Introduction: Assorted Things Found on the Banks of The River by Dave Bloom Despite a critical reputation that’s only grown over the years, Darkness on the Edge of Town slipped down the charts almost immediately after release. Springsteen, who had spent so much time assembling the perfect, thematically-coherent tracklist from countless songs, basically threw it under the bus in a 1981 interview with Nick Kent1, telling the reporter that the songs sounded better live (valid) and that he’d made a mistake leaving off the fun stuff (highly debatable). Regardless, Springsteen had a much higher opinion of its successor, The River, on which he sought to remedy some of these errors. The River may be the album that comes closest to the post-Darkness Springsteen live experience, ping-ponging between deadly serious sentiment and lighthearted fun, fun, fun garage rock. Where his earlier albums either strive for unity or come to it incidentally, The River—a double album—favors breadth over virtually everything. Accomplishing this, however, required some false starts. Before The River came The Ties That Bind, a single album prepared for release in 1979 and pulled at the last minute at Springsteen’s request. He’s explained his reasoning variably as Ties not being “personal enough” and it not living up to the expectations of his audience (as demonstrated to him by the crowd response at the ‘No Nukes’ shows he played at Madison Square Garden in September ‘79). In its final tracklist, The Ties That Bind anticipated The Rivers diversity without its sprawl. It was absent some of the catchy trifles that would lead some critics and fans to view The River as uneven, but it was also absent anthemic highlights like “Out in the Street” and “Two Hearts” (perhaps the finest example of Springsteen and Van Zandt’s vocal harmonizing) as well as stunning ballads like “Independence Day,” “Point Black,” and “Wreck on the Highway.” Ties was also a set of relatively new songs, something that would change as Springsteen revised it into The River. Soon, his first album of the ’80s would be heavily stocked with songs that had been kicking around since the 1977 Darkness sessions (see the intro from Saturday for specifics). Whether The River is “more personal” is a question that only Bruce can answer. As for how it met fan expectations, it’s become relative in the long term. At the time, it sold like crazy and earned Springsteen a number 5 hit in “Hungry Heart” (a holdover from The Ties That Bind, for the record). In interviews, Bruce seemed particularly proud of it. You can imagine how a double-album of new Springsteen songs must have sated hungry fans in the moment. But, at some remove from the excitement of its release, mileage may vary as to whether you want your mournful “Stolen Car”s and rip-roarin’ “Cadillac Ranch”es in a double-album pileup. Also, the more you hear from the sessions, the more the road from The Ties that Bind to The River seems strewn with spare parts and broken hearts2. That is, as with Darkness, Springsteen left some of his greatest songs off of The River. What’s more perplexing in this case is that he’d designed The River to accommodate many flavors of his writing and his band’s playing. So why did he include “Crush On You” (exiled from setlists after The River tour and, when revived for a one-off appearance in 2008, introduced as the worst song we ever recorded3) instead of similarly breezy (and better) pop tunes like “Where the Bands Are,” “Be True,” or “I Wanna Be With You”? Why not spare a spot for the furious “Roulette” (Bruce’s first ripped-from-the-headlines tune about the Three-Mile Island incident) or melodic rocker “Take ‘Em As They Come”? And why did he axe “Loose Ends,” of all things? Who knows? But since 1998, we’ve had some consolation in disc 2 of Tracks, which includes an LP’s worth of Bruce in power-pop and earnest guitar rock mode (alongside a few contemplative detours and Nebraska and Born in the U.S.A. outtakes). And if you’re even only slightly intrigued and intrepid, you can find the version of The Ties That Bind that almost made it to release, not to mention plenty of other demos, rehearsal outtakes, and other goodies that didn’t make The River or Tracks. Today and tomorrow, we’ll present the evidence, and you can decide if you want to take The River as it comes, or get tied up in the loose ends. 1 Summarized in: Heylin, Clinton. 2012. E Street Shuffle: The Glory Days of Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band. London: Constable & Robinson. 2 If not Spare Parts and broken hearts, which would come later. 3 An arguable point, but I won’t offer alternatives here, lest I get called out by the 20 fans who just can’t get enough of Outlaw Pete4 [space reserved for Bruce song you don’t like]. 4 Sorry, I can’t help myself. Bruce Springsteen oneweekoneband.tumblr/post/64017497806/bruce-springsteen-days-8-and-9-1978-1980
Posted on: Mon, 11 Aug 2014 09:50:20 +0000
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