Long before he sold 120 million albums globally in a career that has endured artistically and commercially like no other performer's in the rock era, Bruce Springsteen was a working-class New Jersey kid with a dream and a guitar.By the time he was 16, he was playing ShopRite openings and school dances around his hometown of Freehold.

For many, high school is where the garage-band dreams die, but time spent fronting a band called Steel Mill in theheyday of Asbury Park's Upstage scene gave ...