These days you don't wait on Romeos you wait on those BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN POLL RESULTS

http://www.snapgalleries.com/userfiles/image/MyHomeTown.jpg

Okay! Finally! Apologies for the delay in getting these out, been hugely busy away in Australia with bad internet results. Currently at Singapore airport using their free wifi so will get going with some album results and then tracks will start tomorrow once I get back to the UK - i'll do the top 60.

Overall I had 34 ballots - with 25 people also voting for their top albums.

140 tracks were voted for in total. Every album received at least one vote with the exception of Human Touch and Working On A Dream...

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/43/Borntorun.jpg/220px-Borntorun.jpg
1. Born To Run (681 points, 20 votes)

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/a/af/BruceSpringsteenDarknessontheEdgeofTown.jpg/220px-BruceSpringsteenDarknessontheEdgeofTown.jpg
2. Darkness On The Edge Of Town (593 points, 17 votes)

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/3/31/BruceBorn1984.JPG/220px-BruceBorn1984.JPG
3. Born In The USA (527 points, 16 votes)

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/1f/TheWildTheInnocent.jpg
4. The Wild, The Innocent and the E Street Shuffle (488 points, 15 votes)

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/e/e2/Springsteen_The_River.jpg/220px-Springsteen_The_River.jpg
5. The River (393 points, 12 votes)

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/43/Nebraska1982.JPG/220px-Nebraska1982.JPG
6. Nebraska (381 points, 11 votes)

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/a/a7/TunnelOfLove1987.JPG/220px-TunnelOfLove1987.JPG
7. Tunnel Of Love (355 points, 10 votes)

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/2/2f/Greetings_from_Asbury_Park_NJ.jpg/220px-Greetings_from_Asbury_Park_NJ.jpg
8. Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. (192 points, 6 votes)

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/b6/Springsteen_The_Rising.jpg
9. The Rising (124 points, 4 votes)

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/0/04/Bruce_Springsteen_Live_75-85.jpg/220px-Bruce_Springsteen_Live_75-85.jpg
10. Live 1975-1985 (97 points, 3 votes)

After the top ten, The Seeger Sessions had two votes, with Live At Hammersmith 75, Lucky Town, Ghost Of Tom Joad, Magic, Darkness Box Set, Devils And Dust and Wrecking Ball all receiving one vote each.

OH SHIT BROOOOOOCE!!!

bad internet results? i obviously meant bad internet access. brain currently fried from being in the middle of 24 hours or travel. anyway...

I'll just be over here with Lucky Town, all by ourselves.

woohoo Bruce!

surprised Nebraska didn't do better in the albums poll. i kind of mentally class it with other 'low-selling cult favorites by big stars' that tend to be beloved by ILM like Prince's Dirty Mind, Bowie's Low, Madonna's Erotica, etc.

I'll just be over here with Joad, Magic and Devils, all by ourselves. Ithappens popping over with a Seeger later.

BROOOOOOOOOOOOCE

I'll be over here gloating that Darkness is #2 yaaaay

sad i didn't get to vote. would have voted darkness #1. bruuuuuuuuuuuuuce imo.

can't believe darkness didn't win

ominous sign for what lies ahead

WiESS beating Nebraska is a bad omen for this

Didn't know the voting on this was done already--whoops

I still havent heard "The Wild, The Innocent..."

I was getting the impression in the talkback that ppl didn't like Darkness much? I'm hopeful it gets loads of love because it RULEs

all the voters for brooding brooce were too busy brooding :(

ban all brooders imo

non-voting brooders i mean

darkness is usually the fanboy favorite I think

Darkness is amazing but Born To Run is a very close #2 for me so i'm happy with the results. if anything I assumed Darkness would win just because it seems less divisive than BTR, i imagine there are more Bruce fans that are just kind of 'over' Born To Run and a lot of the songs on it.

for comparison: BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN ALBUMS POLL

nebraska is the hipster fav and all the hipsters on ilx are gone or I guess they're just old now

id have voted for bitusa myself with darkness 2nd

Darkness has a couple of my all-time favorites but it's hard to get past ADAM RAIIIISED A CAIIIIIIIIIIN

i like nebraska fine but i think al said somewhere on ilx that having it as your favorite springsteen album makes it seem like you're not that into the whole springsteen thing, which i think is otm.

xpost but that guitar! it melts u face!

Nebraska became a favorite after a fan segment got turned off by the "overblown" BITUSA. As recently as 2000 I was still bumping into fans who thought BITUSA's popularity made assessment impossible.

'i dont like springsteen but i like nebraska' - me until 2004

i appreciate "Adam" and its place in the album more than i used to, but even when i hated it that didn't stop Darkness from being my favorite Bruce album

BITUSA's rep is definitely better now than it was 10 years ago. the early E Street reunion tours seemed to be very much about getting back to the '70s catalog and downplaying BITUSA -- did they ever start playing more from that album in recent years?

really the crime and tragedy here is the TUNNEL OF LOVE snub. should be top 3 at least.

It topped my poll. Then again, "i dont like springsteen but i like nebraska' - ILX until 2007"

er, TOL

tol is the new nebraska tho I don't think very many people say "I don't like springsteen but I like tol"

wait is that what alfred was trying to say

haha yes

even with BITUSA's correct repositioning in the canon, TOL's claque is a lot louder than BITUSA's.

"TOL didn't sell as many copies, but everyone who bought it formed an ILX thread."

hipsters in 2025 will refuse to listen to anything but 'the rising'

I love all you TOL'ers but that album is like Heijera for me with Joni Mitchell.

The *sound* on TOL is like a razor wire fence to my brain. I just can't relax into it. There's a couple of songs I like but even after re-listening a couple of weeks ago I was still making that being-force-fed-broccoli-face after a while :)

HIDDEN PREDICTORS: I generally approve of broccoli.

what's unattractive about it?

xpost

The River is the real fanboy pick, Darkness is too obvious

I think they're tied but it's def that era

the river has the advantage of having more songs

i had tol #1, darkness #2

xxpost Alfred: it's the synthy/fretless-bass sound I think. It just sounds really dated to me. And I guess a lot of that is maybe I don't have any really good nostalgia for other albums that sound like this? Like maybe it's my last frontier music-wise that I have not really reckoned with.

I mean, I dig Paul Simon's Graceland and that's a fretless bass free for all so I know that immediately makes me a hypocrite. I guess with Bruce on TOL, with the exception of Brilliant Disguise, there's no songs that can rise up enough to me lyric-wise to hook me into the music. Or vice versa. I come in lost and and I stay lost.

i have 2 tol tracks in my top 3, 4 on my ballot overall

my #1 is from tol

i guess what i'm saying guys is i like tol

ALOT

@VegemiteGrrl I think Tunnel of Love has some of Springsteen's best lyrics:
It's the same thing night on night
Who's wrong baby who's right
Another fight and I slam the door on
Another battle in our dirty little war
When I look at myself I don't see
The man I wanted to be
Somewhere along the line I slipped off track
I'm caught movin' one step up and two steps back

I had it at #4, although it only slipped a couple of songs onto my ballot.

there's fretless bass on TOL?

Springsteen played most of them on TOL; the only one that stands out is "All That Heaven Will Allow"s and maybe "Valentine Day."

I'm full of shit really is the truth of it.

no! Let's listen to "Two Faces" together. I need the company.

Tunnel Of Love has a pretty garish and dated sound, even just compared to BITUSA, so i can't fault anyone for being turned off by it, even if i think it's rewarding to be able to listen past it.

veg what's yr take on leonard cohen's i'm yr man?

it's kind of a shame that Bruce seems to have mostly done Tunnel himself so a lot of what you hear on the album are first drafts, so that you'll never hear really stark Nebraska-style demos of any of those songs (and i imagine he doesn't revisit them much on acoustic tours) xp

he did quite well on those first drafts though -- they sound like fully fledged songs. To me "dated" means the songs were okay/mediocre/terrible at the time and we've become aware of it thanks to our own age

To my ears on TOL he learned a lot about rhythm, programming, and momentum -- for his solo recordings -- such that the Nebraska tracks are really a grind to listen to.

I guess with Bruce on TOL, with the exception of Brilliant Disguise, there's no songs that can rise up enough to me lyric-wise to hook me into the music. Or vice versa. I come in lost and and I stay lost.

― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Monday, February 25, 2013

got to learn to live with what you can't rise above iirc

love 'em both, though sometimes (not often but sometimes) i prefer the trentemoller remix of 'state trooper' to the original

The worst track ("Spare Parts") is the E Street reunion, while the mostly solo "Two Faces" makes its point quickly, sports no cluttered arrangement, and has a couple of interesting ideas, like what sounds like a guitar fed through a keyboard amp and his roller rink organ solo.

i like nebraska fine but i think al said somewhere on ilx that having it as your favorite springsteen album makes it seem like you're not that into the whole springsteen thing, which i think is otm.

i'm into the whole springsteen thing, but with reservations. fave album: nebraska. second fave: born to run.

my reservations are mostly about production and arrangement; he seems to have been working off a fairly narrow palate over the past 25 or so years. a lot of times i don't hear songs; i hear templates. i also hear a lot of fussiness. nebraska is the sound of springsteen songs before he gets around to thinking of any of that. and they're really really good songs. and really great performances.

born to run sounds to me like he's jumping off a 100-story skyscraper full of phil spector brian wilson van morrison animals etc etc albums without a parachute or a net, confident that clarence clemons and roy bittan are standing there on the sidewalk ready to catch him. i love that too.

got to learn to live with what you can't rise above iirc
:D :D :D!!

I'm glad the results have taken so long. Gave me time to simmer down!

Alfred surely you must realize that you are way more attuned to the sound of late '80s gloss than most people -- i like it too, but there was a time when it would've sounded gross to me and i can't really knock people who can't get past it. on a purely sonic level i definitely prefer the '70s records, or even the milder modernization on Born In The USA.

so bummed to learn that horseshoe didn't vote! i was counting on your vote for "Out In The Street"!

late '80s gloss

side note on early '90s gloss: there's a tremendous difference in approach between bootlegs of his solo acoustic benefit shows for the christic institute in 1990, and the studio versions of the many of the same songs that showed up shortly afterward on human touch and lucky town. tapes of the christic shows were widely circulated before the albums came out, and i think they colored a lot of hardcore fans' reaction to the albums.

I grew into a music fan, really, at the time of mid-to-late 80s production techniques and trends, went through a looooong period of time where I couldn't revisit that stuff, then finally re-embraced it with open arms about a decade ago. Now, Tunnel of Love sounds magnificent to me, but I can totally understand the pov who haven't reconnected yet.

haha most times i listen to bitusa nowadays the gloss is a problem for me (excepting the more directly synth ones for some reason).

I understand I've more sympathy for the eighties soundz but my ears don't hear the demerits that would have elevated "Thunder Road" or "Rosalita" over "Tunnel of Love" and "Tougher Than The Rest." Arguing that the first pair are better songs is another matter entirely.

on the other hand I've observed how ill-suited Brendan O'Brien and Springsteen were: his murky mixes, the way his drum recordings sound even more synthetic than gated drums. I'm willing to admit my biases but these biases dovetail with the periods when Springsteen was still writing good song after song -- and the O'Brien period wasn't one of them.

btw I bought TOL in early '95 when I was 20, shortly before Greatest Hits -- and loved it. Can't imagine a more jarring time to fall in love with TOL. The only song I knew was "Brilliant Disguise."

"Tunnel of Love" was the first Bruce song i can remember hearing, besides maybe "Born In The USA" -- also the only Bruce album that was definitely in my parents' collection during my adolescence after they made the switch to CD

In the wrong mood, I find the overcrowded Spectorisms of Born to Run way harder to take than the gloss of ToL. (I said, in the wrong mood -- in the right mood, it's Wall of Sound take me away!)

I think sound-wise, Nebraska's easy to overlook. There's a lot of depth and color to the palate there, a whole wide range of dark tones.

And god yes Brendan O'Brien murdered the E Street Band. Max sounded like he was at the bottom of an elevator shaft.

i'm sure i'd heard 'hungry heart' and whatever before but the first time i can remember being conscious of bruce springsteen is when 'dancing in the dark' had just came out and my dad and my aunt and uncle talking about 'woah, the boss made a video'.

lol i really hope that's a direct quote

The overcrowded Spectorisms of Born To Run are never welcome in my house.

the tempo of tol songs is as big a thing as its synths, I think

I played "walk like a man" the night before I got married, in the late 90s; my friends didn't get it

When it came out i was already a BitUSA fan, but Tunnel of Love accompanied me into the dark heart of puberty. I wore my tour tshirt to death under my school uniform.

I've thanked my parents multiple times for taking me to the show to get the tshirt, so don't think I was a brat abt it.

Didn't see the show, but my brother did, and he got me a shirt, which I still have somewhere:
http://candysroom.freeservers.com/tunnel24.jpg

Ghost of Tom Joad was my teenage Bruce album; I know lirs thinkits really samey and kinda overwrought, but the storytelling was like miles above most novels I was reading. It was kind of like reading my first Vertigo comic

Wow, lirs = lots

Hah, I had a tape with Tunnel of Love on one side and Graceland on the other.

There was definitely a time and place where "I don't like Bruce (though I may appreciate the irony of Born* being songs that people think are more triumphant than they are) but I like Tunnel of Love" was a respectable opinion.

ToL was my #1, I do have a problem with a lot of late-'80s rock/pop production but none of the things that bother me are really present on that album, I think it's nice and restrained for the most part.

I went the 'I don't really like Springsteen but I'll give this Nebraska thing a go' route into Bruce but that one didn't actually click with me until much later on when I'd come around to the '70s stuff and BitUSA.

60. Highway Patrolman from Nebraska (1982)
69 points, 4 votes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-wPDmQEy2Y

yay! I'm happy to get it in, I voted it really high, makes me cry every damn time

59. New York City Serenade from The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle (1973)
70 points, 4 votes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xA82phRQ0vI

"NYC Serenade" > "Jungleland"

I've just realised I'll know about 10% of this countdown

that explains why you didn't vote for highway patrolman. man, just the phrasing on "Perrineville barracks number 8"...

Ooh wee! Glad my vote helped NYC Serenade squeak in.

I debated cutting "NYC Serenade" because I had so many Wild, Innocent tracks already but I'm glad I didn't because it's a stunner. Euler otm on it's value vs. "Jungleland".

I'll take Joe Roberts over the Junkman any day

58. Independence Day from The River (1980)
74 points, 3 votes

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

57. Land of Hope and Dreams from Wrecking Ball (2012)
75 points, 4 votes (one voter specifies the version on Live In New York City, 2000)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__BORWT33p0

only 3 votes for independence day eh

also: q for everyone but jamie - will that be the highest wrecking ball song

Playlist: http://open.spotify.com/user/mondosalvo/playlist/5sS8pSeutHuNnIpGkaUwye

i did not specify the live version of "Land of Hope and Dreams" on my ballot but that was definitely the version i was voting for, Wrecking Ball version was a massive disappointment imo

56. Wreck On The Highway from The River (1980)
76 points, 4 votes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YSr1ZT0PkE

I feel bad for not having much to say about the results so far, except I'll agree with some dude that the live version (ANY live version) of "Land of Hope and Dreams" is superior to the studio version.

55. No Surrender from Born In The USA (1984)
80 points, 4 votes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MD3DdskaPhs

54. Stolen Car from The River (1980)
84 points, 4 votes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPobte6iqSU

Yaay No Surrender -- it's so cheesy but it's my kind of cheesy. I feel like Bruce writes songs like this in his sleep.

Ooh shit I almost missed the rollout!

No Surrender is CLASSIC anthemic Bruce. he should write national anthems for all nations

my least favorite BITUSA track :(

It's way better than Workin on the Highway!

oh you!

I thought "Downbound Train" was the consensus clunker on BitUSA?

53. Cover Me from Born In The USA (1984)
88 points, 4 votes

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

Downbound Train is in my top 2 or 3 on the album, easily. it is fucking amazing.

oh shit I love Cover Me

and yeah Downbound Train owns, wtf 'clunker' gtfo

:)

Cover Me's a dive bar dancin' in front of the jukebox song if ever I heard one

52. Meeting Across The River from Born To Run (1975)
89 points, 4 votes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ma8shnd04eg

"Cover Me" is the BITUSA track that grew on me; love his solo.

wtf, Only 4 votes for "Cover Me"? Also My first to place and this my post 9000.

xpost, yay for "Meeting Across The River" & noir Bruce!

Cover Me is so fantastic. I don't think I voted for it in the end, but damn what a song.

51. Blinded By The Light from Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. (1973)
89 points, 4 votes (equal with Meeting Across The River)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Iaca30QbOo

oh no! how did i miss this, and it's gone more than a hundred posts without me. this is literally the only list i care about!

his solo on Cover Me is so so Neil Youngish. i love it too.

okay that's enough for today, mainly as i've been awake for about 35 hours and going insane. need to sleep.

vs eg "no surrender"/"cover me," "downbound train" is just in a whole other league AS WILL BE PROVEN BY SCIENCE IN THIS POLL

1. i'm glad NYC Serenade got in cause i didn't vote for it. five years ago it would've been top 10, but lately in my relistens to WIESS (quite often this past month) i've found myself skipping it. maybe it just sounds better in headphones, in my car speakers right now it's a bit too loose for me to grasp on like i used to.

2. i am the one snob who specified the live version of Land of Hope and Dreams. that version is connected to a Big Important Teenage First Love Memory for me, so of course.

bruce's "blinded" is so much better than the cover, god i hate manfred mann

I like 60s Manfred Mann, but yeah...70s onward is just garbage.

So far almost every track on here is one I did not vote for, and yet just about all of them so far make me feel like I should have voted for them instead. Love Bruce.

I'm sad to see "Independence Day" so low, but at least it made it. "Cover Me" was hard for me to cut so I'm happy to see it.

there are many days when "meeting across the river" is my fave bruce song, period. it's easily top 10 for me on any other day. it's very much of a piece with a lot of other songs on born to run, in which nothing actually happens but the singer describes in compellingly mysterious detail about what might possibly happen if you just come along for the ride.

also, that trumpet.

zachlyon otm re Blinded -- I grew up only knowing and HATING the Manfred Mann version and when I heard Bruce's version I was like THANK GOD YESS it's so much better and more poetic and understated

I mean, fucking CHOPSTICKS in the bridge? And deliberately eliding the deuce so it sounds like DOUCHE. 70's Manfred Mann are jerks, imo

"downbound train" def falls into the clunker category for me. "the car wash, where all it ever does is rain." ugh.

and yeah Downbound Train owns, wtf 'clunker' gtfo

:)

― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Tuesday, February 26, 2013 4:53 PM (14 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Oh, I dig it; it's not my favorite, but I dig it. I just remember reading a few reviews that singled it out for clunkerhood.

Also woo-hoo! at "Meeting." Same bassist (Richard Davis) played on Astral Weeks and with Albert Ayler at John Coltrane's funeral.

i'm surprised to see 'meeting', glad. a while ago there was some dumb av club list that said it was pointless or unnecessary or something, which is literally dumb

I've never understood why people single out that carwash/rain line as being particularly bad.

I like the carwash/rain line. Like you've got a job but you dont' get to work because even the weather is fucking with you

It's perfect

zachlyon otm re Blinded -- I grew up only knowing and HATING the Manfred Mann version and when I heard Bruce's version I was like THANK GOD YESS it's so much better and more poetic and understated

I mean, fucking CHOPSTICKS in the bridge? And deliberately eliding the deuce so it sounds like DOUCHE. 70's Manfred Mann are jerks, imo

― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Tuesday, February 26, 2013 5:08 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

as a formal introduction to baby brooce it's perfect. and i really like the sounds of mann's fancy production obv but he destroys those vocals and throws out everything good about them and the lyrics all end up stuck in some half-chopped purgatory of nothingness

maybe the problem is that bruce's lyrics were already arbitrary and pointless but mann actually made them SOUND that way. completely misses the tone. and i'm bitter about 'douche', won't lie

While Bruce obvs shits on Manfredd Mann from a great height, there is something 70s-AM radio glorious about "And little Early-Pearly came in by her curly-wurly and asked me if I needed a RIIIIIIIIIIDE (doodle doo doo doodle doodle synth bit)."

also: q for everyone but jamie - will that be the highest wrecking ball nebraksa song

phil don't even

I'm gonna have chopsticks in my head all fucking day now jfc

xxpost atlantic city

Where's your Boss now, Moses?

Once audited a guitar class taught by Steve Earle. There were four sessions, the first on Hank Williams, the second on Dylan, the third on Bruce and then the fourth on himself, each building on the last. For "Blinded By the Light," he hilariously showed what a blatant rip of "My Back Pages" it was.

I like the carwash/rain line. Like you've got a job but you dont' get to work because even the weather is fucking with you

and sad organ

"Meeting Across The Water" is so great, was one of those songs i absolutely knew had to be on my ballot.

i like the Manfred Mann "Blinded," i'm a sucker for those kinds of '70s AOR jams that are really goofy and catchy but have a bunch of proggy tangets as well.

"Downbound Train" is a very haunting song imo. all those old Bruce songs about recession and pennilessness and desperation have become really special to me these last few years of being broke and/or unemployed/underemployed all the time.

lol Alfred 'sad organ' made me lol for all the wrong reasons

xxpost some dude: yeah I feel the same way about his small town songs, being bored, nothing to do, dying to get out...that was my upbringing and as cliched as it seems he really nails that constant itch, that yearning. I feel. I always picture my own hometown in the songs he sings

lol Alfred 'sad organ' made me lol for all the wrong reasons

make it rain

lol

I like that lots of the River ballads have placed.

i've been saving this for the moment "blinded" came up in the countdown
it's hanging on the bathroom door -- i'll take a closeup of the ad if you really want to see it
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8518/8510628975_b8ab632762_z.jpg

Man, record ads were wordy as shit in the 70s.

ooh that's awesome

I want to come use your bathroom asap.

everyone who uses it comments on bruce!

i gotta take a closeup of the copy -- it's hilarious

lol you seem very ecstatic about taking that picture

another version (think same copy/different layout). glad dude found a sturdier muse. zero love for the "me and zimmerman down by the schoolyard" period.

http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lnsj8euwXW1qirk1ao1_500.jpg

Awesome mirror face!

mom said my face would stick this way and guess what
i think it looks like i am ghost-tickling bruce's pit

there are EIGHT MORE SONGS on this album
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8371/8511765910_e44bccd1c9_m.jpg

If anyone knows anything about Peter Knobler (cf. Asbury Park ad), please head to a general rock critics thread and fill me in--I swear I've never seen that name before.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Knobler

yeah LL your cute face in the reflection makes me love it 1000 times more than I already did :)

i'm trying to work out why a bruce springsteen ad in 1973 would direct people to tune in to the grammy awards.

cross-marketing! Columbia Records (CBS) was actually related to Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS)

yeah i guess that makes sense. it's just weird to see on an ad for an artist who the grammys aren't going to notice for another decade or so.

best new artist winner that year, by the way, was america (over the eagles and john prine). best new artist the following year, when springsteen presumably would have been eligible, was bette midler (over barry white).

i dunno why that plastic frame is so reflective -- i couldn't get a picture without me in it, so i figured i should try to smile

these results are satisfactory so far btw. i thought maybe i had stopped caring, but nope.

bruce is a mirror... to your face

LL's expression in the picture is hilarious

gonna wait to talk about "Downbound Train" until it places but yeah that's one of the best on the album! & the car wash line is one of the reasons why, so fucking clever

I didn't vote for any River ballads but I'm glad they're placing, feel like they're the next phase in my Bruce fandom

Of these so far, I only voted for "Wreck on the Highway," which I love for how it strips down the Roy Acuff song to (almost literal) bare bones. The closing verse is just crushing. But very happy to see "Highway Patrolman" and "Independence Day" in particular, both also crushing in their own way.

voted for Stolen Car and Blinded by the Light. I was debating between Stolen Car and The River, but the line about Bruce being afraid he'll disappear clinched it for the former. Maybe the eeriest of his blue collar regret ballads

LL's ad - it's kind of weird how modest the tagline is. Shouldn't it be something like: '...packs more genius into every second than Albert Einstein managed in his whole life'?

Haven't voted for anything so far. Afraid my ballot - as someone who's only embraced Springsteen in the last seven or eight years – was not heavy on the deep cuts.

51. Something In The Night from Darkness on the Edge of Town (1978)
90 points, 3 votes including 1 first place vote

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5QDOJNyLNM

oops - that's number 50 of course, not 51

yesssss, weinberg's turn in the spotlight

well really darkness is p much max's record front to back but it's never so apparent as it is here

49. Glory Days from Born In The USA (1984)
90 points drawing with number 50, 4 votes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vQpW9XRiyM

Of all the big BITUSA singles, that's the one that, for me, has suffered the most for overfamiliarity. Didn't make my ballot. (And for those critiquing lyrics, "speedball" instead of "fastball" always drove me nuts, too.) I do love Little Steven and his Little Mandolin in the video, though.

yeah i really can't handle Glory Days, def my least favourite track on the album. seems to fulfill every rubbish cliche that people think Bruce is about and yet usually isn't

I've always hated "Glory Days"

So I guess my #1 vote for Something In The Night helped get it into the countdown at least

I love that song so much you guys. The way the guitar comes in all bright and Byrds like...Bruces whoaaaaa's...the way Max's drums sound like thunder rolls... it's so fucking great.

seems to fulfill every rubbish cliche that people think Bruce is about and yet usually isn't

Yeah, I'm not a big fan. It does have a good kicker: "Time slips away and leaves you with nothing, mister, but boring stories of ..." But it tips over into sentimentality -- an ever-present danger with Bruce, but one he avoids more often than not.

glory days is good. the "speedball" thing is loltypical.

it doesn't tip over into sentimentality! the whole thing is sentimentality

I kinda like it but I didn't always

48. My Hometown from Born In The USA (1984)
91 points, 5 votes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77gKSp8WoRg

I know I am a sucker for these sentimental Bruce songs but this one makes me a little sad

This one I like, even though I didn't vote for it. The bit at the end where he drives his kid around town as they're getting ready to leave it -- hokey, but it works.

it doesn't tip over into sentimentality! the whole thing is sentimentality

I think it's more complicated -- it's sort of an indictment of sentimentality as a useless bulwark against a disappointing life. But the chorus is so enthusiastic that it drowns the whole thing in syrup.

I think he's kinda going for the same effect of dressing up some really lonesome and brutal sentiments in a contrastingly joyous arrangement as "Hungry Heart," but misses the mark just a little bit.

Yeah -- "Hungry Heart" works for me, "Glory Days" doesn't.

agreed.

Will someone pleeeeeease gif that part of the GD video where lil steven makes that gross face and holds his guitar vertically? That has made me laugh for the better part of 30 yrs! I deserve it.

amazing that "My Hometown" hit the top ten.

I love "Glory Days", & as we've noted before, the extra verse he cut out in the final version makes the song more of a piece with "My Hometown"

I love that song so much you guys. The way the guitar comes in all bright and Byrds like...Bruces whoaaaaa's...the way Max's drums sound like thunder rolls... it's so fucking great.

Kinda wish I'd put this on my ballot now.

I think the worst thing to happen to "Glory Days" is that it became Classic Rock radio's go-to track from BitUSA when playlists got cut down in recent years.

second biggest BIUTSA chart hit.

Holy crap, "Glory Days" was released more than a year after "Dancing in the Dark" (and three years after it was recorded).

Little Steven used to joke about how he left E-Street early on in the sessions, and that when the record finally came 2+ years later, he was still on all but one or two of the songs.

disappointed this wasn't higher...

47. Point Blank from The River (1980)
96 points, 4 votes including one first place vote (mine!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYpzN_BEE-8

Heard "Glory Days" on the radio this morning, was awesome.

Long '78 versions of "Point Blank" are awesome.

never liked point blank, but disc 2 of the river still hasn't really gelled for me yet.

I'm still waiting for him to buy me those fucking shoes he promised.

yeah i really can't handle Glory Days, def my least favourite track on the album. seems to fulfill every rubbish cliche that people think Bruce is about and yet usually isn't

― Jamie_ATP, Wednesday, February 27, 2013 12:00 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this comment's stuck in my craw, and i think it's because bruce IS about every one of those cliches. bruce is a lot of things! it's not the side of myth that speaks to me, but still my favorite thing in the world is going to diners in jersey where the walls are covered with framed photos of bruce (and of course one photo of him visiting the place, always). that's what i think of when i think of "glory days".

xpost He's still driving for them--keeps missing the exit for that outlet mall.

I have a feeling "Glory Days" is one of those songs, like "The River," pretty much drawn directly from experience.

haha what?

The song is a seriocomic tale of a man who now ruefully looks back on his so-called glory days and those of people he knew during high school. The lyrics to the first verse are autobiographical, being a recount of an encounter Springsteen had with former Little League baseball teammate Joe DePugh in the summer of 1973.[1]

"The River" is about his sister.

46. Working On The Highway from Born In The USA (1984)
101 points, 5 votes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QbReXuCR6U

^^^ such a FUN song to sing in the car

Another peppy song about the tragic and downtrodden.

peace. i was reading "drawn directly from experience" as "autobiographical."

For BITUSA jaunty hard-luck tales, I went with "Darlington County" over this one. But nothing wrong with "Highway."

xxp Ha, I agree. Midway through my journey from dislike to moderate fandom I concentrated on a cooler Darkness/Nebraska version of Springsteen and held the ham at arm's length but later I realised that the ham was fundamental, especially live, and Glory Days epitomises that. The lyric's great - full of cliches but they're his cliches and they work.

man yer lookin at two big SPINDERS

First one so far that I voted for. Not mad about the studio iteration, but it's such a reliably wonderful moment in the live set.

One big spindle:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/33/Berwyn_car_spindle_20070707.jpg

Two big spindles:

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-iAAFb4q5tNs/T576TtOnxpI/AAAAAAAABpg/6GVDCE0bKsQ/s1600/the_spindle_berwyn_2.jpg

me and wayne are in the blue escort

I knew Bruce went through a lot of cars, but that just seems wasteful.

xpost to Dorian … I know exactly what you mean. When I was sort of getting into him, a Springsteen-loving American friend emailed me: "You need to embrace the lameness and it all becomes so rewarding. As former raver [his girlfriend] said after her first Bruce show: 'That was like taking ecstacy for the first time. I just want to do it again right now.'"

love the organ/vocal interplay (lol?)

"she don't know nothing about this cruel, cruel world" BEST PART, hooting & hollering

& it's a Nebraska song, or has a Nebraska version: "Child Bride"

Workin On The Highway is def a fun car song -- total jam, I love it

amazing that "My Hometown" hit the top ten.

i think momentum had a lot to do with that: it was his seventh straight top 10 in a year and a half. (he even got his cover of "war" into the top 10 a year later.) but i think it also had a lot to do with the times. it was a perfect '80s recession song. and also just a pretty great song.

Can't wait for "I'm On Fire" to show up. And, dog willing, "I'm Going Down."

45. Prove It All Night from Darkness On The Edge Of Town (1978)
101 points drawing with #46, 4 votes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1mZ-EP1GRTc

Never was a huge fan of this one, always felt a little too by-the-numbers E Street. Obligatory sax solo, etc.

The live version from the Houston show on the Darkness box is awesome.

one of my fave ever springsteen songs.

the lowness of his voice and the piano and the heaviness of the mixing (not to mention the explicit suggestion of the chorus) didn't sound like anything he'd recorded prior. sounds by-the-numbers in retrospect but it's always stuck out to me on darkness.

44. Reason To Believe from Nebraska (1982)
103 points, 6 votes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qc4UopypcT8

43. The Ghost Of Tom Joad from The Ghost of Tom Joad (1995)
108 points, 5 votes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQ5zPs_lX8Y

Woo! Tom Joad is the first, and probably last, of mine to place. I always liked the mood and subdued melody and all, but on rediscovery it was the imagery that stood out - it's almost biblical, the things he selects. Not at all unusual for him, I now realise, but I do love it.

"reason to believe" is kinda "yeah okay i get it" on Nebraska and absolutely gutting on Live 75-85

i love 'Reason To Believe' -- it feels like an oldtimey folk song

ah tom joad, the other album people were allowed to like until 2004

before 2004, i should say

"reason to believe" stands on a thin line between cynicism and hope, which made it a perfect ending to my favorite springsteen album. is he shaking his head in disbelief that these losers insist there's still a reason to believe, or is he marveling at their unshakeable faith? in 2013, it's easy to see how springsteen would choose the latter, but in 1982 it wasn't so clear, and i think those conflicting impulses have a lot to do with the greatness of this one.

(and speaking of 2013-ish, his searing performance of "reason to believe" was one of the highlights of his wrecking ball tour.)

nebraska >>>>>>>>>> tom joad

It hurt me to cut "Reason to Believe" from my ballot but I already had 4 Nebraska songs ...

Did vote for "Tom Joad," though. The song has a lot of conceit to carry off, but I think it works. "The highway is alive tonight" connects so directly to all his earlier highway/driving songs, but there's no romance left -- nobody's kidding nobody about where it goes.

yeah I voted for Tom Joad too, after Darkness it was the 2nd Bruce album I owned. They kinda tie together somehow, I think

I had to cut "Reason" as well. Glad to see it place.

is he shaking his head in disbelief that these losers insist there's still a reason to believe, or is he marveling at their unshakeable faith?

It seems almost more anthropological to me than cynical or hopeful. In every verse it's clear that belief or lack thereof is not going to change the underlying equation: the dog will still be dead, Johnny is not coming back, Kyle William will eventually be dead just like the old man in the shotgun shack, and the bride has run away for good. And yet they believe anyway. The tone is more interested and maybe puzzled than judgmental, imo.

wish I could link to Greil Marcus' analysis of "Reason to Believe."

bruce proclaiming the mysteries of faith imo

last two for today...

42. Bobby Jean from Born In The USA (1984)
110 points, 5 votes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OhR1JdZCFh8

41. For You from Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. (1973)
118 points, 6 votes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0JOOEnRopM

bobby jean pretty low!

"Bobby Jean" = one of the better songs about male friendship.

Reminder: here's a spotify playlist

http://open.spotify.com/user/mondosalvo/playlist/5sS8pSeutHuNnIpGkaUwye

Bobby Jean is great - that line about hoping Bobby hears the song on the radio, ugh, I love it.

Honestly I hadn't ever considered bobby was a dude til just now. My Mum's middle name is Jean so I always assumed it was a girl. That's cool that it can work either way though

The tone is more interested and maybe puzzled than judgmental, imo.

― something of an astrological coup (tipsy mothra), Wednesday, February 27, 2013

looking down kinda puzzled iirc, strikes him kinda funny

they wore the same clothes!

xpost

maybe Bobby Jean was like Susannah Hoffs in "In Your Room," trying on his clothes when he's gone.

xpost dude there are days where *I* wear the same clothes as Bruce Springsteen. Check your stereotypes honey :)

i (and, tbh, many other people) always assumed "bobby jean" and "no surrender" were back to back love letters to steven van zandt. whoever they were written for, it's kinda amazing that neither of them was released as a single, especially at a time when almost everything springsteen touched was being released as a single. i sometimes wonder if they were a little too personal to him to give them away to the world like that.

i (and, tbh, many other people) always assumed "bobby jean" and "no surrender" were back to back love letters to steven van zandt.

Yep. They make thematic sense too, sandwiched between a haunted, ravaged ballad and a horny rocker.

The homosocial if not homoerotic side of Bruce exerts as powerful a pull as cars and girls.

don't remember if i voted "for you" or not, but cool! such a weird, lucid set of lyrics

Didn't you think I knew that you were born with the power of a locomotive
Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound?
And your Chelsea suicide with no apparent motive
You could laugh and cry in a single sound

I belatedly cut "Bobby Jean" even though I love it, but I did vote for "For You."

they wore the same clothes!

Tut, tut - they LIKED the same clothes.

one look at Miami Steve should have told Bruce the obvious: they do NOT like the same clothes.

"Bobby Jean" = one of the better songs about male friendship.
i thought it was about male-female friendship! i still think it is.

lotta great songs breakin my heart already this low in the poll, most of all "Bobby Jean," which was my #2

the 33 1/3 on Born In The USA is good but i got SO MAD when the author lovingly picked apart the origins of nearly every song on the album and then glossed over "Bobby Jean" as supposedly one of the album's weak spots

it's the song I've come around on the most during this poll, even though BITUSA was my #1 album I'd reckoned this a weak link until that Mac Maccaughan cover which I cannot get enough of

haha i'm glad my evangelism about that song/cover worked on someone!

Great to see NYC Serenade, For You and Blinded By the Light make the list amongst what looks like most of BitUSA.

there are certainly two more tracks from WIESS upcoming, being very conservative. don't know about Greetings -- probably spirit in the night and growin' up? and maybe it's hard to be a saint. i'm naively holding out for does this bus stop at 82nd st.

mary queen of arkansas and the angel both way underrated dramatic treacle tho

40. The Rising from The Rising (2002)
119 points, 7 votes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3EIm1PS10CY

CUM ON UP FER A RISIN

39. Sherry Darling from The River (1980)
120 points, 7 votes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fXq_rWb5ls

Love the playfulness of Sherry Darling. Think how out of place it would have been on Darkness …

Wow, "Sherry Darling" placed? Like the song, but this is far more pro forma a corny Bruce track than "Glory Days."

uggh, that sentiment makes me wish I'd voted all "corny Bruce"

I love the Bruce that wishes he'd just ended up in the Rascals

Don't get me wrong, i LOVE corny Bruce.

But "Sherry Darling" is pretty generic by Bruce standards. Though he does awesome with generic, too! I don;t ever skip the track, and am happy to see it place. But it's pretty slight.

Aw, I love "Sherry Darling." Didn't vote for it -- it's not first-tier Bruce, by my reckoning -- but it's a great tune, and another good one for singing along in the car. And the lyrics are a nice slice of life.

"The Rising," otoh, has always seemed like a Noble Effort to me, but not much more.

as far as Bobby Jean goes, if i thought about it as documenting a male-male friendship it would probably strike an even deeper chord with me. pretty sure the illustrious Bobby Jean is female though.

as for Sherry Darling, yeah i find it a little bit innocuous as well, but that's the beauty of the man's appeal: songs that register as slight for some will have a great deal of personal resonance for others. he puts far too much thought into each and every song for anything to go under the radar across the board.

At the time "The Rising" came out, I wrote something like "the only thing rising is my gorge." I still stand by that; I applaud him for the effort but the result is risible.

The Risible

exactly.

An yet - it's the only time you'll ever see Bruce play a solo with a tremolo bar, and on a Tele, no less! (/guitar geek)

"The Rising" made my ballot.

38. She's The One from Born To Run (1975)
121 points, 6 votes - one voter specifying the live Hammersmith 75 version...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9jcvBYhJEE

37. Cadillac Ranch from The River (1980)
127 points, 6 votes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hc-xXOE1Jws

Sherry Darling is such a fun sing along song though -- I mean, it's totally throwaway but it's sooo much fun

YER MAMA'S YAPPIN IN THE BACK SEAT

"Cadillac Ranch" was in my top 5. We talked about it in the voting thread, but it's one of his best straight-up rockers, that Berry/Fogerty riff and punchy Max beat, and also a great, smart, funny, even ecstatic song about death.

Didn't vote for "She's the One," but it's one of my favorites on BtR. His only Bo Diddley beat?

I was the Hammersmith Odeon '75 voter. Love that version so much. Swings so much harder than the studio version (which swings plenty).

Yeah Cadillac Ranch owns, it's so rockin. And the 75 Version is so killer, tarfumes otm

Even Sherry's mama thinks 39 is too high. Same goes for all girls down at Sacred Heart.

YER MAMA'S YAPPIN IN THE BACK SEAT

TELL HER TO PUSH OVER AND MOVE THEM BIG FEET

Voted "Sherry Darling" because it makes me laugh. It's more mirthful than corny to me; I always feel like "corny Bruce" is trying Make A Point but lacks his usual gracefulness, and I see no point to "Sherry Darling" other than a whole lot of goofy fun.

I'd have some things to say about "Bobby Jean" but thematically it's the same as a song I'm hoping shows up much higher later. Also that McCaughan cover really did a number on me too.

cadillac ranch is one that slipped off my ballot tho I would've sworn going in it would be top 10.

she's the one may have even taken its place...

The Rising sounds way better when it's just Bruce solo minus the cheesy fanfare (like so many of his ott sha la la songs do tbh)

I don't like She's The One very much but it sounds ok if you listen to the whole album. In isolation I think it's one of those songs that is just not my kind of romantic.

Well, good news, there are SEVEN MORE SONGS on that record.

36. Out In The Street from The River (1980)
132 points, 6 votes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8yphj2hUI8

will post 35-31 later tonight, gotta head out to rep some sort of crazy punk rock show for the kids for a while.

TOO LOW

WHOA HO HO HO HO

Another one I'm not fussed about on record but voted for it for the huge rush of joy it brings on stage.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qZbyLsiHzY

Makes me a little weepy watching that clip. Even from 100 yards away, that was one of my favourite ever shows.

sherry darling and out in the street are both great. i've always seen the former as... not MAJOR bruce, but like second tier in terms of bigness. i've just never held its genre conventions against it i guess, it's one of his funnest songs. i might've given votes to both and also she's the one.

actually the things said about sherry darling itt are mostly things i feel about cadillac ranch. not a huge fan

wonder if the river just going to totally dominate this poll or if we're mostly past it

is just*

Love "Cadillac Ranch." Don't remember if I voted for "Out in the Street," but love it live.

Crap, I wonder if I voted for "The Ties That Bind?"

I did. Love that song. Bruce plays an electric guitar that isn't a Telecaster!
http://archives.rickresource.com/oldattachments/114050.jpg

What the hell? Doctored.

this exists

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZtOVm11d2Y

i first heard out in the street around the time i was getting obsessed with pop linguistics so in my mind it's always been primarily a descriptivist anthem

His only Bo Diddley beat?

see also: "ain't got you"

"the rising" is the only 9/11 song i've truly loved. it doesn't sound forced or self-consciously noble to me. it sounds like a moment of grace pulled out of the collective ghost of a memory. i love how he starts right in on it without warning -- how many other springsteen songs have no introduction? -- and how you don't really know where the song's going until the slow build of that first chorus. i love how the casually awkward phrasing of a bunch of lines ("on my back's a 60 pound stone," "i can't feel nothing' but this chain that binds me," etc.), makes it sound raw and hurried even though it's obviously a carefully crafted song. i love the gospelly harmonies, which are about as good as e street ever got on that front. i love the insistently repeated "dream of life."

The problem I have with some of the throwaway tracks from The River is he had so many great songs recorded for that record. How in the world could he leave Loose Ends off? That's one of the best things he ever wrote.

is any other major artist as obsessed with both album sequencing and setlist planning as springsteen is?

PRINCE

also otm re "the rising" and thanks. i really struggle to articulate what it is about that song, maybe bc it's the inverse of a "blinded by the light" -- overstuffed with thoughts ideas and images not bc there are too damn many words but bc each one sits at the intersection of at least four interpretive planes. in the strangest way, "the rising" strikes me as a companion piece for "nebraska." not eros but agape against thanatos... just a kindness in this world.

I think "The Rising" is great, and for anyone doubting it or second-guessing, I give you:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HpOwePJdzO0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6Mfq7z_vHc

Other people writing utterly shitty 9/11 songs doesn't excuse Bruce from writing a slightly less shitty one.

But his is muuuuuuuuuuch less shitty I hesitate to even call it shitty. This is shitty:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAxm_GSM7L4

(Even this one I don't mind, but boy is it shitty)

the most puzzling thing about "sunny day" is how he's played it in nearly every show he's done for the past decade.

Yes. That could not be more OTM. That would easily be my vote for worst Bruce song, and it looks like its here to stay,

oh that's a pile, for sure. Though I remember reading somewhere that it predates 9/11 by several years, even if it wasn't cut for a record until The Rising.

Yeah, even in concert last year "Sunny Day" was a dead spot.

"Out in the Street" was a big favorite of mine as a teenage Bruce fan. The swagger, the fist-pumping whoa-oh-oh-ohs, the big intro. It's like a boy's fantasy of blue-collar masculinity. I still like it, but it all feels a little Miller Time to me. (Also, it's the Bruce song that sounds most like a Bon Jovi song -- "Livin' on a Prayer" is practically a remake.)

Nowadays he invites little kids on stage to warble "Sunny Day!"

PUNK ROCK TIME DONE. weirdly i met a girl at the show who told me she was considering getting the word BROOOCE tattooed
on her arm. I recommended it.

35. It's Hard to Be a Saint in the City from Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. (1973)
136 points, 6 votes including one for the Live 1975-1985 version

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9aklSlMthc

34. Fire from Live/1975-85 (1986, version included on this compilation was recorded in 1978)
141 points, 7 votes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aigihAJk1eE

yes and YESSSSSS

i'm drivin in my car
i turn on the radio

(don't know why but i'm ok with 'fire' just ending there, everything else is cherries)

still prefer the Pointer Sisters version but this is fine.

33. Growin Up from Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. (1973)
149 points, 8 votes inc two votes for the version from live 1975-85

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBOMXBbQnw4

Yeah, I was one of the votes for "Fire," specifically that version although the one on The Promise ain't half bad.

big fan of the Tracks version of "Growin' Up." actually all the early versions of Greetings songs on there.

tooooooooooooooootally -- that's my favorite version of a lot of those songs. i'm not sure i'd even really like them otherwise?

just hit me how much '70s bruce looks like pacino

32. Nebraska from Nebraska (1982)
153 points, 7 votes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPQVKzDCY4c

my first TOO LOW

I sometimes get the idea that David Krumholtz has his agent waiting by the phone for Hollywood to announce a Bruce biopic.

http://handson.provocateuse.com/images/photos/david_krumholtz_02.jpg

31. The Ties That Bind from The River (1980)
157 points, 8 votes

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

^^Bruce beating Tom Petty at his own game.

That's it for today, other than this picture of my dad in the 70s totally rocking it Bruce style

https://fbcdn-sphotos-d-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn1/68300_10152213856540367_531386221_n.jpg

Fire is so good, sooooo good!

even if Mr Veg always sings it as Robin Williams/Elmer Fudd :/

The Ties That Bind was in my top 10. It's absolutely perfect, with one of his best vocals, and lyrics. "We're running now but darling we will stand in time..." still gets me and I've heard it a trillion times.

The definitive version of Saint In The City is his COlumbia records demo on the Tracks box. It's a staggering display of talent.

Nice run of tunes tonight. Can't argue with the awesomeness of any of these.

Oh and Growin' Up. Love the way he plays with the "When they said sit down/come down" etc refrain

Can't argue with the awesomeness of any of these.

otm. "Nebraska" was the only one I voted for, but "Fire," "Ties," and "Growin Up" were all on my long list. But "Nebraska," that song stands alone even on that album. It's like a black hole in the middle of a black hole. With a little wry smile, somehow. Everything about it is perverse and unapologetic.

I made room for "Ties", "Fire", and "Saint". Cutting "Nebraska" was brutal but I wasn't afraid of it missing the countdown.

just hit me how much '70s bruce looks like pacino

the darkness cover makes that very clear.

the line that kills me in the murder ballad/love song "nebraska" is the one about how he wants his girl sitting on his lap when the state electrocutes him. is it because he loves her or because he thinks she deserves to be zapped too, or maybe both? no matter. in it's chilling matter-of-factness, it reminds me of bo diddley's fantastic "dearest darling," in which bo promises his beloved that if he should die before she does, he will reach back from the great beyone and take her with him.

the great beyond, that is.

Wow, never made that "Dearest Darling"/"Nebraska" connection before; love that Bo song.

"Growin' Up" and "Saint" are two songs that I nearly-dislike as studio recordings, but love on Live. And "Ties" was in my top 10.

I love this solo version of Growin' Up from 1972

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dy7RTicVr0

fun to listen to the playlist, just easing in with those 3 slow songs at the beginning

30. 4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy) from The Wild, The Innocent and The E Street Shuffle (1973)
162 points, 7 votes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KgFHM8HMbWQ

just wondering are there any non bruce fans reading/listening? would be good to get some insight from non fans

I debated leaving "4th Of July" off my ballot, but when I relistened I couldn't help but be swept up in it.

Depends what you mean by non-fans - I'm pretty non-BROOOOCE, so am looking on with despair at the dwindling prospects of tracks from Nebraksa / Tunnel of Love / Tom Joad appearing.

TOO LOW

dwindling prospects of tracks from Nebraksa / Tunnel of Love / Tom Joad appearing.
don't worry! state trooper has to make it, and ToL -- PLEASE. i can think of at least two songs that will make it. we're only at 30!

atlantic city probably top 10?

I was wondering if "State Trooper" would make it; I have no idea how it's generally regarded among Broooce fans. It has my favorite sound on a Springsteen record, the echoplex scream at the end.

i wouldn't be surprised if "Brilliant Disguise" is way way high

see now we're talkin

but that's not the ToL song i am hoping for the most, or even the second most

I voted for two ToL tracks but not "Brilliant Disguise".

I was wondering if "State Trooper" would make it; I have no idea how it's generally regarded among Broooce fans

I voted – the scariest song he ever recorded imo.

See, yeah, that's how I feel about it too (and it's on my ballot). But not knowing too many Bruce fanatics, I had this sense that maybe it's thought of as a throwaway...not sure why.

really? Hm. One of the two or three Nebraska songs I listen to.

i'm gonna make one of my famous overly confident predictions and say c'mon OF COURSE "brilliant disguise" will be the highest tunnel song

29. Incident On 57th Street from The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle (1973)
164 points, 7 votes including one first place.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtPEZX6wAzg

Voted State Trooper and Brilliant Disguise, plus one other Nebraska cut and maybe two other ToL.

eeeeoooooooEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeeeeeee eeeeeee
oooohEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeEEEEEEeeeeeeee eeeeeee
eeeeeee
eeeeee

sha na na na na heey
sha na na na na na oohhh

sha na na na na heey
sha na na na na na oohhh

sha na na na na heey
sha na na na na na oohhh

sha na na na na heey
sha na na na na na oohhh

^^ what it sounds like inside the tunnel of love

stop teasing me

Yodel solo.

My depressing Bruce benchmark is that he was pretty much exactly my age when he finally got around to "Tunnel of Love." I better get cracking on my world-changing music career.

I should probably make clear that I haven't really heard and dismissed other albums, I'm consciously engaging in unfairly cheering on the stuff I know - I'm happy you're all happy.

Also though I know that everyone says live Bruce is not the same as other Bruce, everyone always says that about everyone, so I was genuinely surprised to see the JB-channeling, band-introducing, master of ceremonies and setter of the pace in the Rosalita clip in the first post here, which I think has possibly been de-emphasised in his public persona behind Bruuuuce and the train-jumping poet of the dispossessed. Or as always I may be generalising my own ignorance :)

Actually, I'll give my ignorance one more workout - how did he change the world?

jamie--I'm not a Brooce(TM) Fan in the classic sense, but my dad had a bunch of Springsteen albums and when I was ten or whatever we had funny words to "Hungry Heart" & I can sing most of most songs on "Born to Run", so--maybe not your target group exactly.

But I have no patience for anything after "BITUSA": just can't bear the production/vocal affectations/broad strokes songwriting. The Bruce career narrative doesn't matter to me; it's over, for me.

Having said that, only three of my 20 have showed up thus far, and I'd bet money that 18 eventually do....

One of the things I like most about Bruce is how well he covers a wide range of emotions. I mean, he can do sweet romantic, scary romantic, smutty, predatory, and celebratory love songs, and those are just the love songs.

I wasn't even including Born to Run and Thunder Road -- heart exploding love songs. Or the super sad ones!

Incident on 57th Street my #1---the absolute bestest Bruce. Not sure what else I can say that I haven't said on other threads. The Main Point is tres classique---the siren sound at the end! maybe I'll say more later, for now goodnight Jane

28. I'm Goin' Down from Born In The USA (1984)
166 points, 8 votes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqwuV883Kg4

Primo hot Bruce!!

YESSSSSSS

The only BITUSA top ten I never heard at the time. Kinda wonder if payola pushed it into its quick peak.

I heard it TONS in it's day. Bruce ruled the New England rock airwaves for what seemed like years with BitUSA singles.

its, damn it.

27. Kitty's Back from The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle (1973)
167 points, 7 votes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXDYOEO1EHE

as I said upthread, "I'm Goin' Down" is an awesome karaoke number

my entire ballot is being revealed

"Kitty's Back"!!! YES.

ooh ooh ooh what can i do?

the road is dark
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8525/8518196825_3d8428535f_m.jpg

"I'm Goin' Down" way too low!! Should be a top 20!

hoping "State Trooper" is top 20, didn't vote but god it is classic

Kitty's Back rules so hard

The thing I love most about live Bruce in-person is that you feel like you're standing 10 rows back even when you're in the nosebleeds. He's so magnetic he can shrink a venue like no-one else I've ever seen

xpost

Actually, I'll give my ignorance one more workout - how did he change the world?

Because the world is a better place with Bruce in it! Duh.

Also, anyone who can see him live and leave not feeling awesome and that the world is a much better place with Bruce in it is dead to me.

otfm

I was genuinely surprised to see the JB-channeling, band-introducing, master of ceremonies and setter of the pace in the Rosalita clip in the first post here

That's the thing -- that whole side of him (which is still 100 percent intact, at least as of when I saw him in November) is important to understanding how Bruce became BROOCE, and it gives the recorded music some important context. I remember taking a Bruce-neutral friend to a show years ago, and she started laughing after the first song and said, "I didn't know he was so showbiz!" (She loved it.) Lots of bands are "better live," but Springsteen live isn't just a concert, it's a show, in a grand old cheeky hokey tradition.

I've never not been O_O at his fixed-mike-stand pole dancing prowess. In a good way. He still dances like James Brown and he's how old now?

I was only 9 when Eddie & The Cruisers made its splash, but I'm listening to the soundtrack again right now and...did John Cafferty & The Beaver Brown Band get laughed right off the face of the earth for nicking Springsteen so hard?

I know right? It's shocking when you listen to them with full Bruce knowledge

I felt the same to a lesser degree when I went back and listened to ELO after getting deep into the Beatles.

iirc the band was originally just called Beaver Brown, and their management and label asked them to change it to make it sound more like "Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band."

Don't forget about the hilarious Cleveland-boosting Light of Day, starring Michael J Fox and Joan Jett!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3I0Aa4czyLs

>:-(

:)

aw hell, put your bruce ears on and listen to this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEbTRl6oq58

that is my faaaaavorite pat benatar song!!

mine too!

(xp) beaver brown had been at it for a while before the movie came out and i'm pretty sure they were welcomed and adored by the springsteen faithful. they were one of a few bands doing a similar thing in the northeast around that time. another one was john eddie and the front street runners, who went on to some renown of their own after he/they dropped the front, street and runners from the name.

btw shadows gets a total pass in my book bc

a) nicks from btr/darkness bruce
b) predates bitusa world domination era
c) written by a jersey guy
d) is awesome

it's stuck in my head now and making me very happy

We have so little here in Cleveland, don't make "Light of Day" into a joke. For a relative throwaway, Bruce liked that song a lot, though. He used to play it on the regular until about 2000 or so.

(BTW I used to play with a drummer who is an extra in that movie.)

If Fast Times came out in 1983, does that mean that "Shadows of the Night" is Judge Reinhold's first notable acting appearance?

Fast Times was '82, no?

Let's not forget Michael Stanley -- down in Akron we used to scream "AKRON" instead of "CLEVELAND" during the chorus.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bl-zQhr0V6g

And in Pittsburgh it was Joe Grushecky.

http://www.backstreets.com/Merchant2/graphics/cdgrush7503.jpg

We have so little here in Cleveland, don't make "Light of Day" into a joke. For a relative throwaway, Bruce liked that song a lot, though. He used to play it on the regular until about 2000 or so.

he loves that song! it was his set-closer for a long time. still plays it pretty frequently.

Joe Grushecky has written stuff w/Bruce!

If Fast Times came out in 1983, does that mean that "Shadows of the Night" is Judge Reinhold's first notable acting appearance?

― Johnny Fever, Friday, March 1, 2013

http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m6hp5aFCl51qhmr1uo1_500.jpg

Of course The Big Man actually guested on sax on two of MSB's biggest songs:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G50CZ5lw2CQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7m6wRBNLJnM

BTW, Trent Reznor is in Light of Day

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gM0MmNjy97s

He Can't Love You totally reminds me of a Rick Springfield song -- you'd love it VG!!

the bar in that clip, the Euclid Tavern, actually was a really cool place throughout the 80s and into the 90s. One of my bands used to play there a lot, most notably once opening for Tsunami, and another time with Butterglory and Apples In Stereo.

I've never seen Light of Day, but all the clips I'm watching make it seem like everyone wants to get the band back together and no one will make the first move. what the hell.

xp Gurl please you know I have been to the damn Euclid Tavern. Lol @ Butterglory, I remember them too.

You should see it now. It's all yuppified and shit. Actually that whole area from University Circle to like E. 120 is. But go past there and it's WELCOME TO EAST CLEVELAND Y'ALL.

that's totally weird
i bet no one misses the flats though -- what's down there now?

Obviously it's a pale imitation, but listen to the first couple of minutes of this with '70s Bruce in mind:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=col4qun2W8w

fake E Street as a genre is pretty often really enjoyable for me, much like fake Prince

Though neither category is as deep as you'd think! Goes in waves: a bit of Bruce rips in the '80s, then recently again with Arcade Fire, Killers, etc. Prince, same thing: a bit in the '80s (not including all the Prince Inc. stuff) and then a lot now, w. the Dream, Miguel, D'Angelo, et al. Prince may be easier to specifically mimic since Bruce is sort of pastiche already (Dylan + Van + Phil Spector). Usually when people are called Madonna imitators the writer is using that as shorthand for "she's a woman."

the 80s bruce rips and the modern bruce rips are ripping very different things tho

xxxxp ain't nothing in the Flats anymore. Everything's around the ballpark, or on E. 4th, or over in the Warehouse District.

'80s fake e street from boston

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvrefsnm_L4

ain't nothing in the Flats anymore. Everything's around the ballpark, or on E. 4th, or over in the Warehouse District. Or are they just lost in the flood?

'80s fake e street from texas

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ituFNPXAaE8

Steve had already moved to Nashville before he cut any records, fwiw.

Yeah, Robert Earl Keen is our Springsteen.

fair enough, johnny fever, though i was planning on this for nashville's 80s e street:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PlOxc0UqiQ

"Livin' On A Prayer"

Fred Eaglesmith = Canada's Springsteen?

dunno. always dug the shit out of "bullets" but iirc nothing else he's done has grabbed me.

Tom Cochrane iirc

Yeah, Robert Earl Keen is our Springsteen.

Last time I saw Robert Earl Keen, the opener was John Eddie -- a perfect circle of would-be Bruces. Or circle-jerk.

Fred Eaglesmith = Canada's Springsteen?

Hmm, not exactly. Don't know where to place Fred, really. Way more country than Springsteen. Lipstick, Lies and Gasoline is a should-be classic, and the double live album is too. Other than that he's super patchy, but he has a lot of good songs.

I love Robert Earl Keen. And dude has a devoted Bruce-like following as far as his fans go, jeez. I don't think there was a song I saw him play that half the crowd wasn't singing along to. And that Christmas song? Fuhgedaboutit

yo. will continue the rundown on Monday. meant to post more last night but had to go for some BEERS on a FRIDAY NIGHT WOOH OH OH OH OH OH walking the way i wanted to walk, etc

works for me! looking forward to it!

My John Eddie story. During Springsteen's reunion run in '99 or so at one of the two local arenas, lo and behold, John Eddie, who was not touring and had no new album, conspicuously books a one-off club date in town. Needless to say, it sells out, but the club (or Eddie?) needed to hang up up fliers that said, no, without a doubt, Bruce would not be showing up. At least a lot of those other real and erstwhile Friends of Bruce get some co-writes and collaborations, or the occasional hop on stage. John Eddie, otoh, has been pretty much written out of the picture.

He's no mere Bruce hanger-on, but I remember reading how much Warren Zevon looked up to Bruce, and that Bruce was the prime impetus for Zevon beefing up his sound and look, playing guitar instead of piano live, and generally rocking out (that, and the copious drugs, of course). Dunno how close they stayed, but Zevon later talked about how inspiring it was to have Bruce in the studio helping on that one track, that Bruce showed up with no posse or anything and gave 110% for hours and hours, and then hung around forever after that. What a mensch.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACSeVC6umzg

glad you mentioned Zevon's guitar work, as I love it as much if not more than his piano.

I always thought it odd, though, given that he was apparently some classical piano prodigy.

Great Bruce soloing on that track, btw^

Like, there's a moment in that video when Zevon, a dying man watching Springsteen take a blazing solo feet from him, is grinning ear to ear and is compelled to take out a camera and take a snapshot, as if he couldn't believe his eyes.

I also love this, which I guess was an old unused Bruce song that he gave Warren to rework and rewrite.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrWK6jHbPW4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRsxbZKQP8I

Yeah I think Bruce was right to give that one away. Warren made vast improvements.

Great Bruce soloing on that track, btw^

^ this. Wish Bruce would hire himself out more for soloing on other peoples' records.

I made the mistake of reading I'll Sleep When I'm Dead, the Zevon biography. Let's just say "warts and all" is a kind way of putting it. He was a monster.

Bruce was his biggest celebrity friend, and he was constantly trying to impress him with crazy Keith Moon-like antics. Bruce comes off as a completely normal guy who was a little terrified of Zevon, constantly pleading with him to take it easy.

wow how is bobby jean down in the 30s???

26. Johnny 99 from Nebraska (1982)
170 points, 8 votes

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

nothing from Nebraska made my ballot, still haven't totally 'clicked' with it outside of "Atlantic City." might need to take the album with me on a road trip sometime.

at night! listen to it at night while driving.

i don't like johnny 99 as much as other songs i hope to see later, but it's ok.

toyed with leaving "Johnny 99" off but I couldn't; in the throes of my biggest Nebraska days, in the early 90s, this was my joint. another one that walks a thin line. debts no honest man can pay

Cover Me, Bobby Jean and I'm Going Down are masterpieces done wrong by my abstinence from this poll.

the live album version of "Johnny 99" is awesome.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Six2YfyX-rU

25. Streets Of Philadelphia from Philadelphia soundtrack (1994)
174 points, 9 votes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4z2DtNW79sQ

does this mean i should stop hoping to see "Secret Garden" in the countdown? ;_;

I would imagine it's canon from here down

;_; ;_; ;_;

I thought this'd be much higher. Beautiful, subdued thing that it is. I'd've voted for it myself but my ballot was already full.

crying big renee zellweger tears, crying

I'm surprised it's as late as 1994; I'd've said 91, maybe 92.

more people need to ask springsteen to write a song for their movie, seems like it brings out something good in his songwriting

hated "The Wrestler" (and The Wrestler). "Dead Man Walkin'" was ok, i guess.

the would-be title song Eddie Vedder wrote, "Dead Man," was better though.

"Dead Man Walkin'" worked awesome on the soundtrack; can't think of a time when I'd hear it free from that context though.

more people need to ask springsteen to write a song for their movie, seems like it brings out something good in his songwriting

so you're saying Zero Dark Thirty would have looked anti-torture if he'd written the title theme

xposts, I love and voted for "Johnny 99" -- the only real rocker on Nebraska, but a desperate rocker. It's like a seedy Chuck Berry tune.

I also love "Streets," but I think it got squeezed off my ballot.

i feel like the list from here on out is gonna look like the greatest setlist ever written

I don't remember much (any?) talk about "Night" on the voting thread, but if it doesn't make it, I'm gonna be sad. I'm not sure there's room left for it, though.

Zero rode like twilight
He said "Tonight's the night, Dark Thirty, come on"
Thirty come on, tonight is the night

lol

ha!

She said, "We gonna make you boy. You love Osama"
I said, "I don't love him, he ain't my mama"
Felt the cold water pourin'
on that cool May mornin'
were 100 virgins worth it all
ooh yeah

haha!

at this point i'm kind of assuming all of Born To Run is on the countdown but i suppose "Night" could be the one that misses the mark, good as it is.

did meeting across the river already place?

Need to post in case someone has not heard it, but "Lift Me Up" is "Streets of Philly's" near equal in the soundtrack department:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vpu60jJ6bPk

"Streets of Philadelphia" trivia: the video features a different, live vocal from Bruce. He's close-micd and singing along to a backing track as he walks.

The song was initially written in 1981 as the title song for a film that Paul Schrader was considering making and Springsteen was considering starring in (which ultimately became Light of Day starring Michael J. Fox). "Born in the U.S.A." turned out so well that Springsteen used it for his multi-platinum album, and because of this, Springsteen thanks Schrader in the liner notes. Casual home demos were made later that year, following the completion of The River Tour.

"Streets of Philadelphia" trivia: the video features a different, live vocal from Bruce. He's close-micd and singing along to a backing track as he walks.

― Josh in Chicago, Monday, March 4, 2013 10:49 AM (57 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i knew he did that later with the "Lonesome Day" video but i didn't know he'd done it before! pretty cool way to make a video imo

'"WELSH SPRINGSTEEN" MARTYN JOSEPH ON UK TOUR WITH U.S. ALBUM PRODUCER MASON NEELY & SPECIAL GUEST LUKE JACKSON- 2013 BBC RADIO 2 FOLK AWARDS DOUBLE NOMINEE (April 9-21)'

here it starts to get painful

24. Backstreets from Born To Run (1975)
192 points, 7 votes including 1 first place vote

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oID_fZDtcs0

best song from his first 3 albums, way too low

definitely one of my favorite songs that i didn't vote for, already had a lot of BTR on there

"Lift Me Up" is nice, kinda wish Bruce explored his upper register more often

if anything his lower register has been over-explored

"Backstreets" was my #1. There are better crafted Springsteen songs, and ones that always blindside me (I cannot hear the opening chords of "Thunder Road" in public anymore), but no other Springsteen song means as much to me on a base, personal level. That nostalgia of fucking around with your best friend, late night aimless driving nowhere and all that matters is the person beside you, and you swear you'll always be there for each other, even though you won't. And the intensity of intimacy that can develop with youthful friendship, and how all that fades.

(should I have posted that as a youtube comment so it could make SadYoutube?)

Anyway, "Trying to learn how to walk like the heroes we thought we had to be" is one of my favorite lines ever written. Just that idea of performative masculinity for young men. See also "Valentino drag"

23. The Promised Land from Darkness On The Edge Of Town (1978)
197 points, 9 votes including 1 first place vote

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4c6KkP76slY

It took Sleater Kinney to open this one up for me.

Didn't vote for it, but I do love to sing along: "The dogs on main street howl cuz they UN-DER-STAND..."

As conductor of the Sleater-Kinney (and offshoots) poll--coming sometime in 2017 (bar a reunion lp)--I'd be remiss for not mentioning or sharing their "TPL" cover(which Alf beat me to) here. Youtube only has them playing it w/Eddie Chedder, so it goes...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CE4EEL3X9k

I know Max's son (?) is his nominal replacement/sub in the E-Street Band, but Janet W. makes a nice audition for the seat here.

22. Downbound Train from Born In The USA (1984)
218 points, 8 votes including 1 first place vote

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nc_mv46NwT4

good song but a little surprised it's so high!

in yr face car wash haters

that is weirdly high

no, it is fucking awesome. especially the solo vocal part which then kicks back in. LOVE IT.

least fav bitu song tbh

I love the opening guitar riff.

legit placing for legit track

i had a job
i had a girl
i love this song because it is sooooooooo glum

My second favorite BitUSA track (and one of the two I voted for) and I'm stoked to see it beat out so many of it's brethren.

I talked with Carrie Brownstein once about their "Promised Land" cover, and she said - and I want to say that this was just a year or so before full-on Bruce hipster resurgence - that whenever they played it the crowd would dig it, but there was always one or two dudes who would totally, absolutely lose their shit.

When I saw the Bruce solo tour, the live S-K cover was one of the songs hey played on the PA before hitting the stage.

"Downbound Train" was #3 on my ballot. I really do just love it to death.

Worth mentioning that "Promised Land" may feature Bruce's most viciously dark lyrics paired to one of his most uplifting anthems.

I've done my best to live the right way
I get up every morning and go to work each day
But your eyes go blind and your blood runs cold
Sometimes I feel so weak I just want to explode
Explode and tear this whole town apart
Take a knife and cut this pain from my heart
Find somebody itching for something to start

Well there's a dark cloud rising from the desert floor
I packed my bags and I'm heading straight into the storm
Gonna be a twister to blow everything down
That ain't got the faith to stand its ground
Blow away the dreams that tear you apart
Blow away the dreams that break your heart
Blow away the lies that leave you nothing but lost and brokenhearted

the live album version of "Johnny 99" is awesome.

extremely otm.

"johnny 99" is one of two songs on nebraska about men with debts no honest man can pay, an idea implicit in so many springsteen songs that becomes explicit here. i assume if the songs on nebraska had ever advanced beyond the demo stage, this meticulous boss would have found a way to cut the repeating line from one of the two songs. i'm glad he didn't. sometimes you've gotta say it two, three, four, five or 10 times before people really start hearing you. i wouldn't mind hearing it in a few pop songs in 2013.

but there was always one or two dudes who would totally, absolutely lose their shit.

These are some of my favorite moments at shows, when a band whips out a completely blindsiding cover.

"The president was mentioning my name the other day and I kinda got to wondering what his favorite album musta been. I don't think it was the Nebraska album. I don't think he's been listening to this one." -- Bruce introducing "Johnny 99", 9/21/84, Pittsburgh.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1sMJT08-hY

to me this is the definitive "Downbound Train"
(which I somehow forgot to vote for!)

interesting that big non-album tracks like "Roulette" & "Thundercrack" didn't make this list

though there's still one non-album track to come I think

not enough pictures itt!
bruce in 1984

http://davidmcgough.com/photos/Bruce%20Springsteen%20%20%20%20%20%201984,%20%20%20LA.jpg
http://userserve-ak.last.fm/serve/500/5723234/Bruce+Springsteen+Bruce+1984+BITUSA+TORONTO.jpg
http://assets.rollingstone.com/assets/images/artist/timeline/400x600/20121011-bruce-springsteen-1984-600x400-1350510472.jpg

His cover of "War" was my #2, but I'm pretty sure all hope may be lost at this point.

if i were at a S-K show and i didn't know it was in their repertoire i would be the guy screaming in shock for five minutes

RIP thundercrack :( :( :(

there's another, pinker, one, for which I'm holding out hope

also going to RIP any hope i had for wild billy's circus story, y'all just don't recognize a masterpiece

that series of photos is called "i need to take some of these layers off"

I love this pic

Who wouldn't go for a ride with this guy

http://coolalbumreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/brucespringsteencoverme.jpg

omigod at the red vertical-striped shirt

suddenly the thread is a gun show

How is it that Bruce's look in 1984/85 was his least put-together but also most contrived?

pop all the collars

http://blogs.941kqk.com/files/2010/07/bruce.jpg

http://24.media.tumblr.com/67357c50186d85ddc5127e2417135995/tumblr_mgpksaWLOm1qzsuffo1_1280.jpg

not enough clarence itt

Bruce and MJ

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b267/Dittoram21/BruceSpringsteenandMichaelJackson.jpg

Bruce & Clarence 4 eva

http://i209.photobucket.com/albums/bb64/handyhunter/bruce/b2.jpg

favorite pic

so good

http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mb2kxal1B11qa8t24.jpg

SASS

i was thinking about the big man earlier this morning and how we haven't had too many songs to talk about yet with big clarence moments. some major ones to come soon, though, i'm sure.

that last pic is p much what i would like to look like when i go out on the town

omg @ that photo

all that needs is JAZZ HANDS

he looks so rad

he's beefy and masculine but also little and feminine

sorta genius how the string on his pants leads your eyes straight to BULGE

those are some fine pants

he likes tight pants

i so want him to be wearing michael jackson's leather jacket in that last pic.

xpost and really, thank god for that

xp BTR is the big clarence album (10th ave and jungleland his biggest moments ever?), it's just weird how segmented the poll has been so far with whole albums showing up at once practically

BOLO

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8368/8519306400_b93f7a515c_c.jpg

heart shaped bolo

Glad "Downbound Train" is so beloved, it was my top BITUSA vote.

It kinda looks like he's wearing a leotard in this, I love it

http://www.morethings.com/music/springsteen/bruce_springsteen_photos/rolling_stone_cover.jpg

http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m8vuqxPNC61qzdza2o1_500.jpg

little rodent

he looks so pretty there!!
he's a classic little person with a big head full of nice hair

there's a series of b/w photos (i wanna say that linda mccartney took them?) that are just outta this world, but i don't have the time to search for them atm

This picture is magnificent. I need to know what's going on with Cigar Man and Side-Eye.

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b267/Dittoram21/BruceSpringsteenandMichaelJackson.jpg

man tunnel of love really should've been called HEART SHAPED BOLO

Conflated that RS cover as Bruce: Emo!

My friends and I once came close to releasing a 7" of punky covers of Springsteen at his most emo (think: "Streets of Fire") and calling it the Rites of Springsteen.

hey gurl

http://25.media.tumblr.com/eb3fb363a96049c0307c1bad69d64a60/tumblr_midjn66xKH1ruby6to1_500.jpg

Alternate history, wherein a bad mistake and betrayal lead to banishment from MTV faster than you could say Billy Squier.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzXuby0V8Ds

One of the best behind the scenes stories ever: http://goldenageofmusicvideo.com/the-untold-story-of-bruce-springsteens-original-dancing-in-the-dark-music-video/

21. Born In The USA from Born In The USA (1984)
240 points, 10 votes including 1 for the version on Tracks

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPhWR4d3FJQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7Y4i1YcuiQ

wow

not even top 20

Argh! Left that off my ballot by mistake. ;_;

i had to cut it for cool rockin daddy even though it made the shortlist

yikes, that's nuts

backstreets my #4, should've made it #1 like I thought of doing......my first big surprise here. do people dislike the gender strangeness?
always loved "soft infested summer"...

your fault, Johnny

Bruce to MJ: "Are you a 28 waist? I've got some Levis I think you'd like, Michael."

xposts Not on YouTube, but my fave "Born in the U.S.A." is from the Bridge School Benefit in...1986? Solo, acoustic, harsh, sounds almost out of town, ends "I'm 10 years burnin' down the road/Got nowhere to run, I ain't got nowhere to go" BLAM just a big noisy chord.

"Born In The U.S.A." is cool but i'm happy it just missed the top 20, just where it should be imo.

Interestingly, he rarely plays that song domestically, but frequently plays it overseas.

I've seen Springsteen live maybe 15 or 20 or so times, and I've only seen him play it with a band once.

i like BITUSA i just had to cut something and that seemed like it would be ok without me
i mean, it's born in the usa

I've only seen him once, in 2000, and he played it acoustically during his little quiet part in the set. Was cool.

Same tour I saw

yeah I don't think I had it on my ballot either

it's not my fave, even though I love lyrics. it's just a bit too bombastic in it's original form.

*the lyrics

Probably within a night or two of each other, because I was in Florida at the time and saw him in Orlando. xps

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VA35lpxAh14

extended "Born in the USA" before being edited down, tears my heart out more than the final version. more howling, but also the synth changes during the extended jam, & you feel Bruce pulling it back in, like the song has come alive, like it's under its own control now

"BitUSA" was high on my ballot. E Street's best Who imitation.

of all the titles bruce has borrowed/stolen over the years ("wreck on the highway," "reason to believe," "mansion on the hill," "dancing in the dark," "walk like a man," "all or nothing at all," so many more), "born in the usa" has always seemed the strangest to me, 'cause it's such a cheesy, corny and not particularly evocative title. and way too on-the-nose, especially for someone like springsteen. the fact that he could envision anything at all from that title seems pretty amazing to me. the fact that he turned it the song he turned it into is all the more amazing.

Thunder Road came from the poster of a 1958 Robert Mitchum movie that Springsteen never even saw!

Would have been worse if he called it "Born on the 4th of July."

Imagine if that poster had been Auntie Mame

(xp) true.

"We've Never Been Licked"!

Michumsteen top ten wd be easy imo....

little-known fact*: Bruce picked up the title of "Walk Like A Man" not from the Four Seasons, but from Grand Funk Railroad instead. He also stole their concept of "wild, shirtless lyrics."

*That I just made up.

20. Spirit In The Night from Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. (1973)
243 points, 11 votes including 1 first place vote

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3quyLpUuhk

yeeeeaaaah

oh em gee

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0-S1X-fyk4

xpost think i mentioned this on the voting thread but: i had zero intention of voting for bitusa, for the specific reasons id'd by La Lechera and VegemiteGrrl above. but listening to it for the first time in like 25 years was a pretty powerful experience. exceptional production and extraordinary vocal performance.

(xp) weird to see him singing and not holding an instrument!

Spirit in the Night is so sexy.

Just his socks
and
his
shirt

One of my favorite-ever songs about being young, high and horny.