BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN ALBUMS POLL

not that anyone should need the 2nd half as options, but, y'know, just to be fair and include everything.

Magic is really good. I'm going with Darkness though.

a tie between Born in the U.S.A. and Tunnel of Love. As I've said on this board and other places, TOL is probably the best romantic synth-pop album post-Avalon.

bitusa

I went with the debut, which I've been obsessed with for the past couple years, but I could easily see arguments for any of the first seven. The last seven I don't get the appeal of at all; Tunnel of Love is somewhere on the cusp, I guess.

I pledge no serious allegiance to The Boss. So I feel comfy bucking conventional wisdom and going for his punk album, The River which also includes his most universal hit, "Hungry Heart."

I bet The Ghost of Tom Joad gets more votes than anticipated.

And where's Live In New York City, home of the first officially released version of "American Skin (41 Shots)?"

I went with Darkness: reasons include the awesome double-tracked vocals throughout, "Candy's Room", "Racing in the Street", "Factory", title song. I pretty much hate "Adam Raised a Cain" but that's the only problem I have with this record. Second place: The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle, for my single favorite Bruce song, "Incident on 57th Street".

aww hell through 1987:

1. Darkness on the Edge of Town
2. The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle
3. Born in the U.S.A.
3. Tunnel of Love
3. Nebraska
6. Born to Run
7. The River
8. Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J.

after that, well I like The Rising and the Plugged album from the early 90s.

how many hemorrhoids busted out after he moaned "ADAM RAYSED A CAAA-IYYN!"?

The River is "his punk album"? Kevin John Bozelka, you never fail to astound and amaze.

Well, sure it is. Two discs full of short, fast, punky numbers. And "Hungry Heart."

"Out in the Streets" is Buzzcocks worthy, methinks.

And "Adam Raised a Cain" live (and even in the studio) certainly had an edge to it both instrumentally and vocally.

xp "Ramrod" is Dave Edmunds-worthy! Maybe "Cadillac Ranch," too! (That's sort of punk, right?)

Best live album: Hammersmith Odeon, London '75 (Columbia, 2006).

Best record post-1987: "Streets Of Philadelphia"

I voted for Nebraska which I think is his best songwriting. Born in the USA has some great stuff, but also things I hate like "Cover Me," "No Surrender" and "Bobby Jean." I guess after Nebraska I would go Born to Run, Tunnel, USA, River, Darkness.

why do you hate "Cover Me"? Admittedly, it would have worked best if Donna Summer had accepted it instead of "Protection."

The Arthur Baker remix is great.

"Adam Raised a Cain" is OK on some of those 1978 boots. For me it's like "Bennie and the Jets": plodding arrangement without a climax. But I have come around to liking "Bennie and the Jets", so maybe someday I'll get "Adam Raised a Cain" too.

The Hammersmith Odeon show from 1975 is great; I got the Born to Run anniversary set which has the show as a DVD, and it's awesome.

But the Bryn Mawr show from 1975 is unbelievably great, not least because it opens with a piano-and-violin version of "Incident on 57th Street" that will break your heart. Also: glockenspiel on later tracks. This is not punk rock.

BITUSA and TOL are the best albums and have the best songwriting. BITUSA is greater than TOL.

why do you hate "Cover Me"? Admittedly, it would have worked best if Donna Summer had accepted it instead of "Protection."

The Arthur Baker remix is great.

-- Alfred, Lord Sotosyn

It just sounds completely uninspired, by-the-numbers to me. (I haven't heard the remix.) I can imagine Donna Summer doing a great version of it, though.

this was surprisingly easy for me -- Greetings From Asbury Park.

2nd for me would be The Wild, The Innocent....third Nebraska

real talk:

VINI LOPEZ>>>>>MAX WEINBERG

Yeah, Mad Dog Lopez is the Stephen Adler of dad-rock.

"Cover Me" has always sounded almost as constipated as "Adam Raised a Cain" to me (and less metal, which is probably part of why I like it less.)

"Darkness," baby.

It's much shorter, though, and has a terrific solo.

(xpost)

a long time ago i would have said "born to run"

but then it occurred to me that born to run just sound like a guy trying REALLY hard to do things that sounded so effortless on the first two albums

Darkness is my shit. It was the last of the early albums that I checked out, and after hearing each of the other ones I was like "c'mon, I know there's one album that's the Bruce album with all the stuff I like about him rolled up into the perfect package," and then I finally found it in the last place I looked.

darkness is pretty awesome.

i'm sure you could cobble together a 1 disc mix of the river that would blow my mind.

jesus dont make me choose

Born In The USA.

But it could have been The River if he had done a better job selecting material. Some of the outtakes on the Tracks box set are astoundingly good, much better than a lot of the songs on that record. Especially Loose Ends.

nebraska no contest

then darkness

then the river

It's "Born In The USA" for me. Really. That's where he perfected his rocker type better than ever before or since.

real talk:

STEEL MILL>>>>>E Street

Shuffle wins this though.

"Shuffle" is slightly too patchy for me to go for. Although "Fourth Of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)" may be his best ever song.

STEEL MILL>>>>>E Street

CASTILES>>>>>>Steel Mill

I voted Wild & Innocent but could have been Born to Run or the River or Nebraska, depending on the day.

Nebraska, without a doubt. I've never understood the love for the E Streeters, and more often than not, Springsteen seems to have smothered a great song with cheeeeze productions.

DR. ZOOM AND THE SONIC BOOM>>>>THE CASTILES

"Tunnel Of Love" > "Nebraska". Those folk songs deserve a proper production, not just acoustic guitar and harmonica.

the river

after that,
nebraska
darkness

The River

STELL MILL>>DR. ZOOM AND THE SONIC BOOM>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>THE CASTILES

Had to be The Wild, the Innocent... for me. That's the one I always come back to. It's got all the archtypical Bruce songs. Ambitious but still endearing and fresh.

i could take anything from darkness to usa, but i voted usa because i think it's the strongest from start to finish. darkness has a couple duds (never liked "prove it all night"), the river has more than a couple, and i love nebraska but it's so much its own thing that i have a hard time calling it the best bruce springsteen album. (what i mean is, to call it the best bruce springsteen album is to imply that he has spent most of his career yalping up the wrong tree and he should've just been a strummy folkie, which i don't believe.)

VINI LOPEZ>>>>>MAX WEINBERG

agreed but not for the band bruce wanted to have. i think he wanted more that big bam-boom than the shuffle. which was true of axl too i suppose.

voted 'the river', becaused for me it encapsulates the very essence of springsteen. captures him in two (or more) minds, but is pretty cohesive as far as double records go. too many songs about cars, but i can forgive him that

car symbolism is interesting in his songs. "I swear I found the key to the universe in the engine of an old parked car" turns into "thunder road" turns into "racing in the street" turns into "cadillac ranch," which is approximately youth to ambition to failure to death. and then came nebraska.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Tunnel Of Love, some of Springsteen's most honest and moving songs are on it.

I bet The Ghost of Tom Joad gets more votes than anticipated.

I anticipate it getting between zero and two, so you may be right. It is a very good album, but it has such a one-dimentional and bare sound that its kind of suffocating, and I can't see putting it near the top of his discography (mind you, other Springsteen albums that I love -- e.g., Nebraska -- also have a one-dimentional sound; I guess I just prefer that particular sound to the one on Tom Joad).

I don't think Nebraska has a one-dimensional sound. It has those Alan Vega-like howls in the background, for one thing. For another, the tempos vary quite a bit. It's a good thing that every song doesn't sound like "Used Cars". Unfortunately, just about every song on Tom Joad sounds like "Used Cars"; and on that later album, Bruce sings in the same hokey-Okie drawl on each song, hardly any variation in tone or register.

Tunnel Of Love, for being the missing link between John Hiatt and East River Pipe.

Nebraska. I'm not a huge E-Street fan. The playing (the drumming in particular) is far too stiff for my tastes. But what I've heard from Magic is very encouraging.

All the dudes who want a single-disc version of The River, have any of you heard The Ties That Bind? It's the record he was making before he decided he wanted to go all adult and heavy with The River-- tracklist:

01 - The Ties That Bind
02 - Cindy
03 - Hungry Heart
04 - Stolen Car
05 - To Be True
06 - The River
07 - You Can Look (But You Better Not Touch)
08 - The Price You Pay
09 - I Wanna Marry You
10 - Loose Ends

And the arrangements on all the songs that wound up on The River are really different, much crisper and a little more pop.

I could YSI if anyone wants.

I chose Born in the USA, one of the most subversive pop albums ever made.

you're not allowed to say things like that

It is though! In almost every song, the verse says the opposite of what the chorus and the music are saying. It's like a Segre Gainsbourg trick except for politics instead of perv.

Darkness

Good use of "Adam Raised A Cain" in John Sayles's best movie, Baby, It's You. Also of "Saint In The City" but I'm not voting for the album that one is on.

Lot's of discussion here of various topics like Max vs. Mad Dog: "Born to Run" by Bruce Springsteen -- who really enjoys this overproduced crappy glop?

"the ties that bind" is a stone jam

his pronunciation of the word 'bind' pre-empted gnr's 'you could be mine'

best album: nebraska
best-sounding album: the river

i get this weird feeling that "born to run" isn't going be even close to winning this, which is kinda weird when you think abt it

I would have guessed that Tunnel Of Love, Nebraska or Born In The USA would win the poll. We'll see.

yeah Bruce is one of those artists where the canonical view of their discography is pretty easy to predict but putting the question to a community like ILM will skew it in an interesting way. at least I'm hoping the results will be less predictable than "oh duh, Nebraska is the indie choice".

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

LOL at the #1, you fucking rockists.

i just hate dude's voice outside of anything but a folk context

No surprise Nebraska won w/ this crowd I guess. I'm a little surprised to see Born to Run so low; also at three votes for Greetings, cool album but hard for me to imagine liking it best. Definitely the best album art he ever had though!

It's a surprise Nebraska won with THIS crowd -- ILM loves big hooks, more-than-competent bands, and mainstream accomodations.

i like more-than-competent bands and i've never been convinced e st is enough of one. they're fine at what they do, i guess, but i find the arrangements terribly samey and the production overthought and underdone. i'm a fan, but the productions rarely gel for me. stripped of all that, nebraska showcases his voice, which is my favorite thing about him, and i hear plenty of hooks there, namely "atlantic city" (quite possibly my all-time fave bruce song), "johnny 99," "open all night," "reason to believe," and there are others. it's so damn consistent and relentless and plain in the playing/writing/chording/moodiness, which bothers me on some other albums but totally wins me over here. it takes me somewhere and leaves me there, cold and shaking and alone, like i'm in solitary confinement or something. that's entertainment. plus, i've got a thing for well-made demos, and i get a kick out of lines scattered all over the album where he clearly hadn't figured out the phrasing yet.

not sure what the NON-rockist choice would have been here. human touch, perhaps? quite possibly the only album in the catalog that isn't fully endorsed by rockists incorporated.

I think Born in the USA is the popists' choice - lot of synths, singles-oriented, a bigger beat, even a few 12" mixes.

"Human Touch" is hated by more or less everybody because it tried to be what the earlier albums had been and failed.

"Born In The USA" was pretty unpopular among the typical critic for several years due to its huge sales and extreme mainstream popularity.

"Born In The USA" was pretty unpopular among the typical critic for several years due to its huge sales and extreme mainstream popularity.

I don't think this is right. But it did follow a somewhat predictable arc. On it's release, I remember it being pretty widely praised by critics. Then, when it became a multi-million selling cultural phenomenon, people (incl. critics) began dismissing it more and longing for more obscure Springsteen discs. Then, when a sufficient amount of time passed, people (incl. critics) began looking more fondly at Born In The USA again; i.e., it was okay to like that disc again.

the typical critic

Geir felt bad when Barack called him the typical white person

Uhhhh . . . that first "it's" should be "its." Damn typos.

Daniel OTM.

"Born In The USA" was pretty unpopular among the typical critic for several years due to its huge sales and extreme mainstream popularity.

It topped the P&J poll in 1984. This means that lots of "typical" critics voted for it.

It's interesting to think about how differently things could have gone for Springsteen in this decade, and how that might have changed his legacy. If the Rising didn't have those 9/11 associations and his return to a full band sound had been more in the vein of his 1992 disasters, he'd have a much smaller cult right now no matter what else he might have done since.

The 911 associations surely helped "The Rising" a big deal as it wasn't that great, really. I see "Magic" as more of an indisputable return to form. For the first time since "Born In The USA", Bruce was rocking again. Not half-heartedly like on "Human Touch", "Lucky Town" or "The Rising", but rather fully and with all of his heart and soul.

I haven't heard much from Magic, but the few songs I heard sounded as over-glossy as the songs on Human Touch (and reminded me more of that album than Born In The USA). But again, I haven't really heard enough to draw a firm conclusion.

If the Rising didn't have those 9/11 associations and his return to a full band sound had been more in the vein of his 1992 disasters, he'd have a much smaller cult right now no matter what else he might have done since.

the title track of the rising is fabulous. the rest of the album is meh. i'm not sure that's what brought him back into the spotlight though. i think it was simply touring again with the e st band after a very long hiatus. and also simply getting back to work.

he made a total of three albums in the '90s, and two of them came out on the same day, so if you count that as one album, he only made two, really, in the decade.

he's already made five in the '00s if you count the live album with the seeger sessions band, which i think you should.

basically he took a good chunk of the '90s off (to raise his kids, presumably), and went back to work in the '00s. and he's still reasonably good at what he does. i think it's that simple.

Magic has some very good songs, but the production blows, mix is weird and it's - yep - too loud. Man I hope he finds the right producer for the next one, maybe Rick Rubin would work.

the rest of the album is meh

There was at least one other song on The Rising that was very moving. You're Missing, I think it was called. A little too obvious lyrically, perhaps, but still effective.

hmm, yeah, that seems reasonable fcc, you may be right. It seems like the Rising paved the way this decade but it may have just been the increased visibility. Agreed on it being way overrated.

I've always thought that The Rising would have been a great EP: "You're Missing," the title track, "Empty Sky," "My City's in Ruins," maybe "The Fuse"

I think ILX is the only place lately I've seen love for Tunnel, which I think has dadrock/synthschmaltz connotations-- which I guess are both accurate-ish but in the best possible way. It would have been cool if that came out on top. Was it the lurkers?

I voted for it. But then again, I'm (a) old, (b) a dad who sometimes likes dadrock, and (c) okay with synthschmaltz.

And Geir I think on Human Touch "I Wish I Was Blind" is one of the best songs of that sort he ever wrote, though it was overlooked on that kind of crappy one-note pop album.

I bought TOL when I was 20 and fell in love with it immmediately, for reasons I tried to explain here

I think sometimes that it's his most perfect album, and then I remember that I always skip "Tunnel of Love," which sounds like Huey Lewis, and "Spare Parts," which sounds like fucking Melissa Etheridge.

And by the way, at a show I went to last fall he and Patti did "Tougher Than the Rest." I about fucking died.

Melissa Etheridge couldn't get within 200 light years of the talent it took to write Spare Parts.

Sorry, that was too harsh. I can't stand Melissa Etheridge. I love the song Spare Parts.

"Tunnel of Love" (the song) gets better the more I hear it -- those wordless harmonies, the rollercoaster effects, the chord change before the outro...

There was also a great song on Lucky Town, called My Beautiful Reward. It really stood out against the rest of that listless disc.

Really? God, I can't bear those songs. Maybe I should try them again. Tunnel, anyway. I'm sure that I hate Spare Parts.

(xp) (I like My Beautiful Reward too)

It's the lyrics that really get me on Spare Parts. I just find it a very powerful narrative, very well told.

When it comes to Bruce Springsteen, I usually feel like he's one of the rare musicians who are pretty susceptible to nasty trends in production and arrangement but that the performance and the songwriting, if nothing else, finds its way through. On Born in the USA I really think the big production was used to slip the real album under the radar of the broad audience he was obviously shooting for, but you look through his whole career and the ugly production trends of the time are consistently all over his records, right up to today. And it's not a problem, you get the music anyway. But on Spare Parts I cannot do it. It sounds so bad to me I just can't open my ears to what the song's supposed to sound like. I can't tell you a single word of one of the verses.

Lyrics, sans music:

Bobby said he’d pull out Bobby stayed in
Janey had a baby wasn’t any sin
They were set to marry on a summer day
Bobby got scared and he ran away
Jane moved in with here ma out on shawnee lake
She sighed ma sometimes my whole life feels like one big mistake
She settled in in a back room time passed on
Later that winter a son came along

Spare parts and broken hearts
Keep the world turnin’ around

Now Janey walked that baby across the floor night after night
But she was a young girl and she missed the party lights
Meanwhile in south texas in a dirty oil patch
Bobby heard about his son bein’ born and swore he wasn’t ever goin’ back

Spare parts and broken hearts
Keep the world turnin’ around

Janey heard about a woman over in Calverton
Put her baby in the river let the river roll on
She looked at her boy in the crib where he lay
Got down on her knees cried till she prayed

Mist was on the water low run the tide
Janey held her son down at the riverside
Waist deep in water how bright the sun shone
She lifted him in her arms and carried him home

As he lay sleeping in her bed janey took a look around at everything
Went to a drawer in her bureau and got out her old engagement ring
Took out her wedding dress tied that ring up in it’s sash
Went straight down to the pawn shop man and walked out with some good
Cold cash

Spare parts and broken hearts
Keep the world turnin’ around

Now, lyrics without music are usually corny and trite. That may be true here, too. But I find them very affecting, and even moreso in the context of the song. But I hear what you're saying.

On Born in the USA I really think the big production was used to slip the real album under the radar of the broad audience he was obviously shooting for, but you look through his whole career and the ugly production trends of the time are consistently all over his records, right up to today.

Generally, tho, I think this is totally OTM.

Ha, I went to give it another try and noticed that I had actually erased those two songs from my MP3 copy. Listening to the whole album on vinyl now, which I see I bought for $1.50.

When it comes to Bruce Springsteen, I usually feel like he's one of the rare musicians who are pretty susceptible to nasty trends in production and arrangement

otm. i feel like the only records of his that truly transcend contemporary production trends are nebraska and born to run. i love the live versions of the darkness stuff, but the studio renditions are almost laughably stiff and claustrophobic...like they let steely dan's engineers take the helm (it worked for steely dan, doesn't for bruce).

although, even though born in the USA has 80s trademarks like gated drums and digital synth pads, it was mostly recorded in 1982, before those sounds were common (or used at all).

So gated drums gives drums that hollow, reverb-y sound? If so, that's the term I've been looking for to describe the drum sound I most remember from the 80s. Phil Collins used that technique too, right?

Yeah. The trick is, the drums have a lot of reverb put on them, and then they're gated, which cuts the reverb off abruptly. Apparently, the technique was invented by Hugh Padgham and used first on Phil Collins' drums on "Intruder," from that melting face Peter Gabriel album.

That technique made the drums sound "big" and "outsized," which I think was the dominant sound of 80s popular music (unironic "big" and "outsized" music, I should say).

You could even say that it's the production on Born to Run that kept it out of the #1 spot here, if it wasn't just contrarianism; I mean, Jungleland and Backstreets I think are a better synthesis of the early-70s streetlife romance than anything on the earlier albums (except maybe "Sandy," and I know that's not what it's called). The singles are about kids under the influence of pop music who don't want to accept responsibility because they refuse to accept that the promises of the radio were untrue, and you would think ILX would eat that shit up, but the WOS production makes it sound so sincere that you find otherwise very perceptive guys totally unwilling to give Springsteen the benefit of the doutb, even though immediately after that album he started writing rock songs about grown-ups, for the first time... ever, maybe?

Yeah, I like "Spare Parts" a lot and I think the lyrics are especially good. Very simple and clear story told with few words, a real arc to the narrative, no moralizing.

The problem with Born in the USA isn't production or hipster anti-populism cred, it's consistency. About half the songs are great, some like Bobby Jean and Glory Days are just above average and too many are just filler (Cover Me, I'm Goin' Down). Bruce's reeling quality control finally disappeared after Tunnel of Love -- Alfred OTM about The Rising as an EP. Magic is sort of a return to form but -- Terry's Song? I mean, the worst song on Born to Run is Meeting Across the River or maybe Night. Like a .300 hitter batting 9th. His best output post-TOL would make one solid double-album. Maybe I'll get to work on that.

Sports cliches RULE.

I can only stand at most half the songs on Magic, but Terry's Song is one of them. Jake, I think that was added on late in the game after dude died, so you can probably get rid of it without much changing the way the album's supposed to sound.

and wtf "I'm Goin' Down" is great!

And what about Downbound Train, maybe my favorite song on Born In The USA? It's gold!

lol Bobby Jean and Glory Days "just above average"

Gated drums have obviously been used for a lot of really awful stuff, but I feel that if there was one artist whose style really benefited from it, it was Bruce Springsteen. The gated drums on "Born In The USA" still sound fantastic to me, and just perfectly right for that particular style of music.

I can understand thinking "Spare Parts" doesn't really fit: it's a blues-rock song on an album largely bereft of them (there's blues, but they don't rock). I think it's a great blues-rock song, but if that's not your bag, the album has lots to offer you anyway.

Re "I'm Goin' Down," it may be 'cause I heard it live in high school with a girlfriend who broke up shortly thereafter. I could just never stand the bald-faced nostalgia of "Glory Days," and for some reason, this line in "Bobby Jean" always bugged me: "We liked the same music/we liked the same bands/we liked the same clothes." They liked the same music AND the same bands? But I absolutely LOVE No Surrender so there ya go.

Spare Parts BTW is my favorite-sounding song on that whole album, particularly the siren harmonica.

"glory days" isn't so much nostalgic as a meditation on nostalgia, "boring stories of glory days."

I see the point, but that one word "boring" never struck me as negating/commenting on the rest of the song. Also, I'm not sure if the reason that song became a hit, i.e., the reason so many people like it, is because it's meditating on nostalgia. They like it because they too know that ol' baseball player who could blow the speedball by you in HS. But I guess one could make the same claim about the title track and patriotism.

They liked the same music AND the same bands?

We both loved punk. Not only that, we liked the same punk bands. For instance, we both hated Slaughter & The Dogs and The Stranglers. And we both liked The Clash and The Sex Pistols.

We even both liked the same clothes seeing as how safety pins are unisex.

xpost i think "glory days" is not a "good old days" song, it's a getting-older song. it's about how easily an idealized past becomes a refuge from a disappointing present. i think it's a lot sadder than it seems at first pass, but of course that's true of the whole album.

Yes, I'd say it's pretty much an anti-nostalgia song. The music makes you think it's about how awesome old times are, but when you listen to the song the characters are cast as pretty pathetic. This is what I'm saying about that album in general, that Born in the USA sounds like a patriotic anthem but isn't, Glory Days sounds like an old-times awesome song but is the opposite of that, Workin' on the Highway sounds like a fun-times workin' man song but is about a guy in jail for-- what? kidnapping? statutory rape? No Surrender is about becoming an adult and giving the fuck up, and Darlington County, where do you start with that one.

That line in Bobby Jean bugs me too, I can't understand why he couldn't find another syllable there. Doesn't bug me enough to prevent me from fucking loving that song 1000%.

I mean, the worst song on Born to Run is Meeting Across the River

That's probably my favorite song on Born To Run, and Richard Davis is stunning on it. I can't think of anyone else who could have played with both Albert Ayler and Bruce Springsteen so convincingly without giving up any of their own distinctive voice in either situation.

I'm no Meeting Across the River-hater! Great song. Great album, all the way through. I voted Nebraska but Born to Run is 2nd. Then Tunnel of Love and Darkness tied. Still think Glory Days is as much about nostalgia as anti-nostalgia. It's at least open to interpretation, unlike Born in the USA, which is explicit in the verses.

We even both liked the same clothes seeing as how safety pins are unisex.

Bobby Jean is about Steve Van Zandt.

Gated drums have obviously been used for a lot of really awful stuff, but I feel that if there was one artist whose style really benefited from it, it was Bruce Springsteen. The gated drums on "Born In The USA" still sound fantastic to me, and just perfectly right for that particular style of music.

I agree, and the Arthur Baker remix of "Dancing in the Dark" is one of my favorite eighties singles.

glory days' key line is "Time slips by and leaves you with nothin' mister, but boring stories of....glory days"

that doesn't seem that nostalgic to me

after listening to asbury park and wild innocent again i'd probably change my vote to wild innocent...i forgot about the short of sleepy just-okay dylan-y acoustic ones on there...and goddamn "rosalita" is pretty much the perfect springsteen song.

i think "does this bus stop at 82nd street?" and "for you" always make me thing the album is more perfect than it really is.

The problem with Greetings From Asbury Park is that the demo versions on the Tracks box set are all 1000 times superior. Those songs should have been recorded with just an acoustic guitar.

I think "Mary Queen of Arkansas" is one of his worst songs ever, personally.

yeah that was the one i had kinda blocked out

also no way should they be acoustic i want MORE band shenanigans on that record not less!!!!

BITUSA needs a few bog-standard tunes given how much the great songs hit you over the head

Bobby Jean is about Steve Van Zandt.

(rolls eyes)

you are all fucking heathens for giving 80s Bruce more votes than 70s Bruce by a 2 to 1 margin

I think "Mary Queen of Arkansas" is one of his worst songs ever, personally.

Yes. Along with Drive All Night.

Mark Rich@rdson
Off subject, are you the dude who just linked to the No Age song on pitchfork? If so, many thanks. That is a great band.

you are all fucking heathens for giving 80s Bruce more votes than 70s Bruce by a 2 to 1 margin

He did write better songs b/w 1980-1987.

Inspired by this thread I downloaded The Wild, The Innocent... and Born to Run. I'm trying to get into them, but so far it's been tough sledding. I think maybe it's the progginess that's putting me off. I haven't cracked the lyrics yet, so maybe that will be the key.

I went with Darkness: reasons include the awesome double-tracked vocals throughout, "Candy's Room", "Racing in the Street", "Factory", title song. I pretty much hate "Adam Raised a Cain" but that's the only problem I have with this record. Second place: The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle, for my single favorite Bruce song, "Incident on 57th Street".

aww hell through 1987:

1. Darkness on the Edge of Town
2. The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle
3. Born in the U.S.A.
3. Tunnel of Love
3. Nebraska
6. Born to Run
7. The River
8. Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J.

after that, well I like The Rising and the Plugged album from the early 90s.

― Euler, Monday, March 24, 2008 10:36 AM (1 year ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

really feeling this post, Born To Run underrating aside

He did write better songs b/w 1980-1987.

Correct.

I really should be able to get into this stuff. I like the way the band sounds on these albums, I like his voice, I buy the whole faded-NJ-shore-town mystique - heck, I even live in NJ - and I like Van Morrison and Dylan and lots of '50s rock. Something doesn't quite click for me though - but I'll keep trying.

Try Tunnel of Love.

tbh i pretty much only listen to Broooce bootlegs when I want to listen to Broooce. A lot more exciting to me.

born to run used to be my favorite album ever, so that one

re. Bruce bootlegs, this is pretty overwhelming:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y28OiuX_Bo0&feature=related

ohio...michigan...its all the same anyway...

http://new.music.yahoo.com/bruce-springsteen/news/hello-ohio-psst-boss-were-in-michigan--61996331

He did write better songs b/w 1980-1987.
Correct.

― Daniel, Esq., Friday, November 13, 2009 3:23 PM (2 days ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

and he made MUCH MUCH better-sounding and more listenable records b/w 1973-1978.

Kind of depressing that Nebraska gets the hipster vote around here. Yeah it's a fine album and all but it doesn't capture the essence of Springsteen for me. Darkness does that.

otm, darkness is the springsteen stan pic. it's the only album where he's doing his rock opera thing andd his pop song thing anddd his existentialist americana thing at the same time.

I'm still blown away by that youtube I posted yesterday. Here's another that's worth your while (yes, I love this song, and while there are better 1975 versions (oh goodness the Bryn Mawr version is heavenly), there aren't many with (admittedly shitty) VIDEO):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0IMRkIuBrw

He did write better songs b/w 1980-1987.

_______________________________

Correct.

― Daniel, Esq., Friday, November 13, 2009

_______________________________

and he made MUCH MUCH better-sounding and more listenable records b/w 1973-1978.

― some dude, Sunday, November 15, 2009

I get this. Nineteen seventies Springsteen -- that fist-pumping, Americana, bar-band feel -- just doesn't connect with me. The more quiet, contemplative, reflective stuff on Tunnel Of Love does connect with me, and it features some of the most insightful lyrics about relationships I've heard.

I've decided that I do like the song "Rosalita". I have a feeling that I may acquire a taste for The Wild, The Innocent before Born to Run.

It really is striking to me how vast a canyon in style The Wild, the Innocent... and Born to Run are. like the former features Bruce actually singing more than doing his throaty rock 'n roll bray, there's jazz influences galore, not really much in the way of big choruses, and long songs that cover a lot of stylistic ground.

Born to Run is just this big rock album in comparison, still with its touches of excess, but more commercially viable...and it's great...it's just usually you'd see an artist have two albums between such a stylistic shift rather than going there in the span of one album.

i don't understand why Born To Run is considered the best Boss album (not here obviously)

It really is striking to me how vast a canyon in style The Wild, the Innocent... and Born to Run are. like the former features Bruce actually singing more than doing his throaty rock 'n roll bray, there's jazz influences galore, not really much in the way of big choruses, and long songs that cover a lot of stylistic ground. Born to Run is just this big rock album in comparison, still with its touches of excess, but more commercially viable...and it's great...it's just usually you'd see an artist have two albums between such a stylistic shift rather than going there in the span of one album.

for what it's worth:

1973 - releases the wild, the innocent
1974 - meets, and hires, jon landau
1975 - releases born to run

i don't think the stylistic differences are as wide as neanderthal suggests -- born to run strikes me as a perfectly reasonable, in a best-case-scenario sort of way, followup to the wild, the innocent. i also don't think jon landau was sitting in bruce's bedroom with him telling him what chords to play. but inasmuch as born to run starts (a) zeroing in on hooks and (b) codifying the bruce springsteen myth, i think landau's influence does immediately start making itself apparent here.

i think the bigger, and wider, one-album gap was between born to run and darkness. the reasons for that, which also partially involve landau, are well documented.

this list is really dire after 1995.

for what it's worth:

1973 - releases the wild, the innocent
1974 - meets, and hires, jon landau
1975 - releases born to run

Yeah, but also:

1975 - David Sancious leaves. I suspect he had a lot to do with the breadth of stylistic ground covered on Wild, Innocent, etc.

there was quite a bit of turnover, actually, new pianist, new drummer and steven van zandt makes his presence felt for the first time.

i'm sure you could cobble together a one-disc mix of The River that would blow my mind.

It could have been The River if he had done a better job selecting material. Some of the outtakes on the Tracks box set are astoundingly good, much better than a lot of the songs on that record. Especially "Loose Ends."

I've since gone back to listening to the album as-is, but for a long while, I listened to a single-CD version I made that replaces "I'm a Rocker" with "Loose Ends," "Ramrod" with "Roulette," and "Drive All Night" with "Be True." Still 20 songs, but replacing that 8+ minute penultimate track with a 4-minute one was enough to bring the whole thing under 80 minutes. Flowed great, absolutely love it.

Going back to 1988, Springsteen has repeatedly said on record that "Be True" and "Roulette" should have made the album and were much better than some of the stuff he did include. "Loose Ends" was the original closer to the single LP he nearly wanted as his album in 1979 before changing his mind. They're all great tracks, but knowing that made their selection easier.