“DOWN THUNDER ROAD: THE MAKING OF BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN” By Marc Eliot, with the participation of Mike Appel, <i> Simon & Schuster ($22.50)</i> * *

Or “Born to Litigate.” Former Springsteen manager Appel, vilified by some in the late ‘70s for his legal actions against his former client, finally gets a word in edgewise here, telling his version through journalist Eliot. In some ways this reads like a tragic romance, with Appel gradually losing Springsteen’s affection to interloper Jon Landau in a classic triangle. All personal managers ought to read it, if just to be warned of how they too could lose their first love. But the book relies too heavily on lengthy transcripts of court briefs from the three principals to tell its tale of woe. And Appel, in his understandable desire for vindication, still manages to come off as kind of a sad sack even in this biased account. It’s not easy having gotten the E Street Slough-off.