Sparks fly on E Street

[JACkory]

kenholzman said:

there isn't any filler on those four sides (well, maybe "You Can Look" or "Crush on You," but that's it), and the assertion that this is quite possibly Bruce's finest rock and roll album, or at the very least his most complete

I dunno...it would seem to me that Born To Run would be Bruce's finest rock and roll album. There's too much stuff on The River that just can't really be classified as "rock and roll" (most of which I mentioned in my review as favorite tracks and runners-up). But I'm interested in reading your take (and furthermore I've waited entirely too long...I know your a busy man, but... )

I may have already mentioned this, but ded brought up "Out in the Street" as being potential filler. I am so much in agreement...although I guess there are so many songs on the album that just don't fulfill the promise of several other songs on the album that perhaps "filler" is too strong a word, since none of these are particularly bad songs. But noone's gonna tell me that "Crush On You" is even half as good as "Point Blank", or that "Ramrod" compares to "Independence Day". Maybe those aren't fair comparisons, seeing as how they differ in style, but that only proves my point that The River is a wildly uneven affair. The ballads and softer songs are without peer, while the more upbeat "rockin'" songs pale in comparison to the more powerful Born To Run rockers and even the ones on Darkness On The Edge Of Town. The latter was able to mix the two styles with great success. The River not so much so, IMO.
I just think that the uptempo tracks on The River are extremely weak in comparison with his earlier classics.

Finally, I don't know how you can slam "You Can Look (But You Better Not Touch)". That's one of the best "rockers" on the album.
Boy, you break that thing, you bought it

[Galactus]

Oh yeah, as great an album as The River is it doesn't touch Born To Run or Darkness. It just doesn't.

[JACkory]

For whatever reasons, Born In The USA seems to be one of Springsteen's most maligned albums (just behind Human Touch and Lucky Town). I never quite understood why, as there are some damn fine songs here. Maybe not at the same level of excellence as most of his previous efforts (and especially coming on the heels of the brilliant Nebraska), but a very good collection of songs, nevertheless. There are a couple of clunkers here, to be sure, but as I listened to the album today I found that I quite liked even those. So maybe this album just needs time to age like fine wine.
I've always liked the title track, though it suffers from two serious drawbacks. First is the grating repetition of the 6 note motif that makes up the entire song. Max Weinberg is to be commended for keeping the thing fairly interesting musically, with his drum fills that sometimes remind me of Keith Moon's sloppy style. Second is the high range that Springsteen strains to reach on each line, but most notable on the "Born in the USA" choruses (if you can call them that, as there are no verses to speak of and certainly no bridge). His voice seems to get a little ragged towards the end, but what do you expect? It really is a high note he's shooting for (try to sing it yourself...if you can, I've got a job for you as a vocalist in a classic rock band).
Otherwise it's a great track with poignant lyrics and, despite it's maddening repetition, a killer hook. The Reagan administration, obviously not paying attention to the downbeat lyrics, asked the Boss if they could use the song as their slogan/theme song. Springsteen declined, and I'm tempted to think that it wasn't so much that he didn't care for Reagan's politics (which he didn't, I'm sure) but because he wanted to spare the President the sure embarrassment that would arise when he and his constituency realized just what the song was about. Old Ronnie must not have been one to appreciate irony.
"Cover Me" was played quite a bit on FM radio (I think it might have even been released as a single), and it sounds a lot like a concession to the pop music scene that threatened to leave Springsteen in it's wake. Of course "Dancing in the Dark" was the most obvious concession, but this one definitely smacks of "sell out", even if just a tad. Even so, "Dancing in the Dark", IMO, has the better lyrics.
I'm thinking that one reason why "Dancing in the Dark" was thoroughly derided by Springsteen's fans at the time was not so much the synth-heavy dance-beat style of the song, but the video that was put out to promote it, in which the Boss looks almost emasculated gyrating on a stage in front of a bunch of screaming girls. One of the greatest singer/songwriters of all time, but noone ever said he could dance. And that's just what he's trying to do throughout this video, even pulling a young Courtney Cox from the throng of Bruce-maniacs so he'll have a partner.
Okay, maybe I'm being a little hard on the guy. I can't dance, either. Neither can Phil Collins. At least Bruce gave it his best shot.
The first side is rounded out by 4 excellent songs (I know, "Dancing in the Dark" is on side two...I just got ahead of myself with all the "concession" stuff). "Darlington County" is a fun little romp that tells a genuinely funny story. Why I like this song and not "Glory Days" is something I can't understand myself (and the same is true of "I'm Goin' Down"). The sad tale of Bruce and Wayne is what makes the song enjoyable, certainly not the sing-song music and chorus.
More musically competent, IMO, is "Workin' on the Highway", where once again Springsteen weaves another humorous tale (almost as an aside) into a number accentuated by a simple, but effective, guitar lick.
"Downbound Train" takes a completely different approach, with some of the most heartbreaking sad lyrics the man has ever written. The dream he describes at the end is absolutely despondent. Plus, Danny Federicci does some of his best playing on this song. Almost as awesome as Roy Bittan's piano work in "Racing in the Streets". Federicci is all over this album and is consistently good throughout.
And finally to round out the side, another hit for Springsteen, "I'm On Fire". I don't see this one as a "concession" at all, but some may disagree. All I know is that it gets a lot done in a short period of time. Very nice arpeggiated guitar line with yet another nice Federicci organ part. And Bruce's voice is at his expressive best (having given it a long while to recover after singing "Born in the USA", no doubt).
Side two kicks off majestically with the anthemic "No Surrender". You'd think, with a chorus line that repeats "No retreat, baby, no surrender", that the song might just be about soldiers in a war. But you'd be mistaken. It's about conquering the world with a rock and roll band, then eventually realizing that it's not for you to do and retiring to let someone else pick up the mantle. I'm sure it's "about" some other things as well, but that's mainly what I get from it.
Another really good song that I've always enjoyed from this album is "Bobby Jean". It's a "Too Late Farewell" number that is ostensibly sung to and about a girl. Yet in 85, when this album came out, the buzz was all over the place that Miami Steve VanZandt was leaving the E Street Band and there was no way you could listen to the lyrics to "Bobby Jean" without suspecting that, even though they're addressed to a woman, they're actually directed to Steve. If this is news to you, just listen again and you'll see what I'm talking about. Plus, lest I forget to mention, there is a fantastic sax solo at the end of the song. When CC hits that high note during the fade-out I'm counting the goosebumps.
As I said earlier, I don't know why I like a song like "I'm Goin' Down" but can't stand "Glory Days". Maybe it's because I find the chorus to the former to be much better than the latter. I can almost see Springsteen doing an Elvis Presley imitation doing this song, and that tickles my funny bone. Hardy har har!
Then, to follow that song, he throws out another one with a similar musical type, "Glory Days". Don't ask me why I can't stand this song. The lyrics are okay. Not crazy about the chorus at all, and that's only compounded by the instrumental end section that just goes on and on and on, as if he thought he'd found the perfect chorus, then even he gets tired of it, saying "bring it home, boys" and even then they keep right on-a going. Didn't like the video, either.
I've already talked about "Dancing in the Dark", so that leaves me with just one song left, and a good one it is, too. "My Hometown" finds Springsteen further exploring the father-son relationship, this time within the context of a lament for an economically declining community. It's touching much in the same way as "Independence Day" and "Walk Like a Man", two other songs in which he explores a similar dynamic in fairly different ways. Yet another hit from this album (I think there were five), it's very likely the most "Springsteen-esque" of the lot. No wonder it is also my favorite of all those that got a fair share of radio airplay (well, besides "I'm on Fire").
Like The River, Born In The USA is a slightly uneven affair. It's not quite as noticeable, to me at least, because it's only one disc as opposed to two. It also shares this in common with The River: some of the songs are in dire need of remastering. The title track is almost as shrill as "The Ties That Bind" which opened The River.
Back in 85-86 I made a cassette compilation for a friend who was not a Springsteen fan. I think he'd only heard the hits from this album and decided it was not for him, as he generally liked "darker" music (he must not have been listening to the lyrics very closely). Anyway, I made him this tape called "Bruce Springsteen's American Dream", sort of playing off of the "Born in the USA" thing. Through the course of the 90 minute tape I included every song of Springsteens that I thought was "dark", maybe even a little depressing (and there are very many to choose from). Before too long this friend of mine was sold. To this day he is a diehard fan of Bruce Springsteen.
I don't know exactly what that has to do with Born In The USA, but I do remember that a couple of tracks on that tape were from that album.

3 1/2 Stars
Favorite Tracks: "No Surrender", "Bobby Jean", "Downbound Train", "I'm on Fire"
Least Favorite Tracks: "Glory Days", "Cover Me"

[Galactus]

I don't necessarily think of deliberate attempt to write a radio hit as "concession" or "selling out", it's a fine line sure but let's not forget that's exactly what Born To Run was. I think Springsteen thought that was best album he had at the time and I do think it's a pretty good album. There's no question that it was successful album. It's an album that dated itself almost immediately though. From the interviews I've read that's where any regret about that album lies...maybe a slightly different track list and less time stamp production but all that's in hindsight. The arrangements haven't changed on stage to amount to anything, except the acoustic version of Born In The USA but the band version still gets played too.

I think the mistake is looking at Nebraska as a starting point or companion to what was or could've been. Nebraska isn't the album it was intended to be, it was intended to be a full band album that may or may not have similar to BitUSA, at first anyway and then both Bruce and the record company liked the demos enough to just release them. Having heard some of the band rehearsal... the "electric nebraska" sessions I think they made the right choice.

USA also went through an aborted attempt, by the time they were finished they had essentially two separate albums...one much darker (Wages Of Sin, Pittsburgh, Shut Out The Light, Murder Inc) and one much more commercial, the one he went with. I'm sure he could've released either one he wanted but he'd already done dark and moody...the darker approach I suspect was thought of as being too similar thematically to The River, though I've never read that. Some of the other pop songs (Lion's Den, Car Wash, Stand On It) just had a different feel to them.

I don't think the album that was released was concession at all, I think it was an attempt to see if he could replicate the success of Born To Run. Which he did and then some. Bruce has admitted in hindsight there are some things he'd change now, but I bet he feels that way about all his albums.

[JACkory]

Maybe "selling out" is too harsh of a phrase (even if I did qualify it with "just a tad"), but that's how we thought of it back in 85 when the videos were in heavy rotation ("Dancing in the Dark", "I'm on Fire", "Glory Days" and "Born in the USA") and the hits were constantly on the radio. We didn't, at the time, know anything about outtakes, the amount of which could purportedly fill an entire second album (Tracks came a long time after that). With the exception of a few tracks, this was not the Springsteen we were familiar with, not saying that all of it was bad, by no means. In fact most of it was very good, none of it really "bad" at all. But there were a couple of songs that we thought were definately tailored for radio/MTV airplay. "Dancing in the Dark" is the most obvious. I don't know how anyone familiar with Springsteen's first 5 albums can hear that song and not immediately hear it as, if not a "concession" to the pop market, then at least an attempt to break into it. I can't think of a time before or since that he's done a song remotely like this one, which practically apes a lot of the synthesized sounds that were so prevalent in the 80's.

BTW, when I speak of "we" I mean to include not only myself but a few hardcore Springsteen fans I counted as friends in those days.

[Kensterberg]

OK, I don't know if I have the time to do this justice, but since I'm three reviews behind at this point ...

The River.

This is Bruce Springsteen's most ambitious album, and the one on which he most fully realizes his vision of life in America. Like it's three predecessors, The River is a song cycle, but it surpasses those earlier efforts in its reach, breadth, and grasp. The River is the record which encompasses all of Springsteen's vision, where the lives of his characters play out, and where the mysteries lurking in the Darkness on the Edge of Town find, if not answers, then at least some temporary resolution.

The River opens with the sound of dueling six-strings, as Steve Van Zandt and the Boss combine their instruments to approximate Roger McGuinn's twelve string Byrds sound. It's a totally different sound for the E Street Band, at least until Clarence Clemons appears with a roaring sax solo. "The Ties That Bind" sets out the fundemental lyrical territory for the rest of the record in its meditation on what holds people together and to places The song climaxes with the acknowledgement that "we're running now but darling we must stand in time to face the ties that bind," a statement that suggests not the daring highway escapes of Born to Run or the show-down prodigal returns of Darkness, but rather the simple acceptance which comes with adulthood and the recognition that sometimes life means taking both sides of the coin.

With the next track, the boisterous "Sherry Darling," Bruce definitely gives us both sides of the coin, the good and the bad. This frat-rock number was originally written for Darkness and often performed on the following tour, but Bruce just didn't see how such a happy song could fit into such a dark record. Musically, "Sherry" is one of the most joyous tracks that Springsteen had written since "Kitty's Back" or "Rosalita," but lyrically the song is anything but heavenly, as the singer complains about "your mamma yapping in the back seat" while "every Monday morning I've got to drive her down to the unemployment agency." Obviously, the young lovers here have real world concerns -- putting bread on their tables -- but the singer still dreams that "Sherry we could run with our arms open wide before the tide" while "stuck in traffic down here on fifty-third street." This duality, the acceptance that good and bad come into every life and that meaning is where you find it, is what marks The River as the conclusion of the stories that Bruce began telling on The Wild, the Innocent, and the E Street Shuffle. It also marks his transformation as a writer from wild-eyed romantic poet to keenly observant realist.

"Jackson Cage" provides more examples of how life dishes out the bad with the good, and Springsteen here sees that salvation in a real sense, in the sense that the folks in "Born to Run" or "The Promised Land" were seeking it, may never arrive. He sings, "chances are it's just one more day, and it's always gonna be that way" but concludes the song with the couplet, "just waiting to see some sun, never knowing if that day is gonna come" as the lights go out in the Jackson Cage. The song has a cathartic power in its pounding drums and jangling guitars, but it is ultimately a recognition of the limits that every person eventually encounters.

"Two Hearts" is once again propelled along by jangling guitars, and this time Steve Van Zandt's vocals are as essential to the song as Bruce's leads. Dave Marsh has written a lot about this track, and I agree with him that it's one of the songs at the core of The River, but I'll try to keep my comment on it here to just the essentials. The lyrics in this track are some of the best Bruce has ever come up with, and anyone who isn't familiar with them should go check 'em out. For now, I'll just note that the lines "once I spent my time playing tough guy scenes/well I was living in a world of childish dreams/one day this childish dream must end/to become a man and learn to dream again/I believe in the end/two hearts are better than one" is as good a description as any of the truths found throughout this record.

Side one concludes with another left-over from Darkness, the quite "Independence Day," which picks up on the theme of father-son relationships that Bruce began to explore on that earlier record. This time, we're in the family living room late at night, perhaps the same family we met in "Factory," as the son prepares to leave home. "Pappa go to bed now, it's getting late/nothing we can say will change anything now," Bruce sings, "Pappa I know the things you wanted but you could not say" before finishing with a muted, "I never meant to take those things away." It is a powerful and poignant moment, as Springsteen recognizes that many of the inevitable father-son disputes, including those with his own dad, are the product not of being different but rather of being "too much of the same kind." Danny Federici lays down a beautiful haunting organ line, and the Big Man pours molten soul into his sax solo, while Max Weinberg keeps perfect time, all of it adding up to an exquisite moment as a young boy becomes a man, and moves out to find his own freedom.

OK, I love this record too much to just cut this short ... that was my take on Side One, I'll get Side Two and the rest up as soon as I can. I've listened to The River straight through about ten times in the past week, and if anything I think it's a better record now than I did when I started. This is gonna be a long-ass review ... so my hat's off to anyone who reads the whole thing.

[JACkory]

Looking forward to it, and you can put your hat back on, as it is a pleasure to read your intelligent, often informative and passionate reviews. The subject, I'm guessing, is the fount of that passion but the other two attributes are definately your own.
As good as The River is, I'm still not convinced that it is the masterpiece you describe. But then I may be like the friend I spoke about in my Born In The USA piece, preferring the darker stuff over the upbeat, cheery fare.
That said, "Sherry Darling" is a great song, despite it's "frat-rock" leanings. I like the comedic aspects of that one and kinda divorce that from the "real world" concerns of unemployment and "putting bread on the tables", the latter of which is treated as a given (as it is)...all that is secondary to the funny stuff.
Your Mamma's yappin' in the back seat, Tell her to push over and move them big feet...
You can tell her there's a hot sun beatin' on the black top, She keeps talkin' she'll be walkin' that last block...Well this morning I ain't fighting tell her I give up, Tell her she wins if she'll just shut up, But it's the last time that she's gonna be ridin' with me...Now Sherry my love for you is real, But I didn't count on this package deal, And baby this car just aint big enough for her and me... This whole deal between Bruce and Sherry's mom, which you have to admit, makes up the bulk of the song, is pure comedy. I guess all I'm saying is that I think it's much lighter fare than what might be conjured by a concept of "real world concern" vs. dreams.
Not complaining though. Certainly not trying to get all PEW on yer ass. I can see the points, the solid ones, in this first installment, I just think you're giving just a little too much credit to the thing.
And I've got a sneaky feeling you're gonna give it the grand and coveted 5 Stars rating, at which time I fear we will come to blows.

[Galactus]

So I'm listening to The Rising, which I haven't listened to in a while but wow, Let's Be Friends is one turd of a song.

[Kensterberg]

OK, I'm gonna try something different with The River, b/c if I try to write it up song by song or even side by side, it's gonna take for-fucking-ever to finish. And it still won't be done.

The River is Springsteen's best album because it is his most complete. Everything Springsteen had been to this point is represented on here, and it also provides the seeds for everything he'd do over the rest of his career. You want one record to say here's what Bruce Springsteen is all about as an artist? -- it's this one. Moreover, The River is the conceptual capstone on the story Bruce had been telling over the previous three albums.

There are several themes developed over the course of the four sides of this album. Bruce is concerned, quite literally sometimes, with the ties that bind people together, as well as the effects of freedom and what happens when those ties are cut. In "Hungry Heart," the singer goes "out for a ride" and never comes back home, only to realize that what he really wants is what he left behind. The narrator of "The River" tells of how the door to his dreams slammed shut in the aftermath of a hurried marriage to his high school sweetheart, and leaves us pondering the question "is a dream a lie if it don't come true, or is it something worse?" But freedome and connectedness are not the only topics on the table.

By now, Springsteen's lyrics have little in common with the verbous tales of his first two albums. Here he writes in direct first person statements, even when he's throwing out an almost free association for "I'm a Rocker." If any of these guys are called Magic Rat or the Big Balls Billy, we don't know about it. On his first two albums, Bruce was singing stories about street life, here he is painting a series of first-person accounts, speaking directly for (rather than about) his characters. It's a significant change, as part of the theme of The River involves the question of what Americans owe each other. By putting himself directly into the protagonist's shoes, he makes us a part of their story as well, and leaves us to dwell on our own takes on their situations, and find the comparisons to our own lives. It's the question that haunts the driver in "Stolen Car," who prays each night that he'll get caught, as being incarcerated is likely the only way he'll escape from the bigger prison of his life, it's also the quandry that faces the people in "Hungry Heart," "The River," "Independence Day," and "Point Blank."

Ultimately, The River is simply about life, and so it is fitting that it contains both some of Springsteen's most joyful songs ("Sherry Darling," "Out in the Street," "I'm a Rocker," "Crush on You") and some of his saddest and most poignant ("Point Blank," "Drive All Night," the title track), and a fair number which balance happy and sad in some measure, often by contrasting sober lyrics with exuberant arrangements and melodies ("Hungry Heart," "Two Hearts," "Cadillac Ranch"). Everything is in here. And just as in life, there are a few answers as well.

Springsteen never comes out and says "here's the key to American life." He is both too modest to think he's really found it, and too smart to think there's an easy answer. But throughout the record, he again and again returns to the idea of companionship, both romantic and Platonic, as a way to at least keep your sanity in the face of the cruelty of the world. "Two Hearts" and "Out in the Street" both offer up commitment, to lovers and to friends, as the only solace their narrators have, and the albums most dire tales are told about people who've lost that bond. This is most powerfully displayed in the title track, which closes side two of the album with what is essentially a very dark sequel to the exuberance of "Thunder Road," and the first track on side three, "Point Blank."

"Point Blank" is lyrically a story of lost love, but it cuts much deeper than that. Roy Bittan plays a minor-keyed motif throughout the track, and the entire E Street Band strike up a haunting mood that evokes the most extreme sort of loss, while Springsteen weeves his tale of his ex-lover who no longer waits on Romeos, but instead waits for her welfare check. He tells of dreaming about a silent reunion with her in a club, but then seeing her on the street, where she doesn't even answer him, and instead merely looks away. And the singer's reaction to this is to exclaim that she's "like just another stranger waiting to get blown away point blank." The girl is not merely lost to him, like the vixen of "She's the One" or the forbidden fruit waiting in "Candy's Room," she has been totally demolished by society, adrift and alienated from one and all. There is no connection in "Point Blank," it is the story of love and lives gone totally and irrevocably wrong. And it's one of the most powerful performances in the Springsteen songbook.

From here, it should be no surprise that we soon find ourselves once more on the mean streets of the city, but this time the singer isn't hiding out with his soulmate Terri. Instead, the narrator of "Stolen Car" got the girl, got the home in the suburbs, and now hates her and himself for the soulless routine his life has become. All that he can do is pray that he gets caught, called out for the fraud he thinks he is, but he never does. And he fears, more than anything else, that he'll disappear into the darkness that is everywhere around him. Alienated and alone, this guy has fallen away from the kind of companionship that provides some solace in other spots on the record, and without that sense of connection he has fallen pray to the alienation that comes with being another faceless automaton in the working world. Perhaps he is the father from "Factory" telling his side of the story, perhaps he's the hero from "Thunder Road" (again) who went into a skid after pulling out to win and never recovered. He's all of them, and all of us.

The River could have been any number of shorter albums. It could have been a happier, more upbeat record. It could have been a record about facing up to responsibilities. It could have been an album about sacrifices or loves won and lost. On side four, Bruce gives us each of those conclusions. With "Ramrod," Springsteen sends up one final gasoline fueled party, a fitting ending for the guys we first met in Born to Run and here are represented in tracks like "Crush on You." A darker record would have been more of a direct sequel to Darkness on the Edge of Town, and could easily have concluded with the somber meditation of "The Price You Pay." Here, Springsteen both accepts the compromises necessary to getting on with life and still rages against them, vowing at the end to "take it down and throw it away!" Then there's "Drive All Night," the epic Springsteen love ballad to beat all epic Springsteen love ballads. Unlike earlier cuts such as "Backstreets" or "Racing in the Street," there is little in the way of exposition here. "Sometimes I think when I lost your love, girl I think I lost my guts, too/and I wish God would send me something I'm not afraid to lose," Bruce sings, and this is really all we need to know. The singer has lost his lover, and no amount of romantic heroics seem likely to bring her back. Instead, the Boss bargains for her, vowing he'd "drive all night again ... to sleep in your arms ... through the wind, the snow, the rain ... 'cause you've got my love, heart and soul." It is a wrenching vocal performance, where Springsteen literally seems to be pouring out his soul in these few words. If The River were an album about the importance of love and companionship, this is where it would end, with the most heart-wrenching of performances.

But that isn't where the record ends. Instead, we take a short, country-inflected drive in the rain. There, he encounters the "Wreck on the Highway," where a dying man asks for the singer's help, the ambulance takes him away, and we return home, where the presence of his own lover serves to jar the memory of the dying man, and the fact that somewhere a state trooper is telling a girlfriend or a young wife of her lover's death. This is a poignant reminder that we are all ultimately bound together by the fact of our shared humanity, and that our individual voyages along the river of life all wind up at the same place.

And that is why The River is Springsteen's best album. It is about everything, life and death, joy and sadness, and questions posed in one song are answered in throw-away lines from another. There is no filler on here, every note is vital to the entire picture Springsteen is painting. To take away even one song would be to diminish the whole. The River is the capstone to this phase of Springsteen's career, and one of the greatest albums in rock. IMHO it's the second best two-LP set ever released, behind only London Calling.

Best Tracks: "The River," "Two Hearts," "The Ties That Bind," "Drive All Night," "Point Blank."
Weakest Tracks: Didn't you read the last paragraph? There's no filler on here! None! OK, judged as individual cuts, I rarely just cue up "Wreck on the Highway" or "Crush On You," though they're both essential to the album as a whole.

I told you guys I was gonna rave over this album ... and I didn't even get to a bunch of individual songs I dearly love ("I Wanna Marry You," "Fade Away"). That does a better job of describing why I like this album so much. Next up will be Nebraska.

[JACkory]

As usual, a compelling, vastly enjoyable review, Mr. Holzman. I know I've said it before, but I wish I were half the writer that you are. Hopefully that doesn't come off as ass-kissing, as it is sincere.

Anyhoo, re: The River...
I am in agreement with many of your points...to me, though, the album is primarilly a collection of songs. The ones that appeal to me are the ones that make this album as good (to my ears) as it is. And there are a few tracks that I just don't like. I'm not really looking at the big picture like you are. Probably I should, but I can't help but gravitate to the stuff I really like and dismiss the other stuff. You (correctly) say that a shorter version of the album could have been a sequel to Darkness On The Edge Of Town, and I suppose that's just what I wanted when The River first came out. Perhaps I was, at the time, disappointed that it wasn't exactly that. Plus the fact that I really did (and do) consider some of the songs to be quite weak in comparison to his prior work, no doubt my initial impressions of the album have stuck with me throughout the years.
Your piece inspires me to try and listen with an ear towards what it could mean as an amalgamation of all Springsteen is about. But I fear it is too late and that I will always hear it exactly the way I did in 1980. Just a little bit dissapointed, but bowled over by the songs that I felt were very good.

[Kensterberg]

Oh, in case there was any doubt, The River is IMHO a five star record.

I understand the "living up to expectations" thing ... I had the same experience with Born in the USA. As I'll discuss when I get to it (maybe later today), the problem for me wasn't how popular the record was, it was the fact that the songs "sounded" too bright, too happy, to unsubstantial when compared to the four records that preceeded it. There wasn't anything on Born in the USA to match "Point Blank" or "Drive All Night," much less cuts like "Badlands" or "Darkness on the Edge of Town." And no matter what happens, whenever I revisit it, Born in the USA always winds up as something less than its predecessors. It just didn't (and doesn't) hit me as hard. Some of the outtakes from that record are among my favorite cuts, though ... just can't get enough of "Murder, Inc.," "Shut Out the Light" or "County Fair," for instance.

[Kensterberg]

In case anyone here missed this on the YSI board and is interested ... this is a soundboard recording of a 1999 show in Cleveland, which includes "Trapped," "Point Blank" and "Because the Night." Very good quality, though the piano is mixed too high and the guitars too low.

www.sendspace.com/file/tvfx7u

BTW, speaking of live shows ... I've been listening to an audio rip of the Barcelona DVD lately ... this is one of my absolute favorite live documents from the Boss. I love the way that they mixed the audience up to the point where it really does feel like you're in the crowd. I swear, Bruce could get up there and just conduct the band and let the audience sing the lyrics.

[Kensterberg]

Nebraska. (1982) 5 stars.

"Everything dies, baby that's a fact,
but maybe everything that dies someday comes back.
Put on your best dress, get your hair up pretty,
and meet me tonight in Atlantic City."

There are no anthems on Nebraska, no cathartic saxophone or guitar solos, no redemption, no salvation. The overall theme of the record is summed up in the last line of the title track, which tells the story of mass murderer Charlie Starkweather in first person, as Springsteen softly sings "they wanted to know why I did what I done, well sir I guess there's just a meanness in this world." Just as The River brought the stories of some of Springsteen's characters to a variety of conclusions, or at least stopping points, Nebraska closes the cycle by showing how trapped they all are. Recorded and released in the midst of the economic depression which marked the first years of Ronald Reagan's America, the people on Nebraska have only the remains of their dreams to sustain them, and even those are hollow memories with little real promise. "Maybe everything that dies some day comes back," the refrain of "Atlantic City" (which is the best song on the album, and another of the short list of serious contenders for the best thing Springsteen has ever done), is a long way from "it's a town full of losers and I'm pulling out of here to win."

The people who populate this album have more in common with the narrator of Grandmaster Flash's "The Message," with his warning "don't push me 'cause I'm close to the edge, I'm tryin' not to lose my head -- it's like a jungle sometimes I wonder how I keep from going under" than they do with the kids of The Wild, The Innocent and the E Street Shuffle, Born to Run, or even the disillusioned but still passionate young adults of Darkness on the Edge of Town. Where Springsteen breaks from his contemporaries, and with almost anyone holding a comparable position in mainstream pop culture, is in daring to show us what happens when the jungle finally pulls these people down. Outlaws populate the album: Starkweather in the title track; the desperate protagonist of "Johnny 99" who just wants to save his family, his house, and ultimately his dignity; the singer of "Atlantic City" who concludes his story by telling his lover "last night I met this guy and I'm gonna do a little favor for him;" and (once more) lonely young men tearing down the highway praying to avoid the cops in both "State Trooper" and "Open All Night." What motivates these men is laid out clearly in the lyrics, "the bank was holding my mortgage they was taking my house away," "the only thing I've got's been botherin' me my whole life," "I been out looking for a job but it's hard to find, down here it's just winners and losers and don't get caught on the wrong side of that line." Flashes of hope are rare and elusive, "hey ho rock and roll deliver me from nowhere" is repeated on two tracks, but so is the much more fatalistic lament of "debts that no honest man could pay."

Nowhere are all these themes, the countercurrents of what binds us together and pulls us apart, the persistence of social institutions and their seemingly inevitable collapse, better showcased than in the stunning ballad, "Highway Patrolman." As Springsteen lays out the tale of two brothers on different tracks, one as an officer of the law, the other as a ne'er do well who even his brother has to admit "ain't no good," all these conflicting threads come together brilliantly. As a straightforward narrative, this is not only one of Springsteen's finest moments (and among the rare rock or folk songs that manages to both tell a coherent tale and provide a memorable and catchy chorus), it is among the finest of such moments in American popular music. "Highway Patrolman" is very nearly as good as "Atlantic City," which is to say that it is the second track on this record that ranks among the Boss's finest moments.

There are few flaws with Nebraska, a truly remarkable achievement considering that these were recorded as demos slated for reworking with the entire E Street Band. The first side of the record ("Nebraska" through "Highway Patrolman") is slightly stronger than the second, particularly melodically. However, that is really damning the second half of the album with faint praise. "My Father's House" is the capper on the father-son songs Springsteen had rolled out to that point, "Used Cars" paints a touching portrait of a typical family, and "Reason to Believe" ends the album on an honest note. There, Springsteen outlines a series of people flailing away at impossible tasks, before marvelling that "at the end of every hard working day people find some reason to believe." Looking back over the record, this really is the only way it could end.

Nebraska was probably the most radical thing Springsteen could possibly have done in 1982. He was posed for super-stardom following the commercial and critical success of The River, and putting out an album of ten muted, depressing folk-influenced numbers was hardly the logical way to take advantage of his positioning in the popular consciousness. But it was artistically the right thing for him, and it paid off. Commercially, Nebraska was more succesful than anyone expected, easily going gold, and it earned the Boss considerable credibility with parts of the fracturing rock and roll audience that previously had dismissed him (wrongly) as being "too conservative" or "too soft" for them. Most importantly, by following the stories he'd been telling to their bitter ends on this record, Springsteen was able to then turn around and return once more to bracing rock and roll without ceding any ground lyrically or emotionally. The artistic catharsis of Nebraska, the invigoration of having gone to the darkest of dark places, let Springsteen work succesfully with the E Street Band on his next record and retain his hard-won lyrical realism while laying down some of the most joyful and rollicking music of his career.

Best Songs: "Atlantic City," "Highway Patrolman," "Johnny 99," "Used Cars"
Worst Songs: um ..."Open All Night" is probably the least weighty track here, but it's still a keeper, and "My Father's House" is probably the weakest melodically, though it packs a powerful lyrical wallop. It's a cliche, but the weakest stuff here would make most artist's career highlights package.

In summation, one hell of a record, the darkest thing in Bruce's catalog, and perhaps the best album ever made by one guy with a four track in his house. Absolutely essential.

[upinkzeppelin2]

Yeah, I just listened to snippets of Nebraska on Amazon, and oh my God, that IS right up my alley, as DED put it. It'll be the next album I order for sure.

[Kensterberg]

Born in the U.S.A. (1984) 4 stars.

This was not the album I wanted it to be. Once I took the time to read the lyric sheet, I loved the title track, and the blazing guitars and sentiment of Cover Me won me over as well, but a lot of the tracks on this seemed, well, slight at the time. In particular, Darlington County, I'm Going Down, and Working on the Highway all felt like leftovers from another, better, session. At the same time, the tracks that connected with me (the title cut, My Hometown, No Surrender, and most especially the magnificent Bobby Jean) were obviously among the best things Bruce had ever done, with dramatic and memorable hooks galore, literate and poignant lyrics, and played with fire and passion by the best band on the planet.

A couple of other tracks, which both became big hits, struck me as problematic. First, the initial single, Dancing in the Dark, has a great melody and groove, a decent lyric, and a synth hook that just didn't seem to fit the rest of the track. Ironically, I much prefered the longer dance mix of the song, which downplayed the repetitious synth hook in favor of Max Weinberg's powerful tom-tom rolls and the Big Man's piercing saxophone solos. Second, Glory Days was marred by a too-obvious (and far too literal) video, and worse by poor production (unusual for Springsteen and Landau) which left the song sounding forced and hollow. But the chorus was catchy as hell, it had a sentiment everyone can relate to, and Bruce does sing the song well.

Thematically, Born in the U.S.A. doesn't represent a big leap over either Nebraska or The River. Rather, it represents a bit of a holding pattern for Springsteen. Different musical treatments would have made it clearer that the characters in the title track, Working On the Highway, and Darlington County (for example) were all first cousins (if not closer) to the desperate men who populate Nebraska. My Hometown is practically a companion piece to that record's Used Cars, as well as yet another part of Springsteen's cycle of father songs. Similarly, the sentiment on Cover Me is almost identical to the wants of the singers of I Wanna Marry You or Two Hearts, in that all are looking for a love so powerful it overwhelms the cares and troubles of the world. Born in the U.S.A. takes the conclusions of The River and Nebraska as givens, and doesn't move far from them. Throughout this album, people are running and haunted, unable to find anything but a temporary solace, and if a track like Glory Days gives them a chance to rest and recollect a time when things (at least seemed) simpler and more settled, then My Hometown reminds them, and us, that such moments are temporary, and that change is the only constant.

Coming from another artist, one who had not so quickly and thoroughly mastered and explored his natural musical and lyrical terrain, this would have been a masterpiece. Instead, it somehow seems a letdown when compared to Springsteen's output from his second record on, at least to the most diehard of fan(atic)s of the Boss. To the rest of the world, this was Springsteen's most compact and accesible record since Born to Run, and it (deservedly) became a huge hit. Born in the U.S.A. was the sound of Springsteen consolidating his kingdom, and making his big bid at super-stardom. On both fronts, he was ultimately succesful.

If Born in the U.S.A. lacks the breakthrough power and sense of discovery (along with the promise of redemption) which had made his previous five records so compelling, it does possess the strengths of memorable melodies and hooks galore, and of almost uniformly excellent performances from Springsteen and the band. While Bruce turns over little in the way of new material (though the stark realism of I'm On Fire pointed the way to his next record) here, he doesn't lose any of the ground he'd fought so hard to win since the hit and miss nature of his debut. Instead, Bruce was able to take the truths he'd found during that journey and craft a more universally appealing set of songs within the boundary of that previously established narrative, and to do it without falling into cliche or self-parody, and to grab the brass ring of mass commercial success without compromising himself.

Springsteen's reaction to this immense success was at least as fascinating as watching him achieve it. And feeling like he had (finally) arrived in the big time freed Bruce to release the killer live set he'd always been capable of (the immense Live: 1975-1985), and then to make the first record of his career to deal exclusively with the eternal topic of love, lovers, and love gone wrong. And that one (as we shall see) is indeed a masterpiece.