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.

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.