A Book of Love with All the Latest Moves: The Promise

Tonight:

(2010)

"Darkness on the Edge of Town was my 'samurai' record, stripped to the frame and ready to rumble. But the music that got left behind was substantial." - Bruce

Bryan: It sure was. As the world discovered in 2010 when a good chunk of the left behind appeared on the double album The Promise. Bryant, hello! Are we ready for the task set before us?

Bryant: (Bryant was in the other room during this part, so here's some Remo Williams - my background companion for the evening - for your listening pleasure.)

“This is a trove, a vast clearinghouse from a fertile period, the product of which turned out to be one terrific album. And in addition to containing its share of treasure, The Promise ultimately confirms that Springsteen is a brilliant editor of his own material. (…) "Save My Love", a catchy piano-led tune, isn't going to make Darkness with lines like "If we open up our hearts/ Love won't forsake us." Tell that to the couple in "Racing in the Street".” - Pitchfork review

DISC ONE

"Racing in the Street ('78)"

Bryan: 3/5 Especially like that little break around the 3:20 mark, moreso than the (further) break around 3:40 or so. Actually, with a few listens under my belt now, I think that mid-3-minute section is pretty much the only part I really genuinely enjoy. This remains a Springsteen track (like "Thunder Road") that others love that I'm more or less unmoved by. So it goes! I certainly do not challenge its iconic status.

Bryant: I’m a big fan of the album version, so this early version is interesting to me, but it plays like exactly what it is: an imperfect version of a song that would later be perfected, more or less. Interesting to hear it, but entirely unessential, for my tastes. 2.5/5

"Gotta Get That Feeling"

Bryan: 2.75/5 I can hear some things in here that remind me of better things in the Springsteen catalog. There's a lot of time signature/ strumming mismatching going on here. It's like the call-and-response vocals and sax are one song and the rest of the arrangement is another.

Bryant: I’m coming off the one-two Brendan O’Brien punch of Magic and Working on a Dream, so the sound of this is like … uh … music to my ears, I guess. It’s nothing special, and I think you’d have to say it never really came together. Still, I’ll give it a 2.5/5 because even a mediocrity like this works for me reasonably well.

"Outside Looking In"

Bryan: 3.25/5 Here's one that I think could really have been turned into something maybe even a 5 star song. Not quite there with this version, though.

Bryant: I like this. 2.75/5 Seems like a fundamentally good song that they gave up on before they could make it anything truly special. Still, end result: pretty good.

"Someday (We'll Stand Together)"

Bryan: 3.5/5 Ditto though this one hangs together a tad better all on its own. Not the best Bruce vocal though.

Bryant: Remember that Phil Spector wannabe sound I was talking about on a couple of the previous albums? Well, here it is in the late seventies, except it works. This is pretty strong, in my opinion. 3/5 

"One Way Street"

Bryan: 3.75/5 I kind of really dig this. I'm not sure what, but the melody/ structure really reminds me of something else, though. 

Bryant: Clarence adds a lot to this one. Duh; of course he does! Bruce’s vocals work for me, too. I’m with ya; I dig this. 3/5

"Because the Night"

Bryan: 3/5 I gave this song a 4.5 on Live '75 - '85. Still a great tune but not really into this version. 

Bryant: This sounds like exactly what it is: a great song that they simply didn’t crack in the studio. Sounds like they kind of gave up on it, donated it to Patti Smith (who added some of her own lyrics) who perfected it, and then used her version as the model for later live versions. As such, it’s hard for me to score this one. Without it, none of that other stuff exists, so I’ve got to respect that. I’ll give it a 3.25/5 for the potential that it exudes even in this form.

"Wrong Side of the Street"

Bryant: I remember watching the documentary about the making of this album (Darkness on the Edge of the Town, that is) and feeling that it was a revelation. I’ve got that DVD on the way, so I look forward to seeing it again so it can explain to me why the sound just wasn’t there on some of these castoffs that form The Promise. This – The Promise, that is – really is a document of failed effort. But holy SHIT, I wish I could manage to fail at that level! This is the difference between genius and talent; if genius is present, then even failure is likely to be entertaining and/or instructive. So something like The Promise, compromised though it may be, is remarkable compared to many other bands’ successes. This particular song is only okay, though, in my opinion. 2/5

Bryan: 3.25/5 Hear, hear on the relativity of such things. Each time we've looked at the castoffs, we've found - consistently - material equal to the best from all other quarters. There's a reason why Springsteen lends himself particularly well to listenthroughs like this!

"The Brokenhearted"

Bryan: 3.25/5 Not a fave but that's my score for what I think the song is worth - probably could be a classic 4 or higher if it'd been fleshed out.

Bryant: Fuck, I wish Roy Orbison had recorded this. He’d have killed it. And I’d almost be willing to bet one of my testicles that Bruce either wrote this for him or wrote it after listening to him. I love this one. 4.5/5 Speaking of Orbison, I was at my parents’ house one night this past spring, having dinner. After dinner, we were fishing around looking for something to watch, and there was a Roy Orbison concert coming on PBS. It was a 30th anniversary version of Black and White Night, which was a special filmed in 1987. The backing band included Elvis Costello, Tom Waits, Springsteen, the TCB Band (Elvis’s unit), and backup singers kd lang, Bonnie Raitt, and Jennifer Warnes. I’d heard of it, but had never seen it, and was blown right the fuck away by it. Springsteen in particular looks like he’s in heaven; he’s just a dude in the band, backing up a legend, and he’s having a ball doing it. I need to buy the Blu-ray of this; it’s that good. Anyways, yeah, “The Brokenhearted” sounds like it HAD to have had an Orbison influence.

"Rendezvous"

Bryan: 2.25/5 Doesn't do much for me but there are little twinkles here and there that appeal to me. Much better elsewhere.

Bryant: This sounds like a demo version, which I guess it technically was. There are live versions that are vastly better. This is okay, though. 2.5/5

"Candy's Boy"

Bryan: 2.5/5 Definitely the right move ditching this one and sticking with "Candy's Room." Like all the organ-ing, though. 

Bryant: Fascinating!  I love the original, and this is a very different take on it, but – unlike the version of “Racing in the Streets” that opens this album – it’s different enough that I don’t have to focus on that too much. This is just its own thing, and I dig it. 3/5 Oh, and yeah, the organ is wonderful. (That’s what SHE said…!) [Sorry.] It really is, though.

DISC TWO

"Save My Love"

Bryan: 2.5/5 Another one where the guitar-time is too at odds with the melody/ drums for me. Wiki tells me this is the last thing CC ever recorded. I can barely pick him out in the mix.

Bryant: Wait, what? I don’t think I knew that some of this was recorded in the modern era. I think my ears hear it on this song, though. (Like yours, they do NOT hear Clarence.) Pretty good! It’s obviously a bit like the TNG Blu-ray remasters in that the new stuff is laser-focused on replicating the “old” feel. It more or less works. 3/5

"Ain't Good Enough for You"

Bryan: 4.3/5 Seems like there's room for a soaring CC solo towards the end of this one, but I like the pub-singalong kind of quality to the outro. I love this.

Bryant: Jesus, this is just great. 4/5 I think this one may also be a TNG version, so to speak. Don’t bother me none.

"Fire"

Bryan: 4.4/5 Much better than the Live set version. Still not as smooth as the Pointer Sisters but this is a pretty legit and tight recording. Would have been a hit all on its own for sure. 

Bryant: Still feels to me like they didn’t get all of this one, but that’s okay, I dig it all the same. 3.5/5

"Spanish Eyes"

Bryan: 2.5/5 Kinda boring.

Bryant: A fascinating early version of “I’m on Fire,” but not even vaguely as good. Not bad, though. Is this another modern TNG rerecording?  Sounds like it to me, Bruce’s vocals in particular. It’s cool that they took the trouble to do that, but I agree that this song is mostly a bore. 2/5

"It's a Shame"

Bryan: 3.25/5 Nice groove to this one and I like when the horns come in./ the horns in general. It could be better though. I'm sure a fully-fleshed out version (then or now) would net a higher score. Nice showcase of SVZ's "close enough for rock and roll!" harmonies, though.

Bryant: Am I correct in feeling that this is an early version of something that turned into “Prove It All Night”? Some of the music strongly suggests that song. This is … not as good. But it is NOT a shame. 2.5/5 

"Come On (Let's Go Tonight)"

Bryan: 3/5 I'd like to have heard the Pete Seeger Band have a go at this - would've been suited well for that particular ensemble.

Bryant: Here’s one that turned into “Factory.” Boy, yeah, the Sessions Band doing this would be great! This is an okay version. 2.5/5

"Talk To Me"

Bryan: 4.25/5 Really dig this one.The ending is probably a "5" but I'm not sure I can go much higher than 4.25 for the overall tune. Cool song though.  I can see how it wouldn't have fit in on Darkness. I hear this stuff and I can definitely see how Bruce would've killed it had he come up in the 50s. Maybe not as much as he killed it in the 70s and beyond, I guess, killed it in a different way, though.

Bryant: There is a level of the Tower on which this was a #1 hit for, like, half of 1979. You know there is. And I think that level is pretty close to this one; I don’t think they were far away from getting the song into shape to make it happen on THIS level. It definitely wouldn’t have fit onto Darkness as we know it, but it could have worked like a charm on the River. 4/5 Springsteen gave the song to Southside Johnny for his 1978 album Hearts of Stone (along with the title track), and it’s okay, but not as good as this version.

"The Little Things (My Baby Does)"

Bryan: 2.75/5 Okay but nothing special for me.

Bryant: 3.25/5 Another one that basically shows half of Bruce’s brain was already in The River during these sessions.

"Breakaway"

Bryan: 2/5 Bruce's vocals are kind of depressed here. Not a huge fan of this one.

Bryant: Yeah, I think the vocals do drag this down a bit. But the chorus is kind of weak, too. Not a terrible song, but another example of them having a good idea that they simply didn’t develop as much as they needed to. Clarence helps, of course. 2.5/5 after the customary Clemons half-point addition.

"The Promise"

Bryan: 1.5/5 Another one that just sounds like a literalization of Bruce's lower emotional register (i.e. the emotional muck of a depressed landscape.) I get the lyrical importance to the Springsteen biography, but I'm baffled when people (like Rolling Stone) list this as a seminal Bruce work. Musically this could not be more of a slog when compared to the majesty of so many other songs, or, if the literalization of anti-dopamine is the right tallystick, then this uninterestingly describes such emotional terrain. For me. Opinions vary, of course. (And then, it goes on for 6 minutes! Oy vey. No wonder you're depressed, dude.)

Bryant: I’m with you in terms of not quite understanding the cult built up behind this song. I do like it more than you do, though. I’d give it about a 3.5/5, but that’s about a point and a half behind where the average Springsteen nut seems to place it. Fine by me, I’m just not onboard with it to the extent they are.

"City of Night"

Bryan: 3.75/5 Is that SVZ singing? I guess it isn't. I like this one.

Bryant: Bruce is doing one of his occasional weirdo vocals here, and he might even be trying to ape Steve. Good song, though. 3.25/5

"The Way"

Bryan: 3/5 A better recording (or maybe a different singer/band altogether) could really bring this one to life.

Bryant: Nice little song, and not a bad way for the album to end. Nothing special, but solid. Anyone who likes Springsteen who didn’t like this would get a very confused squint from me if they told me about it. 2.75/5

Bryan: According to Backstreets.com, “when asked about THE WAY, Springsteen answered that "the main reason it's hidden is because I never liked it." Conjuring visions of Dean Stockwell, he went on to say "I would like to see it placed in a David Lynch film over a sexually perverse scene. That, to me, is it's righteous home."”

~

Bryan: Total 67.73 Average 3.08 Couple of these tracks ("Ain't Good Enough for You" and "Talk To Me") are every-Springsteen-mix-I-ever-make inclusions for sure.

Bryant: 65.75 total, 2.99 average This seems a little low, but it’s probably about right. It places it above at least half a dozen “successful” Springsteen albums, which is pretty remarkable considering that the vast majority of this had previously been deemed not even good enough to make Tracks. 

UPDATED RANKINGS:

Bryan:

Lucky Town 2.15

Greetings from Asbury Park 2.19

Magic 2.27

The Ghost of Tom Joad 2.44 
Working on a Dream 2.71

In Concert / MTV Plugged 2.82

Tracks 2.83

Chimes of Freedom 2.86

Blood Brothers 2.88

Human Touch 2.9

The Promise 3.08

Book of Dreams 3.1

Hammersmith Odeon, London 3.1

The Rising 3.3

Devils and Dust 3.36

The Wild, the Innocent, and the E Street Shuffle 3.43

Live in New York City 3.5

Loose Ends 3.63

Greatest Hits (New Tracks Only) 3.65

We Shall Overcome: The Pete Seeger Sessions 3.67

The River 3.71

Tunnel of Love 3.8

Darkness on the Edge of Town 3.82

Live ’75 - ‘85 4

Live in Dublin 4.11

Born to Run 4.41

Nebraska 4.5

Born in the USA 5.4

Bryant:

Human Touch 1.7

Hammersmith Odeon, London '75 2.04

Lucky Town 2.15 
Working on a Dream 2.23

The Ghost of Tom Joad 2.46

Magic 2.46

Devils and Dust 2.48

Book of Dreams 2.58

Chimes of Freedom 2.69

In Concert / Mtv Plugged 2.75

Greetings from Asbury Park 2.75

Tracks 2.81

Blood Brothers 2.9

The Promise 2.99

The Rising 3.1

Live in Dublin 3.22

Tunnel of Love 3.35

We Shall Overcome: The Pete Seeger Sessions 3.37

Greatest Hits (New Tracks Only) 3.38

The River 3.39

Live in New York City 3.48

The Wild, the Innocent, and the E Street Shuffle 3.68

Live ’75 - ‘85 3.7

Loose Ends 3.92

Born to Run 4.35

Darkness on the Edge of Town 4.4

Nebraska 4.63

Born in the USA 4.88

You’re Born With Nothing and Better Off That Way: Darkness on the Edge of Town (1978)

Tonight!

(1978)

"Musically austere, lyrics stripped down to sepia portraiture, Darkness on the Edge of Town sets out to describe the underbelly of America's everything-all-the-time culture. The backdrops shift from song to song, moving from Asbury Park to the Dakotas to the Freehold of the 1950s to the Southwest to the industrial flats to the highway and beyond. But the real setting is that same forgotten America that (photographer Robert Frank) had captured in the backwaters of the nation's cities, towns, and wilderness (in his book The Americans). The personal twists into the political, and the sociocultural springs from the tangled roots of individual lives. 'The guy at the end of Darkness,' said Bruce, 'has reached a point where you just have to strip yourself of everything to get yourself together." 

- Bruce, Peter Ames Carlin 

Bryan: Despite the tremendous reception to Born To Run, the relationship between Bruce Springsteen and Mike Appel deteriorated rapidly once Bruce took a closer look at the contract he’d signed. Things ended up in court when Appel wrote to Springsteen saying that he would not allow Jon Landau (who had slowly replaced Appel as Bruce’s manager and guru/head apostle) to produce the next album, citing a particular paragraph from their original agreement. Bruce responded by suing Appel, Appel countersued, and the result of it all was that Springsteen was enjoined from any further recording with Columbia Records until everything was resolved. By the time Springsteen and Appel reached a settlement, it was May 1977. The band got on with recording the new album, and Darkness on the Edge of Town was released in June 1978, three full years since Born to Run."

Bryant, you old rascal! Here we are again.

Bryant: The backstory of this album’s recording is fascinating. It’s easy to fall into thinking about Darkness as merely a follow-up to Born to Run, because in some ways they do sound like a two-album sequence. But Darkness is more than that, and knowing the story behind makes it ever so much richer an experience.

Bryan: Absolutely. When Bruce saw the cover and sleeve photography (by Frank Stefanko) he said, "'That's the guy in the songs.' I wanted the part of me that's still that guy to be on the cover. Frank stripped away all your celebrity and left you with your essence. That's what that record was about."

Photographer Ron Akiyama, who shot quite a few of the Darkness tours, agrees. "It was quite a kick to shoot Bruce at that time, and to watch him make the change from a kid to an adult and make the leap from small concerts to arenas. He changed his look drastically. He went from a scruffy Jersey guy who looked like he fixed cars to a guy who’d play in a suit. He cropped his haircut, shaved, and put on a Wall Street shirt. It was nothing like the 'tramps like us' look. He was telling the audience: 'This is what I am now.'"

Akiyama flanked by the Boss and Max Weinberg, 1978.

Bryant: The album kicks off with: 

"Badlands"

Bryant: Alright, maybe you were wondering how I felt about the whole exceeding-"maximum"-points thing. And here's what I'll tell you about that: I feel A-OK with it. BUT...I refuse to allow myself to use it willy-nilly. Oh, the temptation has been there, no doubt.  But I've been keeping it in my back pocket specifically waiting for this song to roll around. (Might be that I'm holding the 6 in reserve, too.  We'll see.  That's a guarantease!) 

A few things about that. 

#1, the only way to listen to this is with the volume cranked, preferably to a level that makes you fear you are going to blow out the speakers on your leased vehicle. 

#2, Clarence Clemons, once again striding across the musical landscape like Cthulhu awoken and exercising his right to drive humankind mad, in this instance through the sheer awesomeness of rock. 

#3, I have a great memory of this song being played in an American Studies class I took. It was a survey class in which we went through several decades of post-WWII American pop culture. It was an early-morning class, and each morning for the five-to-ten minutes or so that led up to the beginning of class, the professor would blast music that represented the theme of the upcoming lecture. Well, one morning, the song under consideration was "Badlands." Rarely has it seemed as great as it seemed then. It was a large class, with maybe a hundred or so people, and often it was kind of boisterous prior to the lecture beginning. On this particular morning -- and it wasn't alone in that regard (Gil Scott-Heron's "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" had a similar effect) - you could tell that the song just HAD people. Nobody much was talking, and when it got to the midpoint section where the instruments mostly drop out and everyone is just sort of humming while Max drums, I looked around and saw dozens of people nodding their heads, or tapping their hands, or tapping their feet. My memory is shit, but I ain't NEVER gonna forget that.

Oh, and #4, this is Bruce's best song, in my opinion. 7/5

Bryan: I can easily picture this scene you describe. Nice! Even during my years in the anti-Boss wilderness I always maintained this was a kickass tune. I think about the years I wasted convincing myself I no longer liked Springsteen despite having been a super-fan for so many years. Phases of growth! 6/5

This version, while we’re here, is pretty bad-ass. Listen to that crowd when Clarence comes in! Nice. And Bruce really attacks that guitar and the vocals.  This performance showcases everything about the band and Bruce as a performer/ songwriter that is awesome and absolutely zero that is not awesome. 

Bryant: I don't think I'd ever seen that before. Beyond awesome. Why can't I be Clarence? Is this really too much to ask from life?!? To transform me into a strapping young black man who has great red suits and can play the saxophone as though he were imbued with the powers of Odin? Fuck, I guess it must be. Ah, well, maybe when I wake up tomorrow.

"Adam Raised a Cain" 

Bryan: From the Carlin book: "Coaching mixer Chuck Plotkin on how the song should sound: "Bruce described a movie scene showing two young lovers sharing a picnic in a sunlit park. The sun would be shining, the grass would be emerald, the ducks paddled across the pond before them. The camera would zoom out to reveal, just behind them, a human corpse in the bushes behind them, Aieee! 'This song,' he told Plotkin, 'is the dead body.'"

Bryant: Reading the lyrics to "Adam Raised a Cain," and knowing thanks to the autobiography his relationship with his father, that seems like even better a song than I thought.

Bryan: 4.3/5 My first impression of all pre-Born in the USA Bruce (with the exception of "Hungry Heart," which I'm sure I probably heard on the radio but have no clear memory of it) is filtered through that Live ’75 to ’85 from 1986. Which I got for Christmas that year and pretty much dominated my landscape until Hysteria came out at the end of the following summer. As a result, it’s rare when I like the studio version of one of those tunes more than that Live Set – memories of an impressionable age being what they are – but this is one of those occasions.

Bryant: 4.5/5 I think this and about half the rest of this album need to appear in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, and I will not accept no for an answer. You mentioned in relation to a different song on another album -- which, weirdly, may not have come up yet in the actual blog post (hey, vertigo!) - that it sounded like a Gene Simmons Kiss song. This one sounds like that to me, but I don't think even they could have made it rock as much as these E Street fellows do. I know at least one massive Bruce fan who isn't fond of this song, and that makes sense, because it is kind of an outlier in his discography. I love it, though.

Bryan: Picturing Kiss do "Adam Raised a Cain" is fun. "Raised a Cain" takes on a whoole new Gene-and-Paul-ified meaning .I never understood why Bruce was singing "Rye-sed a Cain." He’s somewhat inconsistent with his affectations. ("Whyyyvin'" at the girls," from Pink Cadillac, or "thank" and "pank" for "think" and "pink" from the same song.) I guess it’s only when the mood strikes him or when he thinks the situation calls for it. Sort of like DeNiro’s accent in Cape Fear.

"Something in the Night"

Bryant: 3.25/5  Nothing wrong with it, but it doesn't move me the way a lot of the others do. 

Bryan: 3/5 I like some of the lyrics for their despair and all, but not my favorite example of this sort of tune and the music, while certainly sway-worthy, doesn't really excite me.

"Candy's Room"

Bryant: 4.25/5  Another one for Guardians, which is a silly lens to look at this album through, but hey, it's what I've got.  Is this Max Weinberg's finest hour?  Either way, this song rocks, and it rocks HARD.

Bryan: 4/5 Guardians and Darkness really do go well together. This one used to strike me more as a musical breath between the two tracks around it, even if I like it technically more than either. It feels unfinished to me. The evolution of the song is interesting, though – it’s definitely the best version of all the "Candy's" versions he worked on. I guess we’ll get to that when we get to The Promise, though. I agree, though – it rocks, and it rocks hard, whatever else one has to say about it.

"Racing in the Street"

Bryan: 2.5/5 I like this one fine, but it seems like the wrong musical mood for the story to me. If this was the only such tale in the catalog, I'd look at it differently, but in all honesty I can live without it.

Bryant: 4.75/5  Hmm...! I'm a much bigger fan of this one than you are. I really respond to the lyrics, especially the last verse or two, which wreck me.

Bryan: "She sits on the porch of her daddy's house but all her pretty dreams are torn / She stares off alone into the night with the eyes of one who hates for just being born. / For all the shut down strangers and hot rod angels rumbling through this promised land. / Tonight my baby and me we're gonna ride to the sea and wash these sins off our hands."

Pretty wreckworthy for sure. If it was just the lyrics, I’d go higher, but this is one where the lyrics and music don’t match up for me.

It’s hard not to see this, too: "Some guys they just give up living/And start dying little by little, piece by piece/Some guys come home from work and wash up/And go racin' in the street" as more or less epitaph-level Springsteen.

"The Promised Land"

Bryan: 3.75/5 Musically, I find this one kind of boring (although I like the solos), but lyrically/ emotionally, they hit it out of the park here.

Bryant: 4.25/5 Bruce's vocals seem mildly strained here, but otherwise, this one works for me big-time. 

Bryan: That chorus really gets stuck in your head.

"Factory"

Bryant: 2.25/5 It's not bad, but it's another one that seems to just sort of stop. I think this song points the way toward Nebraska in some ways, and I'd be curious to hear a stripped-down version of it in that mode.

Bryan: 3/5 Me too. I looked around for one, but if it’s out there, I couldn’t find it.

"Streets of Fire"

Bryan: 3/5 I like it a lot more after repeated listenings, but it’s still not one I really love or would reach for.

Bryant: 4/5  Here's another one I like way more than you do. Nothing wrong with that!  We're "arguing" over how much we like songs we like.  As spats go, that's pretty damn civil.  We should be in Congress.

Bryan: For many non-Bruce reasons, as well! 

"Prove It All Night"

Bryan: 4.35/5 How can you go wrong with this chorus? I’m always impressed with Bruce’s seemingly limitless ability to just go off in the corner and write a quick hit single (or hit-sounding single, at least – I guess it wasn’t quite a “hit” at the time of release) as the situation demanded. We’ve talked about it before, but it’s a fascinating process, this tension between a hitmakers' sensibility and an artist wanting to explore his own thing/ indulge other impulses. It’s as potent a creative fuel as inner conflict. When this tension lessens due to changed circumstances, sometimes the creative fuel burns lower. Ditto for when depressive types like Bruce go into therapy. The old paradox: the better-balanced you are and better-rewarded you become for what you do, the harder it becomes to do it.

Anyway, I love the out-of-nowhere blistering guitar solo, too - reminds me of one of those uber-70s keyboard solos that suddenly cuts in to an otherwise traditional 4/4 rocker. 

Bryant: 4.75/5  Very nearly flawless, in my opinion. Not quiiiiiite there, but close. Here's an epically awesome version that YouTube suggested for me while I watching a thing about "The Mist." YouTube knows me pretty well, I am sad to say. 

Bryan: They know us all far too well, verdammt. That is a great version for sure.

"Darkness on the Edge of Town"

Bryan: 4.25/5 This one could have been a great U2 track. Maybe it still will someday. Either way it's a classic, even if I like the lyrics/ mood a little bit more than anything going on musically. 

Bryant: 5/5 I don't really know what that titular darkness on the edge of town is, but somehow, I know exactly what it is. I will restrain myself from bloviating on the subject, but know this: I could. Oh, sure. Instead I'll just say that that moment when Max kicks the drums in is about as big a fist-pump moment as I know of in music. 

FINAL

 

THOUGHTS 

Bryan: Total: 38.15 Avg: 3.82 Not my favorite Bruce overall, but my favorite thus far.  

Bryant: Overall 44 total, 4.4/5 average Which means that, in a shocking turn of events, this album has edged out Born to Run in my estimation! I might consider changing my score on "Badlands" to prevent that, but then again, listening to them back-to-back like this, I think I do prefer this one by a hair. 

Bryan: Me, too. It’s such a great collection of tunes. Bruce and the gang’s determination to make the album work as a whole and excise such great material (as found on The Promise) is frustrating on one hand, but the end result of Darkness is hard to argue with. Whatever collection of emotion and perspective and rock and roll they wanted to convey, they sure did.

WHAT THE CRITICS SAID

"Ideas, characters and phrases jump from song to song like threads in a tapestry, and everything's one long interrelationship. Now that it can be heard, the E Street Band is clearly one of the finest rock and roll groups ever assembled. Max Weinberg's drumming has enormous size, a heartbeat with the same kind of space it occupies onstage, bassist Garry Tallent and guitarist Steve Van Zandt are a perfect rhythm section, capable of both power and groove. Pianist Roy Bittan is as virtuosic as on Born to Run, and saxophonist Clarence Clemons, though he has fewer solos, evokes more than ever the spirit of King Curtis. But the revelation is organist Danny Federici, who barely appeared on the last L.P. Federici's style is utterly singular, focusing on wailing, trebly chords that sing (and in the marvelous solo at the end of 'Racing in the Street,' truly cry).

Yet the dominant instrumental focus is Bruce Springsteen's guitar. Like his songwriting and singing, Springsteen's guitar playing gains much of its distinctiveness through pastiche. more than ever, Springsteen's voice is personal, intimate and revealing, bigger and less elusive. It's the possibility hinted at on Born to Run's 'Backstreets' and in the postverbal wail at the end of 'Jungleland.'"

- Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone (later author of that one Bruce book)

SINGLES

  

PERSONNEL

Bruce Springsteen – lead vocals, lead guitar, harmonica
Roy Bittan – piano, backing vocals
Clarence Clemons – saxophone, backing vocals
Danny Federici – organ, glockenspiel
Garry Tallent – bass guitar
Steve Van Zandt – rhythm guitar, backing vocals
Max Weinberg – drums

Next: The River. See you then.