BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN - REVISITED

Forget about the whinging prince, In Hamlet, Polonius has the best lines. "To thine own self be true" and "Never a borrower nor a lender be" were both his. Also, 'Brevity is the soul of wit", which brings me to the point. My original entry for the first album on the very first blog post is:

"Am embarking on a new project, listening to all of Bruce Springsteen's albums in order of issue. Have never paid much attention to the early studio albums, knowing most of the songs only from live versions, so a bit of a voyage of discovery for me. Hopefully Lucky Town and Working on a Dream will turn out to be pleasant surprises when I get to them." 

This gives the lie to old Polonius' words. It's short but not all that witty or insightful. These days you will be painfully aware that I can go on about an album when I get the bit between my teeth, but I hadn’t honed my style back then. The consequence of this is that it gives me justification to do the Brucular canon again

However, puzzlingly even for me, I put The Wild, The Innocent and The E Street Shuffle first. The rigour of my research has improved a little since then. Oh, and I know that Lucky Town is WAY better than my original expectation. Working On A Dream? Everyone has a bad day at the office.

GREETINGS FROM ASBURY PARK NJ (1973)

It's the work of a young man, although he must have been honing his art for a number of years by now (good intentions about reading the biog in parallel with the creation of this post have gone by the by). He's clearly got a lot to say and stories to tell, which means it sometimes becomes rather endearingly shambolic. The lyrics tumble over each other to get out and it's all about knocking about on the streets with your mates and girlfriends. I was surprised by the rhyming on 'Blinded By The Light'. There is a hell of a lot of it and often occurs mid-line, like a primitive Eminem. "Cut loose like a deuce"? Have you been reading Dr Seuss, Bruce? Manfred Mann changed it to "Revved up like a deuce" for no good reason. 'Mary Queen Of Arkansas' and 'Does This Bus Stop at 82nd Street' resurfaced from his demo recording session on the Tracks compilation and 'Growin' Up' is well documented as a live song. Here it retains the chest-puffing self-confidence that he also displays in 'It's Hard To Be A Saint In The City' but that latter song finishes quite abruptly on a fading piano riff that the E Street Band can keep going for a good 5 minutes in a live show. There are also three tracks that are probably favourites of the sign request brigade as they vie to suggest the most obscure, underplayed song in the entire back catalogue. 'Lost In The Flood', 'The Angel' and 'For You' are hardly on the tip of the non-Bruce-bore's tongue. 'Spirit In The Night' became much more raucous when performed live. Clarence sounds like a smooth jazz saxophonist on this version, and Hazy Davey and Crazy Janey sound like you probably only want to spend time with them in small doses. You know I've looked at this album cover many times, but it's only just now that I've realised that it is literally a picture postcard. Cheapskate.

Blinded By The Light
Growin' Up
Mary, Queen Of Arkansas

Does This Bus Stop At 82nd Street

Lost In The Flood

The Angel

For You

Spirit In The Night

It's Hard To Be A Saint In The City

THE WILD, THE INNOCENT AND THE E STREET SHUFFLE
Did you know he did a soul album? Well, a soul song. Well, sort of a soul song. The opening, sort of, title track has some James Brown brass stabs and some Isley Brothers funk riffs, so it counts. I'm going to posit a theory, which runs like this, Bruce basically oversings everything up to Nebraska/Born In The USA, from which point forward he either does rock n' roll bombast or understated introspection depending on his mood (Reductive? Me?). In the case of the upcoming Born To Run and Darkness, the melodrama works because the songs can take it, in these earlier efforts he sometimes doesn't have the material to pull it off. And I'm looking at you, '4th July, Asbury Park (Sandy)'. Much of this album, with the exception of 'Rosalita', is prime sign request fodder. Not 'Wild Billy's Circus Story' though, which I can't believe even the die-hardest, I-was-a-fan-in-1974-before-Born-To-Run Brucebore would commit to a creased piece of brown corrugated cardboard. I suspect that the live performances also informed the style of this album a little as there are moments where some solicitous editing of the freeform improvisations would be welcome. All Bruce albums are a reflection of where he was in life at that time, so the youthful exuberance of Greetings.. remains but we also start to see him dealing with his budding success. When I first did Bruce I listened to each album once, then moved on. This time I tend to give any album a few listens so I can appreciate the textures a little more. In this case the big surprise to me is tentpole standard of the early live sets, 'Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)', which later arrivals to Bruce fandom (e.g Yours Truly) sometimes resent because it is so clearly owned by the original fans. But when you really listen to it, it cannot be beaten as a wild eyed celebration of an artist who, frankly, can't believe his luck in being where he is and doing what he does. (Question: Does Jersey have swamps? He mentions them in Wrecking Ball too, but I open wetlands don't come to mind when I think of it). The closing 'New York City Serenade' sees him biting off more than he can chew with a great sprawling, largely instrumental effort. What is Bruce pondering on the cover with furrowed brow? The wisdom of that 'tache perhaps?

The E Street Shuffle

4th July, Asbury Park (Sandy)

Kitty's Back

Wild Billy's Circus Story

Incident On 57th Street

Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)

New York City Serenade

BORN TO RUN (1975)

What do I say about 'Thunder Road' and 'Born To Run'? The first was the moment when he snared me. He did an interview for Whistle Test when promoting the Live 1975-1985 box set and spoke about hearing the performance of 'Thunder Road' that opens that collection. He said it sounded like a beginning, and that's what it is. A young man tearing up his past failures and reaching for something better. As a manifesto for a 17-year old it can't be beaten. And 'Born To Run'? I believe he plays it at every concert now, but I also recall that he seemed to be getting tired of it in the mid-eighties. When I first saw him live at Villa Park in 1988 on the Tunnel Of Love tour he was doing an acoustic version. These songs are epic but much more focussed than what has gone before. I do think he makes a meal of 'Backstreets', but that echoey piano intro merging into the organ is great. What else? '10th Avenue Freeze Out' is also a pillar of the encore sets now as a tribute to Clarence Clemons and 'Night' and 'She's The One' will never disappoint in a live show. But buried there on Side 2, just before everything is wound up with 'Jungleland' is 'Meeting Across The River'. Born To Run has a reputation as being this joyous outburst of rebellion and exuberant appetite for life, but 'Meeting...' is about as bleak as Bruce has ever been. A mournful tale of dodgy dealings with unsavoury characters and protagonists taking one last, life-threatening gamble. Jungleland is a rather more romantic portrayal of life in the grey areas, tempered by the suggestion that the streetfights are musical, rather like a Jersey version of West Side Story. The album cover picture shows genius in its simple complexity and symmetry. Multiracial. Clarence is flamboyant and exotic. Bruce is rough and ready. And they are clearly bezzie mates.

Thunder Road
10th Avenue Freeze Out

Night

Backstreets

Born To Run

She's The One

Meeting Across The River
Jungleland

DARKNESS ON THE EDGE OF TOWN (1978)

This is my favourite Springsteen album. I think my top three would also include Tunnel Of Love and Wrecking Ball (with The Rising pushing hard for a podium finish). I think this is remarkable in that by now, Bruce must have been living the Rock n Roll lifestyle large, and yet these songs still get to the heart of what he might have been doing in a parallel life. Responsibility and the need to earn a living are the themes, and the escape from those burdens as well. He still oversings, probably more than ever before, but it feels like he's doing it because he means it, not for dramatic effect. "In the bah-bull Mama Cain slew Ay-bull; and East of Eden Mama he was ca-yust!", he howls in 'Adam Raised A Cain'. The imitation of a bible-thumping fire-and-brimstone merchant is no accident. Much of the vocal in 'Something In The Night' is an agonized moan, and he reaches a lyrical zenith in 'Badlands' when he sings. "For the ones who had a notion, a notion deep inside, that it ain't no sin to be glad you're alive", and "Poor man wanna be rich, Rich man wanna be King, and a King ain't satisfied, till he rules everything". If I return to my previous Hamlet references, you can keep your 'To be or not to be", that's the human condition right there. And they keep coming, 'Candy's Room' is packed with passion to an almost obsessive degree. 'Racing In The Street' transmits joy and desolation in equal measure (still not sure what a 'hurst' is, nor why one would choose to locate it on the floor) as the working man forges a bond with a piece of machinery that transcends the daily grind. It also has that great little coda at the end. I think I first saw this live on The Rising tour when Bruce was very accommodating and turned up just a bus ride away from my house at Crystal Palace stadium. I think it was the first time I'd felt that he'd given something rare and special. There's the defiant hope in the face of all evidence to the contrary of 'The Promised Land' and the relentless pain of daily life in 'Factory'. If I ever found myself at the front of a Springsteen concert with an empty cornflakes packet and a black marker pen to hand, I think I might be inscribing 'Streets Of Fire' on it. I have seen him do it once, but only as part of a complete run through of the entire album at Wembley in 2013. The spirit of Born To Run hasn't been entirely squeezed out though, on 'Prove It All Night' he sings "You hear the voices telling you not to go; They made their choices and they'll never know; What it means to steal, to cheat, to lie; What it's like to live and die". He finishes with the title track, which is all searing desperation and defiance against the hard knocks that life deals. If you want to know Bruce Springsteen, and what he is about, you can't do better than this. It is bloody magnificent.

Badlands
Adam Raised A Cain
Something In The Night
Candy's Room
Racing In The Street

The Promised Land

Factory

Streets Of Fire

Prove It All Night

Darkness On The Edge Of Town

THE RIVER (1980)

First time around, I accused Bruce of hammering out a double album just to beef up his stock of live material. This time there isn't much to convince me that I was wrong. The arrangements are loose and the production is definitely intended to give the feel of a live set in the local enormodome. 'Sherry Darling' even starts with a round of applause. Of course the easy path to take here is to say that there is only a single album's worth of top class songs. I like the easy path, but I'm going to make it even easier by suggesting that you can get the essence of the entire album in EP format. So I would say that if you take a fun stadium rocker like 'Cadillac Ranch', an angsty social commentary like 'Jackson Cage', a sombre proto-Nebraska song like 'Stolen Car' and the deeply personal rite of passage that is 'The River', then you've pretty much got it all. Some of the rest could have been separated at birth. You can't really get a cigarette paper between 'Two Hearts' and 'You Can Look (But You Better Not Touch)'. There is A LOT of motoring going on as well, in fact, the last five songs, from 'Stolen Car' through 'Ramrod', 'The Price You Pay', 'Drive All Night' and ultimately to  'Wreck On The Highway' could be intended as a single suite. There is some stuff on here that borders on the utter tripe category ('Crush On You', 'I Wanna Marry You' and 'I'm A Rocker' do little for me). A close friend is thoroughly fed up with 'Hungry Heart'. I can bear it, but it characterizes so much of this album. Efficient, brash, kind of enjoyable but lacking sufficient, well, 'soul' I suppose. On the other hand there is some true excellence too. The North London brucophiles got very excited when he did 'Point Blank' at the Emirates Stadium in 2008 as a sign request. As for the title track, it stands alone. In his biography he tells that he wrote it for his sister and her husband, on whose relationship it is based. The knowledge that it is comes from a true experience adds much to an already great song. That "on account of the economy" line is still a bit clunky though.

The Ties That Bind

Sherry Darling

Jackson Cage

Two Hearts

Independence Day

Hungry Heart

Out In The Street

Crush On You

You Can Look (But You Better Not Touch)

I Wanna Marry You

The River

Point Blank

Cadillac Ranch

I'm A Rocker

Fade Away

Stolen Car

Ramrod

The Price You Pay

Drive All Night

Wreck On The Highway

NEBRASKA (1982)

Nebraska may be the closest that Springsteen comes to a concept album, although many do have a theme running through, this one seems to have been carefully constructed. There are twin ideas here. Crime and punishment (he gets in two death sentences) and, I think, his early relationship with his father. It's almost split that way across the two sides too, so in the first half we have Charles Starkweather going on a gun rampage in Lincoln in 'Nebraska', Ralph going off the rails and committing armed robbery after losing his job in 'Johnny 99', nefarious tasks to pay of gambling debts in 'Atlantic City', 'Highway Patrolman' Joe Roberts letting his brother Frankie escape over the state line after he beats up a kid in a bar and pleas to a 'State Trooper' to just allow the protagonist to drive to destruction. Things get more personal with 'Used Cars' describing cruising the streets of New Jersey and getting ice creams with his family. You made your own entertainment in Freehold NJ in the sixties I guess. 'Open All Night' is a stripped down piece of rock and roll also about the pursuit of simple pleasures. 'My Father's House' is a tale of regret at the lost opportunities that estrangement from a parent can bring. By the time he's driven by a dream to reconcile with his father, it's too late. Finally, Bruce considers the hopeless hope that people cling to in 'Reason To Believe' As time has gone by, it's become clear that Nebraska can be considered a companion album to Born In The USA. Both were created in parallel, but I suppose that the juxtaposition of the style of the songs on the two albums would have been too jarring for a simultaneous release, or even a double (I don't think that was ever the intention). He consequently avoids the quality control problems of the River and the Human Touch/Lucky Town double release. It's bleak, but at least you can't accuse him of mis-selling it with the cover picture. 

Nebraska

Atlantic City

Mansion On The Hill

Johnny 99

Highway Patrolman

State Trooper

Used Cars

Open All Night

My Father's House

Reason To Believe

BORN IN THE USA (1984)

Serendipity has led me to be listening to Born In The USA in the first week of the Trump presidency, and the way that this album, made over 30 years ago, meshes with the current state of the USA is striking. Start with the cover. It could be bang up to date commentary. Bruce is pictured with a Make America Great Again cap in his back pocket and having a whizz on the stars and stripes (for the record he denies that any bladder emptying should be implied). The album a snapshot of America under the president, who, if any could, bears closest comparison with Trump, in that he achieved fame in the entertainment industry before politics. Of course, Reagan now seems like an amiable old bumbler compared to the current incumbent, but listen to the words of this album and you hear some of the things that were going wrong back then, and realise they weren't so different to the circumstances that have led to the current pickle that America finds itself in. In fact, just focus on the last song, 'My Hometown'. There is racial tension leading to gun violence (admittedly referring to 1965) and job losses in the textile mills. Probably not a coincidence that on Wrecking Ball 30 years later, he sang 'Death To My Hometown'. If things were bad in the early eighties they must be 10 times worse now. Of course Springsteen offers no solutions, he just represents the genuine voice of dispossessed hardworking, blue collar Americans in a way that a billionaire egomaniac never could. If we didn't see Trump coming, maybe we should have listened to what Springsteen was singing about. Still, enough of the politics, I'm a lower-middle class boy from middle England, I'm not placed to comment on the state of the last remaining superpower. What about the actual music? 

I guess that I find the whole thing is a bit too polished, but as I said last time, you'll be hard-pressed to find a dud on it (although 'Bobby Jean' comes close to feeling like it was dashed off on a Friday afternoon and 'I'm On Fire' almost gives me the creeps). He ranges from the goofy feel of 'Darlington County' ("Today's your lucky day, fer sure, alright"), via the bittersweet reminiscences of 'Glory Days' to the much darker 'Downbound Train', ("I got laid off down at the lumber yard; Our love went bad, times got hard; Now I work down at the carwash; Where all it ever does is rain") which wouldn't be out of place on either of the two previous albums. 'No Surrender' feels wrong, because the slower version you can find on the Live '75-'85 is so much better. It's a puzzling song, the theme seems to be about childhood friendships, there's talk of "blood brothers" and "soldiers on a winter's night", but he addresses the song to "Baby". Now I'm sure Bruce's stance on sexual politics is impeccable, but calling your mates "Baby" doesn't seem quite right.  

The song, Born In The USA, itself is actually rather odd when you listen to it carefully. He certainly had a slower acoustic version up his sleeve when recording both this and Nebraska and he resurrected that on the Tom Joad tour, but this version, which we know so well, is notable for the drumming. It starts off like Mighty Max has been given just one stick and one snare but as it goes on it strays from the rhythm and takes in all kinds of fancy synchopations. It's an easily misunderstood song and whilst there is clearly pride in the sentiment, it's hardly a jingoistic anthem. Politicians were bound to be confounded by the need to actually listen to the lyrics.

If you've got this far on this post, then I would urge you to listen to 'Born In The USA' again. It may have been made in 1984, and turned Bruce into a global megastar, but it says as much about the greatest nation on Earth now as it did then.

Born In The USA

Cover Me

Darlington County

Working On The Highway

Downbound Train

I'm On Fire

No Surrender

Bobby Jean

I'm Goin Down

Glory Days

Dancing In The Dark

My Hometown

TUNNEL OF LOVE (1987)

If this is the result of the hangover from the success of Born In The USA and an ill-considered first marriage, then at least Bruce took several Alka-Seltzers before he set about working it all out in music. The clarity, beauty and focus of this album makes it, in my opinion, his greatest from an artistic viewpoint. It is almost certainly his most personal set of songs. It may seem an obvious thing to say, but Springsteen is a man, and he makes no apologies for representing a male viewpoint on love, uncertainty, betrayal, strength and weakness. It's refreshing to listen to it today in an age where gender politics often reduces everything to a polarized argument where men are the oppressive ne'er-do-wells and women are the virtuous freedom fighters. The only place where this viewpoint is suggested is in the outstanding 'Spare Parts'. Bobby gets Janey pregnant and immediately heads for the hills and swears he will never come back, Janey has the baby and regrets the loss of her freedom to the extent that she considers drowning the child in the river. She pulls back at the last moment, and the mental image of a hard-eyed woman emerging from the river with babe in arms is powerful. Not only that, she goes home, pawns her engagement ring and starts to make a life for her and her baby. Bobby is an exception though. The men in these songs, and we must assume Bruce is working from personal experience, wrestle with doubt, fear, devotion and temptation. 'Cautious Man', Bill Horton has LOVE on the knuckles of one hand and FEAR on the other. He loves his woman, but he fears he will betray her, when he finally reaches his crisis point he makes the right decision, but it's a close run thing. Elsewhere, Bruce presents relationships as a gruelling trial or a constant battle, "If you're rough and ready for love, Honey I'm tougher than the rest", but the battle is not with the other person, it's with yourself. That's why he has 'Two Faces'. I don't  think he's literally claiming to have a split personality, but the struggle to decide which path to follow and to conceal the conflict are what the songs are about (see also 'Brilliant Disguise'). I'm not going to attempt to pick favourites from this, but I love the opening to 'Walk Like A Man' - "I remember how rough your hand felt on mine, on our wedding day", and the sentiment of the whole song, which is again about the need to do the 'right' thing whilst being uncertain about what that actually means. And 'Valentine's Day'  has seen me through a few dark nights of the soul.  

Ain't Got You

Tougher Than The Rest

All That Heaven Will Allow

Spare Parts

Cautious Man

Walk Like A Man

Tunnel Of Love

Two Faces

Brilliant Disguise

One Step Up

When You're Alone

Valentine's Day

LUCKY TOWN (1992)

Decisions decisions. Which to do first? I go into this knowing that Lucky Town is the superior album and if we're entering into a River-style, what-would-you-have-put-on-a-single-album? debate, then LT would contribute most of the material. So let's fill the glass half full first and I can drain it to the dregs when we get to Human Touch.  Bruce is settled with new wife Patti and it shows in the songs. A man at ease with himself and happy with his life. 'Better Days' can be taken ultra-literally. He's come from a dark place and found 'a woman I can call my friend'. Can't ask for more than that. The self awareness and dark wisdom of "Well a life of leisure and a pirate's treasure, Don't make much for tragedy, But it's a sad man my friend who's living in his own skin, And can't stand the company" is refreshing The slightly subtler message about the satisfaction that providing for others brings is brought out in the title track where he's "got dirt on my hands but I'm building me a new home". I really like Lucky Town the song. It bowls along joyously. Probably my favourite on this though is 'If I Should Fall Behind', a gentle song about love and friendship that always makes me think of Mrs RockOdyssey. Bruce was still doing the old 'desperate people on the edge' thing when he wanted to. 'The Big Muddy' is a slightly more stylized version of the kind of themes of BtR's 'Meeting Across The River' and Nebraska's 'Atlantic City'. There's more of it on 'Living Proof' but it's tempered with the redemption of faith. 'Book Of Dreams' and 'My Beautiful Reward' are of a piece as well. Reflections on the peace and settlement that finding a life partner brings. His most ambitious song here though is 'Souls Of The Departed' where he conflates the experiences of a soldier from the first Iraq war and the mother of a Hispanic boy gunned down at school in East Compton, and then looks at his son and thinks, 'there but for the grace of God'. Cover picture: Medallion Man. 

Better Days

Lucky Town

Local Hero

If I Should Fall Behind

Leap Of Faith

The Big Muddy

Living Proof

Book Of Dreams

Souls Of The Departed

My Beautiful Reward

HUMAN TOUCH (1992)

So what was going on here? We know that Bruce always produces far more than he needs and then applies the quality control to select the final album. His frequent trips up to the loft to dig out rejects every five years or so is evidence of that. Could he just not be bothered this time and so decided to put it all out? This is by no means a bad album, but in the Springsteen Premiership it is a Southampton, in danger of dropping into the relegation battle but also capable of pulling off a shock victory. My clearest indicator of it's relative quality is that I know all of the songs on Lucky Town well. On this I could probably name 5 or 6 off the top of my head. (and that includes the risible 'Pony Boy'). 'Cross My Heart', 'Roll Of The Dice', 'Real World', 'All Or Nothing At All', 'The Long Goodbye'. No-one really remembers any of these do they? And it starts so well. 'Human Touch' feels like a direct continuation of 'Tunnel Of Love' and third track, '57 Channels (And Nothin' On)', which I admittedly dismissed last time, has the virtue of seeing Springsteen carrying out experiments that came to fruition 10 years later on The Rising. But stuff life 'Gloria's Eyes' and 'Roll Of The Dice' really sounds like he just couldn't be bothered. I think the lack of a theme shows through here as well. Lucky Town is a deeply personal album like Tunnel Of Love, but this just feels like a collection of songs, which is not typical. For that reason it's closest comparators are Working On A Dream and Magic. It's closer to Magic in that he hits highs with 'With Every Wish' and, for me the best song on the album, 'I Wish I Were Blind', but it amounts to just under half a great album and a waste of good artwork.

Human Touch

Soul Driver

57 Channels (And Nothin' On)

Cross My Heart

Gloria's Eyes

With Every Wish

Roll Of The Dice

Real World

All Or Nothin' At All

Man's Job

I Wish I Were Blind

The Long Goodbye

Real Man

Pony Boy

THE GHOST OF TOM JOAD (1995)

Whassat Bruce? Speak up sunshine, we can't hear what you're saying. I have problems with Tom Joad. It's Bruce trying to out-Guthrie Woody. The only songs that have really ever shown any live traction for me are 'Tom Joad' itself and 'Youngstown', and that's mainly because Bruce beefs them up beyond recognition. And lo and behold, when he does so they are revealed as great songs. Maybe the mumbly delivery is partly due to a reliance on sophisticated production techniques that he didn't use for the similar, but superior, Nebraska. The theme is strong, without doubt, but does it amount to anything more than Nebraska II? Alienation, the temptations of a life of crime, bad choices. This possibly has a broader sweep than its predecessor. Nebraska's songs are intimate and the protagonists are trapped by their location whereas these are possibly a little more cinematic and rely on circumstance to bind up their subjects. Once again a Springsteen song seems to catch the zeitgeist decades ahead of it's time. 'Sinaloa Cowboys' combines Mexican immigrant labour and cooking up crystal meth in a single song, but as a song it's never engaged me enough to realise that until I actually made the effort to read the lyrics. And therein lies much of the problem, Bruce has good ideas here, but the execution is lacking. At least I think so.The next track, The Line, is equally thoughtful and on a similar theme, from a Californian border patrol officer's perspective, but ultimately just comes across as a dirge. Then he repeats the trick again with 'Balboa Park'. 'The New Timer' is too musically close to 'Nebraska' (the song) for comfort. 'Across The Border' is interesting in that it has a touch of 'In The Ghetto' about it. In the end, the last track 'My Best Was Never Good Enough', sounds like a Loudon Wainwright III song. Not necessarily a bad thing, but not what I bought the album for.

The Ghost Of Tom Joad

Straight Time

Highway 29

Youngstown

Sinaloa Cowboys

The Line

Balboa Park

Dry Lightning

The New Timer

Across The Border

Galveston Bay

My Best Was Never Good Enough    

THE RISING (2002)

It was a long lay off but in the meantime he was coining it in from Greatest Hits, offcuts collection Tracks and accompanying tours. This is fully informed by the 9/11 attacks on New York, but his approach is to pay tribute to the dead and the heroic and maybe offer some hope for the future. In fact the tone of the opening Lonesome Day is deceptive. It sounds joyous and the refrain is "It's alright, It's alright, It's alright", but there are question marks after each "It's alright" and it's a song of loss. But hope is not abandoned "Let kingdom come I'm gonna find my way, through this lonesome day". 'Countin' On A Miracle' plays the same trick by being upbeat and yet heartbreaking lyrically. 'Empty Sky' is a bleaker take on being robbed of a love one and draws the parallel between the loss to the New York skyline and personal loss, but it's tempered with the desire for revenge. There's a boiling anger underneath it ("I want a kiss from your lips, I want an eye for an eye"). Bruce is running the gamut of the stages of grief on this album and reaches his his peak on 'You're Missing', for me the best track on his most heartfelt album. I cannot listen to it without remembering my one significant loss in life so far.   

For those left behind, 'Into The Fire' may be one of the most powerful songs he's ever produced. As he pays tribute to an individual who went 'up the stairs into the fire' and prays that we can draw hope, faith and love from their example. 'Nothing Man' portrays the emptiness of survivor's guilt and combines beauty and horror in a single line: "How my brave young life was forever changed in a misty cloud of pink vapor". And "You want courage, I'll show you courage you can't understand" never fails to make me catch my breath. 

As for hope and reconciliation, there's plenty of that too. 'World's Apart' combines north African(?) rhythms and vocals to reflect on the differences between the West and the muslim world and then the slightly hokey 'Let's Be Friends' suggests it would be nice if we could all just get along with each other. 'The Fuse' is admittedly not the most optimistic song on the album, with its suggestion that we're on borrowed time and had better make the most of it, but 'Mary's Place' suggests that we shouldn't give up on the joy of living just yet and faith might pull us through, although there is still a shadow of loss hanging over the song. The album enters the home straight with the title song, 'Paradise' and the uplifting 'My City Of Ruins'. 'The Rising' goes like a Seven-Brides style barn-raising song, which, if it doesn't cheer you up may be a good indicator that you are clinically dead. 'Paradise' is a strange one and I'm tempted to guess that it might even be about a suicide bomber with it's references to "plastics" and "wire" in a pack and a "crowded marketplace". But then again it might just be a gentle love song. Finally 'My City Of Ruins' sees Bruce in full gospel preacher mode. Urging the congregation to rise up and rebuild with their own hands. It leaves you feeling sad and hopeful in equal measure, which is the best we should want.

Just one further note, 'Waitin' On A Sunny Day' is a fine song. It's uplifting and catchy. But the tendency to haul a Brucebrat on stage to scream out the chorus in every live show is beginning to pall.

Lonesome Day

Into The Fire

Waitin' On A Sunny Day

Nothing Man

Countin' On A Miracle

Empty Sky

Worlds Apart

Let's Be Friends (Skin To Skin)

Further On (Up The Road)

The Fuse

Mary's Place

You're Missing

The Rising

Paradise

My City Of Ruins

DEVILS AND DUST (2005)

I'm slowly working through the autobiography as I do this second pass at Bruce, but I'm not the reader I once was and I'm taking it slow and sure. That means that I am several albums behind in the book compared to where I am in the odyssey. On balance that's good. My opinions are untainted by the truth of what he was doing and thinking at the time. The downside is that if I've made an embarrassing assumption that everyone knows to be false, because they are a more dedicated reader than me, then I look like a pretentious idiot (I know, I know). So at the time of listening to Devils and Dust, I am just coming out of the River and into Nebraska/BitUSA on the literary side. I'm getting my excuses in early because my theory on Devils and Dust is that it is Bruce's tribute to his heroes, Guthrie, Williams and Dylan. Now my knowledge of these guys is sparse and can be summarized by 'This Land Is Your Land', 'Your Cheatin' Heart' and 'Lay Lady Lay' respectively, so I could, and not for the first time, be talking utter bollocks. If that is the case then I apologise to those who know better than me. I rarely listen to this, but when I do, I'm always struck be it being actually, pretty good. You can possibly group 4 Springsteen albums together as his, oh I dunno, acoustic balladeer set. Those being Nebraska, Tunnel Of Love, The Ghost Of Tom Joad and this. But whereas Tom Joad is the heir to Nebraska, Devils & Dust follows on from Tunnel of Love. It's not all that acoustic see? 'Long Time Coming' is quite a richly arranged country song, although the lyrics earned the album a 'parental advisory' sticker. I'd say that the high pitched deliveries and plucked gee-tar of 'Maria's Bed' and 'All I'm Thinkin' About' are his Hank Williams tributes - I'm tempted to say he even puts on a Southern accent as he counts in on the former and the straining for the high notes on the latter borders on the painful, but he just about gets away with it in his quest for autheticity. For Guthrie, possibly the title track and 'Silver Palomino' serve as being most informed by him. And Dylan? 'Jesus Was An Only Son' has a touch of the nasal drawl and the closing 'Matamoros Banks' has a lot of it (although maybe the 'Waltzing Matilda'-esque outro is starting to pull in Tom Waits as well). 'Jesus Was An Only Son' also brings me to a very overt but not especially noted feature of Springsteen's work. All that bleedin' faith and religion. Here I am using some crib notes from his book which makes it clear that Roman Catholic church loomed large in his childhood and the attitudes of that have stayed with him ever since, and you can make a strong argument that his work promotes the spiritual as much as the daily material grit and grind. It's a good cover. Bruce is a bit sad.

Devils And Dust

All The Way Home

Reno

Long Time Comin'

Black Cowboys

Maria's Bed

Silver Palomino

Jesus Was An Only Son

Leah

The Hitter

All I'm Thinkin' About

Matamoros Banks

MAGIC (2007)

According to the Book Of Bruce, this is an intensely political album and he's proud of it for that reason. I have to admit that when I read that I was surprised, but the reason for that is that the songs are so good musically, it's fairly easy to miss the subtlety of the lyrics. Anyway I defy anyone to read a great deal of hidden meaning in the opening track (and single) 'Radio Nowhere', which is a smooth rolling rocker which features one of Bruce's favourite phrases "Is there anybody alive out there" and is one of my favourite Springsteen songs. It's interesting to compare his terminology on this album to his early work. Take 'I'll Work For Your Love". He addresses it to 'dear', whereas on anything pre BitUSA he'd probably have gone for 'babe' or 'girl'. He's getting on a bit by now see, and his choice of words reflects that sometimes. Mind you, only an American can rhyme "clear" with "mirrors". One more lyrical beef before I go on, just what is wrong with that terminal 'g' in song titles? It's surprising that The Risin' didn't feature Nothin' Man and You're Missin'. Musically the solo piano intro to 'I'll Work...' throws right back to the earliest albums and 'Last To Die' owes a debt to 'Roulette' I think. But that's not to say it's unoriginal. In fact I'm tempted to claim that the consistency on this surpasses any other album. Not only is there no bad song here, there are no merely average ones either, and the closing 'Devil's Arcade' has a remarkable intense, building beauty. Cover picture: Serious face.

Radio Nowhere

You'll Be Comin' down

Livin' In The Future

Your Own Worst Enemy

Gypsy Biker

Girls In Their Summer Clothes

I'll Work For Your Love

Magic

Last To Die

Long Walk Home

Devil's Arcade 

WORKING ON A DREAM (2009)

This requires a fair crack of the whip. There are a couple of factors which I think have led me to view it as a lesser work. Firstly, 'Outlaw Pete' is simultaneously the best and worst track on the album. The sweep and grandeur of the music is severely shackled by the words, and particularly the first verse. I started thinking, maybe this is a dark allegory, about a single mother reduced to taking her baby on bank raids to make ends meet. But no. I must conclude that it is a dumb-as-hell tale of an infant western outlaw. Rather like the Beano's Baby Face Finlayson (the Cutest Bandit Around) who wasn't remotely cute at all, being instead pretty scarily grotesque.  The rest of the song is fine actually, he grows up to kill 'Bounty Hunter Dan' before riding into the sunset leaving a young Navajo girl behind. Secondly, I think one of the reasons this album has a relatively bad rep is that it came pretty quickly after Magic, and it was starting to feel like Bruce was beginning to churn 'em out. That argument doesn't really stand up because Bowie was knocking out at least one classic album a year through the seventies, but in the modern age, the rarity value of new Bruce product is an asset. What I'm building up to is that having listened through a few times, I'm really beginning to quite like it. It's possibly his most playful album. He mucks around with different styles, even if he doesn't always quite pull them off. The title track is optimistic and breezy, 'Queen Of The Supermarket' is a rather touching tale of love in the aisles. We can imagine Bruce popping in for a bag of carrots, a tube of Pringles and a carton of milk, just to get the object of his affections to scan his Clubcard. I particularly like the overblown, histrionic backing singing "I'm in love with the Queen of the Supermarket!". So aroused are the Boss's grocery-inspired passions that he drops the f-bomb near the end. I think 'What Love Can Do' is a really terrific song, pity he doesn't do it more often live (most of this album has been ignored on setlists since it was released). There's a touch of lounge-crooning on 'This Life', which transforms a little in the end to a swooshing surf-rock type tune. Next he's emulating Rod and the Faces doing delta blues on 'Good Eye', followed by the gentle country ditty of 'Tomorrow Never Knows'. Rather like Scottish weather, on this album, if you don't like it at the moment, don't worry, there'll be something different along in a couple of minutes. There is an ease about these songs, and maybe that's another factor that I've previously misunderstood about this album, Bruce gives the impression that he's not trying here, but in fact it could be that it only seems effortless. I don't honestly think there is a great deal of political depth to the songs, these are first and foremost love songs, but that's OK, he's earned the right to indulge himself as an old romantic by now. Is 'The Last Carnival' some kind of sequel to 'Wild Billy's Circus Story'? It features a character called Billy and is about the circus after all. It's the most downbeat song on the whole album. 'The Wrestler', from the Mickey Rourke movie is also here as a bonus track. Doesn't really fit with the rest of the album. My attitude to the music may have changed but the Warholized Bruce artwork is possibly the worst of all. He'd kicked jewel case packaging into the long grass by now as well.  

Outlaw Pete

My Lucky Day

Working On A Dream

Queen Of The Supermarket

What Love Can Do

This Life

Good Eye

Tomorrow Never Knows

Life Itself

Kingdom Of Days

Surprise, Surprise

The Last Carnival

The Wrestler

WRECKING BALL (2012)

Give Springsteen some political grist for his mill and he's capable of producing his most penetrating and perceptive work. This could form a trilogy with Born In The USA and The Rising as commentaries on contemporary events. Here it is the financial crash, fury with the bankers who got away with it and the weary defiance of the ordinary people who had to bear the consequences. The opening 'We Take Care Of Our Own' has the potential to be just as misunderstood as Born In The USA and, had it been released 5 years later it would not have surprised me if the dim-witted Trump campaign had seized on it as their anthem (not that he'd have let them). "Wherever this flag is flown, we take care of our own" he sings. Just like BitUSA, that's a proud, patriotic statement, but I'd like to think his definition of 'our own' is pretty broad. That's one of the tentpole songs on this along with 'Death To My Hometown', 'Wrecking Ball' and 'Land Of Hope And Dreams'. All massive stadium stompers guaranteed to get the crowd punching the air. But strung between them are close, intense tales of desperation - the 'Jack Of All Trades' doing whatever it takes to get by; the dual meaning of 'This Depression', mixing personal crises with public ones; and the quest for spiritual answers in 'Rocky Ground'.  And finally, 'We Are Alive' which picks up on an idea also expressed in 'Wrecking Ball', that it is our dead ancestors that we should look to for wisdom. On the Wrecking Ball tour he did 'We Are Alive' near the end of the show, when it was dark, and projected a huge ghostly moon on the screen behind. The greatest achievement of this album though is that while it could be downbeat and dispiriting, it still retains joy and hope. 'Wrecking Ball' stands up, puffs out its chest and says, OK, we were fucked-over, it's happened before, but we're still here, we have our history and we aren't going away. Unfortunately insufficient of his fellow Americans followed his advice to "Hold tight to your anger" and "Don't fall to your fears", which leaves us all in the position we're in now. The blaring horns, hammering drums and howled chant at the end really gets the blood racing. It's the same with 'Land Of Hope And Dreams' - a crashing celebration of life. There's a couple of bonus tracks on my CD, the distinctly odd 'Swallowed Up (In The Belly Of The Whale)' and the encore-standard immigrant song 'American Land'.  

We Take Care Of Our Own

Easy Money

Shackled And Drawn

Jack Of All Trades

Death To My Hometown

This Depression

Wrecking Ball

You've Got It

Rocky Ground

Land Of Hope And Dreams

We Are Alive

Swallowed Up (In The Belly Of The Whale)

American Land

HIGH HOPES (2014)

Not sure it even really counts as a proper studio album and possibly it belongs in the apocrypha being, as it is, a mixture of new versions of old tracks, a fair few collaborations with Tom Morello and some outtakes from previous albums. Probably most notable is the inclusion of a version of 'The Ghost Of Tom Joad'. I know this to be not a well regarded version in some quarters, but if we are to describe it in terms of that clapped-out old cliché 'marmite', then I view it as a salty, yeasty delicious treat which I will happily slather thickly over my toast. I've made it clear above that I'm not overly enamoured of the Tom Joad album and I think this version gives the song a force and purpose that it didn't have before. Morello does go overboard in showing off his ability to extract the most extraordinary noises from his guitar, it is true, but I think it's justified. The other significant back-catalogue song that is given an airing on here is 'American Skin (41 Shots)', based on the killing of Amadou Diallo in 1999 by officers of the NYPD. I think it's an effective song, although it's real impact has come in live performances where it has had mixed receptions, especially back when the story was fresher. But just like 'Born In The USA' and 'We Take Care Of Our Own', paying just some passing attention to the lyrics shows that Bruce's approach is balanced and nuanced. The Morello collaborations are worthwhile, they give a harder edge to Bruce's usual style, but overall, there doesn't seem to be much of a purpose to it all. The songs are good and even Mrs Rockodyssey was singing along to 'Just Like Fire Would' and 'Heaven's Wall' as I played them. The excellent 'The Wall' comes across as being somewhere between his own 'Independence Day' and Sting's 'Fields Of Gold'. However it feels like a placeholder, something just to mark time for now. Rolling Stone reckons a new solo album is in the can and just waiting for a release opportunity later in 2017. I'll probably have hit 50 by the time he tours it and have vague ambitions to see him on American soil to mark the occasion. We'll see.

High Hopes

Harry's Place

American Skin (41 Shots)

Just Like Fire Would

Down In The Hole

Heaven's Wall

Frankie Fell In Love

This Is Your Sword

Hunter Of Invisible Game

The Ghost Of Tom Joad

The Wall

Dream Baby Dream

WESTERN STARS (2019)

It's quite tempting to suggest that this is a reaction to the run of his show Springsteen On Broadway. Where that would have involved, city dwelling and performing each night in a claustrophobic theater, this is all about wide open spaces and freedom to roam. The accompanying film reinforces the point, as Bruce, now genuinely having skin like leather and the diamond hard look of a cobra, muses on life while mooching around Joshua Tree National Park between performances of all the songs on the album in track order in his barn.

It's epic in every sense with swelling orchestral arrangements and not so much a nod to Glen Campbell as a full on Glesga kiss. The songs stand as a piece, it comes as close to a Springsteen concept album as Nebraska did, but they also feel quite self-contained. There's still loads about being on the road, he starts off with 'Hitch Hikin' and 'The Wayfarer' which don't deviate much from a single theme. He's looking back sometimes as well. 'Chasin' Wild Horses' sounds like a reworking of 'Your Own Worst Enemy' from Magic and on the title track he repurposes the opening line of Dancing In The Dark to indicate that he no longer spends nights awake and sleeps through the day. Age has caught up with Bruce and he now wakes up in the morning and he asserts this at the start of both 'Western Stars' and 'Stones'. He gives a sense of place too, the good time joint that is 'Sleepy Joe's Cafe' contrasts with the lonely shabbiness of the 'Moonlight Motel'.

'There Goes My Miracle' is about the most standard-ish Springsteen song on the entire album and wouldn't have been out of place on Magic or Working On A Miracle. He put 'Hello Sunshine' out as a teaser for the album, which bears more than a passing resemblance to Nilsson's 'Everybody's Talkin''. That might be as intentional as the whole Glen Campbell thing, which he brought to a head on the 'encore' of the movie with a magnificent version of 'Rhinestone Cowboy'. 

For me, the slight oddity on the album is 'Drive Fast (The Stuntman)', a little personal sketch of a stuntman whose had too many bad falls both physically and emotionally. It seems like it might have been intended for a movie soundtrack.

This sits with Devils and Dust in terms of theme and feel, but it's not as bleak as that album. Springsteen is describing his thoughts on life now, as he always does (although if you take time to watch the Springsteen on Broadway film on Netflix he freely admits that a lot of what he writes about is not part of his own personal experience), but while there's a lot of regret and self examination, 'Stones' in particular is quite a harsh piece of introspection, it also feels peaceful.

Hitch Hikin'

The Wayfarer

Tucson Train

Western Stars

Sleepy Joe's Cafe

Drive Fast (The Stuntman)

Chasin' Wild Horses

Sundown

Somewhere North Of Nashville

Stones

There Goes My Miracle

Hello Sunshine

Moonlight Motel

LETTER TO YOU (2020)

A friend of Mrs R.O. recently noted that they quite liked the new Bruce material that they'd heard on the radio, but were put off by the amount of religious references. He seems to be embracing the spiritual more openly these days. That happens as you get older I think and Springsteen was steeped in a catholic upbringing so it's hardly surprising that it comes through more clearly. It's sprituality is channelled into positivity and the restorative power of the music. It's tempting to suggest that just like The Rising and Wrecking Ball, this is a response to the current challenges posed by pandemic, but it was recorded at the end of 2019, before we'd even heard of COVID and three of the tracks were written for 1973's Greetings From Asbury Park.

It's billed as an album by him and the E-Street Band, but it feels like a midway point between the deeply personal solo effort of Western Stars and the rabble-rousing of Wrecking Ball. He's had a lot of airplay for his single releases in the UK too, although I mainly listen to the BBC and they did buy up his 'From My Home To Yours' radio series, so maybe there's some quid pro quo going on there.

Those three Asbury Park songs are 'Janey Needs a Shooter', 'Song for Orphans' and 'If I Was The Priest'. You can tell. They are all both wordy and epic. 'Song for Orphans' could be a progenitor for 'Backstreets'. Warren Zevon included 'Jeannie Needs A Shooter' on the Bad Luck Streak In Dancing School album. This Roll of The Dice Blog Post explains more about how it came about and is connected to Bruce's original song.

'If I Was The Priest' is also one of the several songs with openly religious themes along with 'The Power Of Prayer', 'Rainmaker' and, I would argue, 'House Of A Thousand Guitars', which plays like a call to worship at a chapel of music.   

The title 'Last Man Standing' suggests it's thematically the same as Magic's 'Last To Die', a song that has cropped up in RockOdyssey online debates in the past on whether Bruce's original is a little bit humdrum whereas the Pet Shop Boys cover is considerably better. 'Last Man Standing' is a much better song either way.

Last song, 'I'll See You In My Dreams' takes its title from Bristol City football club song 'Goodnight, Irene'. Possibly.

One Minute You're Here

Letter to You

Burnin' Train

Janey Needs a Shooter

Last Man Standing

The Power of Prayer

House of a Thousand Guitars

Rainmaker

If I Was the Priest

Ghosts

Song for Orphans

I'll See You in My Dreams