the only book on The Boss hitting shelves this year.

Set for a July release, Boss: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band–The Illustrated History promises to explain how Bruce became The Boss over the course of 208 pages loaded with photos.

“A supreme songwriter, Springsteen is a rock ‘n’ roll legend, and this lavishly illustrated book is an examination of his life and music,” according to a summary posted on the Hachette Books website. Written by Gillian G. Gaar, a Seattle-based author with 13 other books to her credit in addition to articles in MoJo, Rolling Stone and Goldmine, her tribute to Bruce Springsteen follows the career of the American music icon from Born to Run through The River.

“There’s Springsteen’s gnarly, Bonnie and Clyde-style tableaux Atlantic City, as well as his debunking of guys’ yearnings for youthful Glory Days. Throughout it all, Springsteen has demonstrated that he knows how to create a classic track,” according to the summary.

Boss is set to hit store shelves on July 1 and sell for $42 in Canada ($35 in the US) and is available for preorder.

Of course, some Bruce enthusiasts are a little nervous about the future of their favourite singer’s career, given that he’s releasing an autobiography this year. His book, Born to Run, will come out at the end of September and has been in the works for seven years. Coming on the heels of a massive tour, sold out in record time in many cities, the autobiography coincides with the rocker’s 67th birthday and will be released in hardcover, e-reader and audio formats.

According to an announcement from Simon & Schuster, Inc., Springsteen’s publisher, Bruce started working on the book following the E Street Band’s appearance at the 2009 Super Bowl halftime show.

“In Born to Run, Mr. Springsteen describes growing up in Freehold, New Jersey amid the ‘poetry, danger, and darkness’ that fueled his imagination,” the statement says. “He vividly recounts his relentless drive to become a musician, his early days as a bar band king in Asbury Park, and the rise of the E Street Band.  With disarming candor, he also tells for the first time the story of the personal struggles that inspired his best work, and shows us why the song ‘Born to Run’ reveals more than we previously realized.”

A big tour, an autobiography… could this be the end of “Thunder Road” for one of the most successful American rock acts? We’ll have to wait and see.