Linking Bruce & Billy: ‘Bridge and Tunnel Boys’ by Jim Cullen

‘Bridge & Tunnel Boys’ (Rutgers University Press), by Jim Cullen, subtitled ‘Bruce Springsteen, Billy Joel, and the Metropolitan Sound of the American Century,’ is a $28.50 262-page book detailing the similarities of two artists who grew up similarly influenced on those who came before them. It is not Cullen’s first Bruce book (`Born In The USA: Bruce Springsteen and the American Tradition’ came out in 1997.) Cullen’s new book shows “how each man forged a distinctive sound that derived from his unique position on the periphery of the Big Apple,” according to the publisher. “Locating their music within a longer tradition of the New York metropolitan sound, dating back to the early 1900s cultural history, Jim Cullen explores how each man drew from the city’s diverse racial and ethnic influences. His study explains how, despite frequently releasing songs that questioned the American Dream, Springsteen and Joel were able to appeal to wide audiences during both the national uncertainty of the 1970s and the triumphalism of the Reagan era.”

ORDER / READ: “Bridge and Tunnel Boys” (via Rutgers University Press)

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