Bruce Springsteen on the joy of dancing

Desert Island Discs

BBC

Society & Culture, Music Commentary, Music, Personal Journals

4.4 • 13.7K Ratings

🗓️ 24 October 2025

⏱️ 4 minutes

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Summary

The rock legend Bruce Springsteen was cast away by Kirsty Young back in 2016.

Bruce has won 20 Grammys, two Golden Globes, an Academy Award, and his albums sell in their millions around the world. He grew up in New Jersey in a family that teetered on the brink of poverty. His first guitar was rented rather than bought, and he spent his apprentice years as a musician and singer with local bands before landing a record deal in 1972.

He spoke to Kirsty about his love of dancing and his first live performances.

You can find the full episode on BBC Sounds.

Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts.
0:07.3	Welcome back to the home of the oxymoron.
0:10.5	Evil genius.
0:11.6	He asked the newspaper to print his obituary early so he'd enjoy it.
0:15.5	That's like hiding at your own funeral.
0:17.1	Yeah, a bit great gig.
0:18.6	I'm Russell Kane.
0:19.6	Join me to weigh in on whether the biggest players in history
0:22.3	are more evil or genius.
0:24.1	Becoming that rich, I'd say that
0:25.4	is some level of genius.
0:26.4	It also helps it.
0:27.4	It's a long time ago, right?
0:29.4	It's like the podcast version
0:30.6	of telling your kids
0:31.5	the ice cream van plays music
0:33.0	when it's out of ice cream.
0:34.9	Listen to Evil Genius on BBC Sounds.
1:01.0	Hello, I'm Laura Leverne, and this is Desert Island Discs postcards, where we share a selection of some of our favourite moments from some of our most memorable castaways.
1:10.5	This postcard comes from rock legend Bruce Springsteen, who celebrates 50 years this year since the release of his breakthrough album, Born to Run.
1:11.5	He spoke to Kirsty Young in 2016 about his love of dancing as a young man. I'm delighted and not a little bit
1:17.4	surprised to learn that you were a regular at the Friday night soirees of the Young Men's Christian
	...

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