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Summary: Springsteen's short essays and song lyrics up to 1998
Review: "Songs" is available in both softcover and hardcover formats, with very different prices for each. If you want to spend a higher amount for a beautiful hardcover, here it is, or if you want to own the book for more of the content and to save money, there is a softcover version. I own the hardcover and am enjoying it very much. The paper is thick and glossy. This is a very hefty tome. The hardcover with its' large format pages does make for a great coffee table book.As a preface to each album's lyrics, Bruce provides a short essay about what was going on with his life and what his idea for the message of the album was. There are great photographs throughout. Sometimes there are color photocopies of his handwritten lyrics, taken from the spiral notebooks that are his "blank slates". I really enjoyed reading the songs whose original lyrics were different, and the places where he inserted 2 or 3 different adjectives as he tried to find the best one for what he was trying to convey. I especially enjoyed "Candy's Room" as it is one of my favorite songs, and I was surprised to see that the original lyrics were quite a bit different and I got a gist for the original intent of the meaning of the song vs. my own interpretation of the final product, which were two different things. Artistically, the book could use some improvement; after all, this is a coffee table book! The font is very plain for the lyrics of the songs, and the same font is used for every song, and every page of lyrics has a plain white background. I assumed since this is a coffee table book that the text would have been stylized a bit, perhaps with different fonts for each album or for every song, to match the mood of the song or such. For example, the printed lyrics in "The Rising" CD special edition package are printed with a very funky font (which are actually a bit hard to read when printed with such tiny font). Where in the CD case I am fine with clearly printed, plain style tiny font, I thought this large format book would have used the space and artistic flair to stylize it up a bit, as was done with "The Rising" lyrics inside the CD package. Another way the book could have been stylized more is to have the background of the song lyrics not plain white but at least a color or having a textured look, a border or a collage of sorts, with small photographs around it or something to jazz up the look of the pages. However, with it the way it is, with plain font on white paper, it allows for clear reading and forces the words to stand on their own and for what they are. Without clutter, we are easily able to use our imagination and form our own opinions. Perhaps that is what Bruce Springsteen wanted for us: to have his lyrics speak for themselves, to not overload our eyes and mind with images, to have a clear canvas and allow our own minds to use the words to form our own thoughts and images. Despite my desire for it to be more artsy, I love the book and am treasuring it. This is about letting the songs speak for themselves. If you are looking for a biography of Springsteen, this is not it; there are other books already out there that fill this market. I hope at some time in the future a second book will be published with all of the songs that this book lacks, such as the recordings on the "Tracks" album that are not featured here and all of the recordings released since this book was published in 1998. I agree with other reviewers here, I also crave more detail directly from Bruce Springsteen about his own reflections on his life, his songs, and his general outlook on things. We have plenty of information from other writers (i.e. Dave Marsh) but we are critical enough to know that we can't fully trust biographers, rock critics, and other spin-doctors. We want the information right from Bruce, not filtered through interviewers for television programs, and not through biographies. We know Bruce is a real person with strong convictions and firm opinions and we crave the information (the pure truth) directly from The Boss. However, I can appreciate that at some point, Bruce Springsteen and other musicians (and celebrities) who have reached a high popularity status level want to keep at least some of their lives and thoughts private. But I will ask anyway: "please...can we have more directly from you, Bruce"?
Rating: 
Summary: Love the Boss-This book not worth it.
Review: I am a huge Bruce Springsteen fan and a struggling songwriter so when I saw that there was a book written by Bruce himself about his feelings during the writing of his wonderful songs, I knew I had to buy it right away. The book is very thick but 90% of it is reprints of ALL of his lyrics with like one or two pages telling about what he was thinking during the conception of each album. If you skip over reading the numerous pages of lyrics, you'll be done reading this book in ten minutes! Bruce...you've brought us so much joy with your music but this book was very misleading and disappointing.
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Summary: nice pictures but we need more
Review: I recently purchased this book and like how Bruce explains what was going on in his head in every album from Greetings from Asbury Park to The Ghost of Tom Joad. The book has some great in-studio photos of Bruce and other E Streeters as well. The reason I only gave it 4 stars is there is so much more to the man other than the albums. He's basically mute about his personal life, touring,comments about his work by critics etc. Hopefully he has one more book down the road that will address these subjects.
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Summary: A look into Springsteen's soul
Review: In this coffee table book, Bruce shows us his heart and soul through his lyrics. Lots of great pictures, handwritten pages of lyrics, which show how some of his better known songs have evolved. A great book for all Springsteen fanatics to have.
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Summary: You must own this book if you love Bruce!
Review: Read, in his own words, what inpired him to write many of his songs. This book is not optional if you are a fan (and if you truly are you probably already have the book), it's a must have! The photographs, the stories, the lyrics...it's so worth the price. Buy it!
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Summary: Springsteen On His Songs
Review: Songs by Bruce Springsteen is a great coffee table book. There is not much to read in the book, although Mr. Springsteen does provide some insights into the songs, it basically consists of the lyrics to all his released songs with a generous amount of pictures. The pictures are superb and the presentation is impeccable. Some original handwritten lyric sheets are also included. The book is really for hardcore fans and if you are one, you will not be disappointed.
Rating:
Summary: Springsteen On His Songs
Review: Songs by Bruce Springsteen is a great coffee table book. There is not much to read in the book, although Mr. Springsteen does provide some insights into the songs, it basically consists of the lyrics to all his released songs with a generous amount of pictures. The pictures are superb and the presentation is impeccable. Some original handwritten lyric sheets are also included. The book is really for hardcore fans and if you are one, you will not be disappointed.
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Summary: wonderful!
Review: Springsteen's comments on each of his albums are deeply thoughtful and its profoundly inspiring to see how deeply he thinks about what he does. The book is also beautifully laid out.
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Summary: this book is all about design
Review: The first thing you should know about Springsteen's book SONGS is that it is a coffee table book for his upward-mobile-now-a-little-bit-older fan base. If you are looking for some real insight into the Artistry of the Boss, this book will hold little more than tangential appeal. Perhaps, there will come a day when the Boss himself will write a memoir of sorts and his devoted following will have a better and more direct look at the inner most mind of the the rock musician himself. (And It wouldn't suck if Landau wrote a book about all the musicians he's worked with either. Jon ? )That said, the book is really a must for the fans who can afford it. There's nothing wrong with wearing your love for Bruce on your sleeve (or in this case your coffee table). And to be sure, the few essays that are in the book, which are penned by Springsteen himself, are thoughtful, earnest and intellingent as you might expect. Hey, it feels good to be a little a bit older. Be honest, doesn't it ? For lots of us, these really are Better Days. So if you can afford it, do yourself a favor and by this book. Spend some time with this art book that gives us some great images of Bruce. It isn't like images of Dylan and Guthrie aren't found in over sized photography coffee table books in book stores across the country.
Rating: 
Summary: Not much to read
Review: There is very little a Springsteen fan can enjoy, learn or read by buying this book. Basically, it consists of all the lyrics of every album packed in a rather expensive and heavy book. But the lyrics are in the albums themselves, and even those from the second album (which didnt contain them originally) can be easily found on the net. The pictures are few and the written pages are not many. I read the whole book in a couple of hours. I was disappointed because I like to read and I was expecting many days in company of the Boss and his comments about his songs. I dont see much sense in printing the lyrics of Bobby Jean (to put an example) first with Bruce's own handwriting in a full page, and then the same lyrics type written on the next page... and so on, album after album. Only some brief notes by The Boss at the beginning of each album. So you better go and buy a book about the Boss that can actually be READ.
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