So I was reading this terrible article that was 'guised as a "primer" for newbies looking to explore Bruce Springsteen's work... and I just couldn't stand it anymore. Clearly this is a writer who just doesn't "get" Springsteen and was just assigned to write some drivel to put up on the site. Lots of the suggested tracks come from The River which for my money is most overrated cds in the Springsteen catalog. If a person were to cut the double disc effort down to say 12 tracks, then perhaps it could hold its place between Darkness on the Edge of Town and Nebraska. As it is right now, it has glimpses of brilliance stuck between way too many rock fillers that would later become a good deal of Sprinsteen's material in the 80's.

So what does one need to get into Springsteen? Well instead of trying to get into two somewhat dated albums of material in Greetings from Asbury Park. N.J. and The Wild, the Innocent, and the E Street Shuffle... you should pick up the live cd Live at Hammersmith Odeon '75. Springsteen always sounds better live and the shows he used to put on in his younger days were epic. The E Street Shuffle is leaps and bounds ahead of the stuffy studio version and you really get a chance to hear the band stretch things out. Plus you get to see the man touring behind the one of the most influential cds of all time.

Which brings us to Born to Run. Born to Run contains 8 tracks... each of which feels like a grand symphony. The piano intro of Thunder Road is the best example of this... as it starts out, you can feel yourself getting swept up into it. Perhaps the best track Springsteen has ever written, Backstreets, seems to pick up on this after a bit of an uptempo swing with Ten Avenue Freeze Out and Night. Backstreets again deals with the tales of youth and mistakes that always seems to haunt the best of Bruce's tracks. Again with an epic feel thanks to the grand intro... the disc flows right on to the closer Jungleland. I hate to use the term "rock opera" especially with it being associated with Greenday now... ugh... but this to me is the best example of that.

With all that being said... my favorite album with always be Darkness on the Edge of Town. The title track, Streets of Fire, and Racing in the Street are all classic Springsteen songs. Each keying on the heart and soul of his writing... mistakes and regrets. Combined with Born to Run, these cds are most accessible and easily the two best examples of the brilliance in the 70's work of The Boss.

If you are still with the program after those 3 albums, then you should go darker with the mysterious Ghost of Tom Joad and the the stripped down Nebraska. Neither has that full sound of The E Street Band, but they give you an intimacy that only seems make Bruce's words more poignant. Some people dismiss Tom Joad and I've never understood why. Perhaps it is because after Born in the USA and Tunnel of Love, people were conditioned to the rock/pop singles that he released the the 80's. Tom Joad certainly did not sound like any of those... and it didn't have any "singles" on it to carry the album so it pretty much was DOA. It would seem to parallel Nebraska which followed the success of his in the 70's and 1980's The River. While neither cd really cuts to the heart of you like BTR or DOTEOT... they achieved something different. You could really hear the storyteller in Bruce... in song was a story in itself instead of the seemingly autobiographical feel to his earlier cds. To me it felt like Johnny Cash... and perhaps that is the greatest compliment you could ever give another artist.

Most of his other work is filled with great treasures littered in between some filler, but Bruce was never an artist who pumped out cds. (like Van Morrison or Ryan Adams) He did fall into a rut in the 80's and hasn't quite given us another classic since Tom Joad... although I do have some great affection for Devils and Dust. His most recent effort, Magic, really does have a raw feel that give you a love child of his better 80's work and the looseness of the early days of the E Street Shuffle.

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steve simon says:

i think to understand bruce you have to start with "greetings from" it sets the whole stage of what's to come. great post

Posted 9 months ago | Delete