Bruce Springsteen--Barbara Pyle

black and white vintage print taken during a dawn rehearsal at the Record Plant, New York, 20 July 1975, signed later by the photographer, 282 x 354mm., one of four of this size printed by the photographer at the time, one pin hole to each corner, light creasing to right of image, very light creases to corners

Christopher Phillips and Louis P. Masur, Talk About A Dream, The Essential Interviews of Bruce Springsteen (2013), illustrated within
Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band 1975: Photographs by Barbara Pyle (2015), illustrated pp.78-79

Pyle recalls the time this moment in the studio was captured after four days of gruelling recording which was the culmination of twelve months work: "At 6am they were still recording the last tracks for Jungleland – right up to dawn, when they went into their first and only rehearsal for the Born To Run tour" (the band were due to play a concert in Providence, Rhode Island that evening). "After days of windowless recording, the first rays of dawn pierced the tattered curtains of the rehearsal studio, striking the weary bodies of the band on the brink of collapse.  Instinctively I grabbed my Leica M3 from my purse...I knew, as I had known many nights during these sessions, that I was witnessing rock 'n' roll history in the making".  

Springsteen's own recollection probably best captures the trauma of the occasion as he describes the photograph taken by Pyle: "It’s the scariest thing I’ve ever seen....You have to see the band.  It should be on the cover of that album...You ain’t never seen faces like that in your life...I almost died".