We Did Not Count Tomorrows, We Took What We Could and Ran: Chapter and Verse

Bryan: When I first contacted Bryant about the possibility of doing a listen-through of the Springsteen catalog, I'd only heard up through 2002 (The Rising) or so. (And of that, I only really knew the material up through 1987's Tunnel of Love.) My interest in Springsteen had run cold over the years, but sometime last year I listened to the Live '75 - '85 set. And I remembered just how huge a Bruce fan I was in those mid-80s years. The more I listened, the more memories came back (scattered throughout this series of posts), and the more I found to enjoy.

Tonight we get to the end - on a project that I wasn't even aware existed when this project first began, namely:

(2016)

Bryan: This was a companion album to Bruce's autobiography Born to Run. You can do that sort of thing when you're a musician - and you should! Criminally few do, though. So I'll just put that out there: if one day you're a famous enough musician to be releasing a memoir, put out something like Chapter and Verse alongside it.

Bryant: Here's my capsule review of Born To Run:

This is a great autobiography, and I'd say that for the most part I was much more captivated by the sections that weren't about the music. That's not to say that Bruce fails to be engaging when he's discussing his work and his career. He's got some great insights and anecdotes. But you can tell that to some extent, he feels like he said everything he had to say about most of the songs in the process of writing, recording, and performing them.

Where the book really sings is in its stories of life outside the recording studio, especially his early, pre-fame years. I don't mean the story of his first two albums (although yes, that, too); I mean the EARLY early years, like his childhood. He's got some great stories about growing up in a family of Italian immigrants, mixing with other groups and being spoiled by his grandmother and being electrified by seeing rock stars (first Elvis, later The Beatles) on television. Teaching himself to dance because he knew girls liked to dance, and even if you sucked at it it would earn you time with the opposite sex; smart kid, that Bruce Springsteen.

Perhaps the best chapter is one involving his pre-recording-contract band driving to California to play some gigs there and try to make a name for themselves. It's an amusing journey in some ways, and a harrowing one in other ways, and you'd watch the hell out of a movie that was made out of the story. Don't be shocked if somebody does that eventually. There are also a number of great stories involving Springsteen's father, whose presence looms very large for most of the book. So does the presence of Patti Scialfa, once she shows up; it's clear that this lady probably saved Bruce's life and career in more ways than one, on more than one occasion.

It's a great read, and if you're inclined to do so, you could do worse than check it out on Audible, where there's an unabridged version read by the author.

Bryan: Here's some remarks on the "new" tunes on Chapter and Verse.

"Baby I" (by the Castiles)

Bryan: 3/5 I love early glimpses of stuff like this. Reminds me in spirit of that first disc of the Beatles Anthology. Not particularly enjoyable listening but interesting - definitely would find room for these on some Ultimate Bruce Mix for ambience/ contrast / history.

Bryant: Oh, wow, this was an original?!? Shit, I just assumed it was a cover of some song I'd never heard. (I listened to these five songs cold and then looked them up to see what Wikipedia said about them.) As you say, this is nothing you'd get much enjoyment out of divorced from the context of what/who it is. But it sounds like credible stuff to my ears, and that says a lot. 2/5

"You Can't Judge a Book by the Cover" (by the Castiles)

Bryant: This isn't much of a performance, especially vocally, but ... damn, you can kind of hear the energy that made these guys a popular bar band. I can't swear to it, but I think I've heard the original version (written by Willie Dixon, performed by Bo Diddley). Or perhaps one of the many covers. This one isn't great, but it's far from the worst thing I've ever heard. 1.75/5 

Bryan: 2.5/5 Totally agree on the bar band ambience to this one.

"He's Guilty (The Judge Song)" (by Steel Mill)

Bryan: 3.25/5 This one's kinda cool. I dig it.

Bryant: I'd love to be able to listen to this with no knowledge of who it was. I probably wouldn't like it. But I do know who it is, and whether that's influencing my feelings or not, I kind of love this. You might can even scratch the "kind of." Having read the chapter of the autobiography in which they take that trip out to California, I now kind of want to see a movie made in which this song is the triumphant finale. 2.5/5

"The Ballad of Jesse James" (by the Bruce Springsteen Band)

Bryan: 3/5 Sheesh - this is a tough slog, but what strikes me is how much it sounds like a Black Crowes outtake. 

Bryant: This is very credible Southern-inspired rock. And while it does sound like Springsteen's writing to my ears, it also sounds NOTHING like what his first album would end up sounding like ... or any of the many that came after it. (You can say the same of "He's Guilty," too.) That's fascinating to me. It almost seems like we got our hands on that Ur-Kindle and peeked for a few minutes into the career of some other level's Springsteen. And hey, it ain't bad! 2.5/5 

"Henry Boy"

Bryan: 2/5 Kind of dig this one, too. Too many early Bruce songs have this kind of verse melody/ delivery, though. But that's the challenge of this unreleased stuff, since he cannibalized/ casserole'd it for all the stuff that made it onto albums over the years. 

Bryant: I mean, this is just an early version of "Rosalita," isn't it? (I say "just," but no diminishment is intended.) And I hear some echoes -- pre-echoes, perhaps -- of "Blinded by the Light" as well. I guess that's (as you intimate) just kind of what Bruce sounded like circa spring 1972. I'm okay with that. 2/5

~

Bryan: Total 13.75 Avg. 2.75 I'm happy to have this collection of home movies.

Bryant: Total 10.75, average 2.15  I'd happily have listened to a full two-disc set of stuff from this era. And you just KNOW such a thing could have been done.

Bryan: Absolutely. And probably still will be, thankfully. I suspect we've by no means heard the last from the Springsteen Archives. And speaking of, before we do the Final Rankings, Bryant was kind enough to write up these thoughts on:

(2015)

Bryan: Take it away, sir!

Bryant: Okay, so with this set, discs 1 and 2 are just The River. Disc 3 is The Ties That Bind, an album (you already know this, but just so you know what the disc itself represents) that Springsteen almost released but didn't. Some of it made its way onto The River, some of it did not. Discs 4 and 5 are Blu-rays, and Disc 6 is a mess of outtakes, some of which are familiar, some of which are not. I’m going to only score the audio discs, and I’m going to split those up, since one of them is an assembly of a would-be album, and probably ought to be judged that way.

Here goes:

Disc 3 – The Ties That Bind

(1)  “The Ties That Bind” – A lot of these songs are songs from previous releases, of course, so I thought I’d have a little fun by not consulting my previous scores and just judging them from the mindset I’m in this morning. Might be instructive for me, if nothing else.  Anyways, I am 99.9% positive that this is a different take of this song than what ended up on The River, so a different score makes sense if so. I’ll go with 2.75/5.

(2)  “Cindy” – I like this a lot, although it kind of goes nowhere. 2.5/5

(3)  “Hungry Heart” – I think this is the same take as the River version, but I swear to God it sounds ever so slightly slower to me. Am I imaging things? Maybe not. This version runs 3:28, whereas the one on The River runs 3:19. WTF?!? I’m giving this a mere 5/5 out of sheer confusion.

(4)  “Stolen Car” – This is pretty good, but I don’t think it’s got the pathos that the real version has. So I’m giving it a 3/5, and if that’s more than I gave the River version, then I need to rescore The River.

(5)  “To Be True” – Not the best version of this song I’ve heard, but it’s alright. 2.5/5  Sounds like a demo, which is true of this entire “album” so far. That might be why it never got to the release stage of things back in the day.

(6)  “The River” – This is basically the same song as the one on the album that bears its name, but, and correct me if I’m wrong, I think this is a different take. Still great, though. 5/5

(7)  “You Can Look (But You Better Not Touch)” – Well, now I feel better about some of this, because this is absolutely a different version of this particular song. More of a honky-tonk feel to it. I don’t like it as much as the Gene Simmons soundalike version, but I do like it as its own thing. 2.25/5  Bruce’s vocals are good, and I like the echoey quality, which I assume is a byproduct of wherever it was recorded.

(8)  “The Price You Pay” – 2.75/5

(9)  “I Wanna Marry You” – 2.5/5

(10)  “Loose Ends” – I remain of the opinion that this is a heck of a song. 3.5/5 Sounds a little rough here, but still a winner in my book.

Overall – 31.75 total, 3.18 average. Pretty respectable, but it’s buoyed significantly by the two classics that ended up on The River.

Disc 6 – The River outtakes

(1)  “Meet Me in the City” – This is kind of like “Out in the Street” except I like it better. 2.5/5 I wonder if my scores reflect that?

(2)  “The Man Who Got Away” – Okay, so, this isn’t like the second coming of “Light My Fire” or anything like that, but what kind of madman keeps this sitting in a vault for 25 years? Name rhymes with Truce Greenscreen, that’s who. 2.5/5

(3)  “Little White Lies” – This rocks. 3.25/5 Unreleased for such a period of time that it could have damn near rented a car. (Bryan: I love this one. A more cleaned-up version could even be knocking on 4.5 to 5/5 out of territory for me. What the frak, Bruce?)

(4)  “The Time That Never Was” – I thought for a while that this might be a new favorite, and while it didn’t end up being that, I do like it. 2.75/5

(5)  “Night Fire” – Take those marbles out of your mouth, Bruce! His vocals here are awful.  I kind of dig the song, though. 2.25/5

(6)  “Whitetown” – This is alright, but both the production and the performance are lacking. 2/5 It’s not bad, though; I can imagine it growing on me.

(7)  “Chain Lightning” – Great guitar riff at the beginning, and when the bass kicks in it’s even better. The song never manages to really go anywhere from here, though, so it ends up not fulfilling the promise it seems to have. 2.25/5

(8)  “Party Lights” – Steve seems to be exerting himself on this one, which is fine by me.  It’s not a great song, though. I find it to be guilty of your “We Built This City” rule. 2/5 (Bryan: See here for full details.)


(9)  “Paradise by the ‘C’ ” – A studio version of a live staple. Not a bad little tune. Nonessential, but a lot of fun. 2.5/5

(10)  “Stray Bullet” – This is a rather beautiful performance. Clarence, in particular, does a great job. But I like everything in this one. 3.5/5 I’m being a little conservative with that score, too; I thought about going higher.

(11)  “Mr. Outside” – This is just Bruce dicking around in front of a recording device of some sort. But as far as that sort of thing goes, this is fun. 2.25/5

(12)  “Roulette” – A furiously great riff right up top on this one. Is this the same version as appears on Tracks? I think so. I wonder if I’ll give an identical score? If not, I think that’s okay; after all, context and proximity do undoubtedly influence things like that. It fucking rocks, so I’m going with 4/5. If I were Vladimir Putin, I’d make it mandatory for Russian bands to cover this song at least once per year, because that would be funny.

(13)  “Restless Nights” – 3.25/5

(14)  “Where the Bands Are” – I’m pretty sure we’re entirely at the end of the songs we’ve not heard before, but that’s okay, let’s press on and score these anyways. 2.5/5 for this one.

(15)  “Dollhouse” – What the hell are they saying in the backing vocals? I am assuming it is “gopher Lynn” and unless you can prove me wrong, that’s how it is staying.  2.5/5

(16)  “Living on the Edge of the World” – 2/5

(17)  “Take ‘Em As they Come” – 2.25/5

(18)  “Ricky Wants a Man of Her Own” – This sort of thing does happen, no doubt about it. 2.5/5

(19)  “I Wanna Be With You” – 3.25/5 Another Gene Simmons impersonation.

(20)  “Mary Lou” – 2.25/5

(21)  “Held Up Without a Gun” – 2.5/5

(22)  “From Small Things (Big Things One Day Come)” – 3.75/5

Overall – 58.5 total, 2.66 average. That’s not a terrific score, but I think this “album” of outtakes is awfully enjoyable. I wish it was a little more widely available; burying it inside a $100 box set is kind of a dick move. I guess Bruce got to eat, though.

FINAL

RANKINGS

Bryan:

Lucky Town 2.15

Greetings from Asbury Park 2.19

Magic 2.27

The Ghost of Tom Joad 2.44 
American Beauty 2.56
Working on a Dream 2.71

Chapter and Verse 2.75

In Concert / MTV Plugged 2.82

Tracks 2.83

Chimes of Freedom 2.86

Wrecking Ball 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

High Hopes 3.39

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
American Beauty 2.00

Hammersmith Odeon, London '75 2.04

Lucky Town 2.15 

Chapter and Verse 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

The River outtakes 2.66

Chimes of Freedom 2.69

In Concert / Mtv Plugged 2.75

Greetings from Asbury Park 2.75

Wrecking Ball 2.77

Tracks 2.81

High Hopes 2.83

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

~

Bryan: This concludes our album by album overview of the Springsteen discography. There'll be a Table of Contents type post with all new remarks on each album still to come, but that's just good housekeeping. As of this writing, Bruce is on Broadway doing his thing and makes the occasional interesting live appearance at the "gathering of the youths."

Fun version of "Glory Days" with the guys in Phish here.

Here's hoping there'll be cause for a few more of these write-ups. Thank you, Bryant, for accompanying me on this musical journey, and thank you, out there, for reading. To rock and roll!

My Brain Takes a Vacation To Give My Heart More Room: The River (1980)

Tonight!

(1980)

"Rock and roll has always been this joy, this certain happiness that is in its way the most beautiful thing in life. But rock is also about hardness and coldness and being alone ... I finally got to the place where I realized life had paradoxes, a lot of them, and you've got to live with them."

Bryan: With me as always is Bryant – hello, Bryant.

Bryant: I haven’t been fired and replaced with a robot yet?!? Surprising, but I appreciate the magnanimity!

Bryan: My magnanimity is second only to my modesty. It's common enough to see The River listed alongside Tusk, The Wall, Tommy, Physical Graffiti as one of the great all-time double albums in rock. I’m not sure if it tops my own personal list – you’ve got to get up pretty early to knock The White Album off its perch and I probably prefer at least a couple of the just-mentioned to The River – but what say you?

Bryant: I’m not terribly knowledgeable about Fleetwood Mac or The Who, but yeah, The Wall and the White Album both would get the nod over this for me.  Not that it need be a competition. If it WAS, Dylan’s Blonde On Blonde might be my personal pick. The River is awfully good, though; you’re probably nuts if you don’t love all of these.

Bryan: Agreed. I noticed you deliberately did not italicize the White Album, which is undoubtedly correct, as it's only the colloquial name for The Beatles (1968). But, if anyone out there feels more comfortable italicizing it, don't let us stop you.

Bryant: We’ve got a double-album-length post on our docket here, so let’s get it going, eh?

DISC ONE

"The Ties That Bind"

Bryan: 3/5 I know this was meant to be the title track until he changed the title, but it’s not my idea of a great album opener. It's fine and all, just not a huge fan. The ai-yi-yi-yi chorus seems a misstep. I like "oh-oh-oh" ending, though. Brief as it is. Ai-yi-yi, oh-oh-oh, whatever it takes. 

Bryant: 2.5/5 The thing I would say right off the bat about this album is that it feels very much like a conscious effort NOT to swing for the fences. It's almost as if Bruce realized -- possibly correctly -- that there was really no topping Born to Run and Darkness on the Edge of Town. Those albums seem like the logical outcome of his talent applied to his artistic trajectory. Where do you go from there? You kinda have to go someplace else. The River is several someplace-elses all at once, and one of those places is "fun-time rock-'n'-roll-land." Some of it sounds a bit shallow and unessential to my ears, but that's only in comparison to stuff like "Badlands," and THAT ain't no insult at all. So know that what I'm saying is, a 2.5, for me, is an awfully good song. "The Ties That Bind" is an awfully good song.

Bryan: Several someplace-elses at once with one of them fun rock-n-roll-land should be printed on the back of this thing. That’s it exactly.

"Sherry Darling" 

Bryant:  3.25/5  One of the most fun songs on this album, so therefore one of the most fun songs he ever wrote. I feel bad for that poor mother in the back seat, though.

Bryan: 3.75/5 One two three four! I like the chorus and the lyrics, but the arrangement is kind of blah and the sax/ piano reminds me of end credits to a variety show or something. (Note – repeat listenings over the past several weeks have greatly enhanced my enjoyment of this one. Catch me on another day and I’ll give this one a 4 or even a 4.1 Try and stop me, world!) Here's Southside Johnny and Asbury Jukes doing a very, uhh, loose take on it.

"Jackson Cage"

Bryan: 3/5 Not a bad version of this sort of tune in Springsteen's catalog but not one of my faves. It’d fit pretty well on Lucky Town, though – should’ve saved it for that one and picked one of the River outtakes from Tracks to take its place. ("Loose Ends" maybe? Would that alter the mood-to-ratio of The River? For the better, I say.) 

Bryant: 2.75/5 This is one that I always kind of forget about, but when I listen to it, it always sounds better than I'd remembered. I can hear this one reworked a bit and fitting really well on either of the two preceding albums. 

"Two Hearts" 

Bryant: 2/5  Not bad, but it doesn't do a whole lot for me. 

Bryan: 3.5/5 I could see Tom Petty having a big hit with this. (Incidentally, I'd never heard the Precious Metal version, nor even of that band) He did his job (catchy little rock number expressing something everyone can relate to – certainly never an unremarkable feat) but not a particular fave.   

"Independence Day"

Bryan: 5/5 One of my favorite representations of this sort of song in Bruce's catalog. That "Papa go to bed now" reminds me of some of the anecdotes from various Bruce bios of Doug Springsteen sitting in the kitchen of Bruce’s childhood home with the lights off and his cigarettes, staring at the wall, until someone could get him to go to bed.

Bryant: 5/5  I honestly don't know if this song had ever fully clicked for me until this listen. I never disliked it, but I don't think I ever really paid attention to it. If you DO pay attention to it, boy does it pack a wallop, especially following those first four goof-offs. But for me, I think that's a lot of what makes The River -- and, later, Born in the USA -- work: that mix of happiness and sadness. Both feed off each other; this is the work of a man who's come to realize that any normal life is going to have heaping helpings of both.  The Bruce of the first four albums maybe hadn't quite figured that out; he was first getting it on Darkness, I think, but even then, the shock of it seemed so fresh that it came roaring out of him primally, vitally, as though he were convinced he could still change it if only he railed against it strongly enough.  By The River, there's more of an acceptance.  The characters -- which I think they mostly are (as opposed to manifestations of himself in a literal sense) -- of songs like "Independence Day" know there's no going back.  This is simply what life is.

Bryan: That mix of happiness and sadness, highs and lows, absolutely. Whatever its cause – chemical imbalance, unresolved issues from his upbringing, or just a sensitive eye for detail in not-always-so-sensitive circumstances, an expression of the eternal yin and yang of life - it defines so much of the pre-90s Bruce catalog.

And speaking of:

"Hungry Heart"

Bryant: 6.5/5  The happiest sad song ever recorded?  The saddest happy song ever recorded?  It's one or the other.  I got no words for how much I love this song.  That's alright.  Bruce has got 'em for me.

Bryan: 6.5/5 I added a half-point to my original score of 6 following your lead here. It certainly deserves it. I mean, what more can be said? Those first few couplets (“Got a wife and kids in Baltimore, Jack / I went out for a ride and I never went back. Like a river that don’t know where it’s flowing / I took a wrong turn and I just kept going”) flow so nicely into the chorus, where Bruce is almost in relationship/entropy-Yoda mode, dispensing hard-won wisdom that doesn’t exactly comfort, but certainly makes you nod your head in understanding. Just perfect. Instantly catapulted Bruce to a whole new level of songwriters. I’ve been singing this around the house so much (also "Glory Days") I'm starting to worry Dawn'll get the wrong idea. I think I'll always prefer the studio version, which I think is perfect, but there are some exceptional live ones out there, most especially this one. Crank that!

"Out in the Street"

Bryant: 2.25/5  I don't dislike this one, but boy does it sound insignificant coming after "Hungry Heart." There are great live versions, of course, but what Bruce song is that not true of? Other, of course, than "Mary Queen of Arkansas"?

Bryan: 2.25/5 Meh. Too much with the drag racing, sometimes, with Bruce. I haven’t thought of The Heavenly Kid in years, but as a result of all this drag racing stuff I keep thinking about it. That was not an expected side effect of this project.

"Crush On You"

Bryan: 3.25/5 "My brain takes a vacation just to give my heart more room." Uncomplicated but fun. Would've been ideal for Kiss - hell, it even sounds like one of Gene's numbers.

Bryant: 3/5  I was so glad to see your comment about this sounding like a Gene Simmons song that I nearly shouted out loud. I've been saying that for years! And we're both right. This makes a certain amount of sense to me. They're from the same area and the same era, and Kiss was all about rock and roll basics, which is what a lot of The River is about. But vocally, I swear to God, I think Bruce was consciously doing a Gene here.

Bryan: I imagine he was going for the Stones, but the idea of his channeling Gene is too good to let that get in the way of anything.

"You Can Look (But You Better Not Touch)"

Bryant: 3/5  Whereas, this, I hear this as more of a Peter song. Or maybe Paul. Paul would've had a blast with it, probably -- imagine the five-minute innuendo-laden rant he'd deliver beforehand!

Bryan: 3/5 Absolutely. My score for this one has bounced around like a pinball over all these listenings, but I think it’s settled into a solid 3.

"I Wanna Marry You"

Bryan: (3.5) Another one I wish he could’ve gotten to the Beach Boys for their particular harmony blend, though. Could’ve been one of their all-time big hits, actually. I wish I hadn’t thought of it, because now everytime I hear it I hear what might have been and it’s too bad.

Bryant: 3.25/5  This makes me think of a single mom I worked with at one point in time.  Some other world, some other me ... hmm.  Thoughts, thoughts, boy; I got plenty of thoughts.  And if they were a song, they might sound a little bit like this.

"The River"

Bryant: 5/5  I get hammered by this one just about every time. The kind of characters Bruce was singing about on his first few albums wouldn't even have realized that such a sentence as "Then I got Mary pregnant, and man, that was all she wrote" was even possible, much less the kicker about not even having a wedding dress or a walk down the aisle. When you're dreaming of such things as a younger person, they seem like givens; it isn't "if it happens," it's "when it happens." So finding out that it's far from given is a hell of a shock.  And, so far as I can tell, it remains so for the rest of your days. 

Bryan: 3.75/5 Hear, hear. I know it's practically heresy, but I've just never been as moved by this one as everyone else. I appreciate what you’re saying, and I know there’s an autobiographical element with Springsteen's sister and her husband and the whole escape-surroundings-directive and all. And I do very much appreciate the poetry and sensitivity of it, but it's just never one I’m dying to hear or feel any catharsis from doing so. Musically, tho, I like the way it builds and different voices and instruments join in, like tributaries rejoining the main, sad stream.

It's weird - if "The River" was just a random b-side, would I rate it higher? Probably. Why is that?

DISC TWO

"Point Blank"

Bryant: 3.25/5  I fancy I hear the beginnings of Tunnel of Love on this song. Add some synth, and it's not far off.

Bryan: 3/5 Now that you point it out, I agree completely. Here's one I originally scored much higher, but repeat listenings kind of kept kicking it down. It’s not bad, but it’s no:

"Cadillac Ranch"

Bryan: 4.75/5 Pretty cheeky starting the 2nd album off with "Point Blank" and not this one. It works, I guess - Springsteen / Landau/ Van Zandt clearly had a good grasp on album side order and how to distribute/ scatter the tunes. A signpost, if not the connecting hub, to a little further down the road to "Darlington County."

Bryant: 5/5  I'm giving this one the full five. I saw Springsteen in Birmingham in 2002 (I think), and he played this. The roof of the auditorium was blown off and landed two counties over, mysteriously still in one piece. Work crews were eventually able to fix it back in place, but it was touch and go, apparently.

Bryan: I realize it’s almost certainly me reading into things but here’s another one I just see casting a spotlight across King’s unconscious. It’s not a great story, but I can’t help wonder if some of the ideas/ energy in this song ended up in stuff like “You Know They Got a Hell of a Band.” Like you’ve said elsewhere, knowing King has been a huge Springsteen fan since the early days – and a general rags to riches trajectory and political sensibility - makes it tempting to find parallels.

Speaking of, I think the Wiggles re-arranged this and slowed it down as "Dorothy the Dinosaur." 

There's some amazingly fun choreography going on in this 7-minute long version from Paris 1985. That hyperlink should be cued up to it but apologies if it not - it's at/around the 3:20 mark. 

"I'm a Rocker"

Bryan: 4.25/5 I’m a sucker for songs like this. On the face of it, a ridiculous statement, even more absurdly put across. And yet, it's actually truth, like hey that’s my job, folks. And this is how it sounds! It always amuses me. It'd be fun to do a blog of all the songs named "I'm a Rocker." I can only think of the Judas Priest and Thin Lizzy ones, aside from this, but I bet there are plenty more. Way more if we expand it to any song that has as its title a pronoun-subject/verb-rock-any-tense. ("We Rock," "I Wanna Rock," "Let's Get Rocked," etc. Hell this should be an entire blog of its own, not just a post: Songs About Rockin'. An inexhaustible mine.)

Bryant: 2.5/5  Absolutely, including the paragon of the subgenre, Falco’s "Rock Me Amadeus." I leave it to you to decide whether I’m serious about that. Back to the Boss, this has always been one of the album's lesser songs, in my eyes. It's fine, though, just not one I gravitate to.

Bryan: I like Bruce's clowning around at the beginning of this version from 2002. Another of those songs he wrote in the 70s that he never seemed to play back then but started popping up in the 21st century.

"Fade Away"

Bryan: 4.25/5 Showcases the Bruce/ Van Zandt unique vocal alchemy pretty well.

Bryant: Honestly, what could some other man do to a woman that Bruce couldn't?  I'm offended by the very notion on his behalf.  Oh yeah, I gotta score this, don't I?  3/5  I like it, but it's not on my list of essentials.

Bryan: That outro is so good, though! In the eternal game of redistributing Bruce’s songs to other artists, Noel Gallagher would’ve (maybe still would – his voice is holding up all right) done well with this one. (And maybe he did, kind of, at the end of "Sad Song?" Noel was all about studying the songwriting greats, so it would only make sense if a lot of Bruce-homework got into some of that homework along with everyone else.)

"Stolen Car"

Bryant: 3.75/5  Hey, looky there; Nebraska was just born! Brutally sad, but usefully so.

Bryan: 4/5 Another pained lament, and some of his simplest, most direct lyrics of love gone to ruin but the bodies still live. A sad one. Great tune but not my favorite sort of thing. It'd be perfect for the right sequence of a film, though. My points here are what I think the song is worth; my own personal level of enjoyment would be more a 4.

"Ramrod"

Bryan: 3.5/5 I mean, nothing special I guess, just traditional rock and roll. I've got zero problems with that. Weird they chose "Fade Away" as the 2nd single from this record and not this one or "I'm a Rocker." Now: picture this (once again) done by the Beach Boys with Mike Love singing - same song, same approach. What would your rating be? (Mine'd drop considerably.) The power of Bruce! But also, equally, of the E Street Band. This isn't a dis to the BBs, just properly evaluating the value these guys brought to the rock and roll game. Here's a version from The River tour that rocks.

Bryant: 2/5  It absolutely rocks, but this is my least favorite song on the album.  I never skip it or anything, but I'm kind of glad when it's over.

"The Price You Pay"

Bryant: 3/5  Another one that is part of the Nebraska origin story.  I'd love to hear it done in that vein, but it works really well here, too, obviously. [Say, I think you forgot to score this one!]

Bryan: [Jostles himself awake. 3 is about right.]

"Drive All Night"

Bryan: 2/5 I only really like the sax solo. Don't like the "heart and soul" anguish or whatever he's doing round the 6 minute mark. Or much else. The lyrics are good - it's not a bad exploration of this emotion/ type of song. It works better as accompaniment for something in a movie maybe. I can totally understand why anyone would dig it, but for the same vibe I'd rather just listen to "Backstreets."

Bryant: 3/5  I like it quite a bit more than you do, but I totally agree that he needed to go in a different direction with some of it. It still works for me as a whole, though.

"Wreck on the Highway"

Bryan: 4/5 Love this one. For me, this is the pointer-of-the-way to not just Nebraska but to all the country-Bruce to follow, almost as much as if it were a sneak preview of the 80s. "Bruce Springsteen Will Return In..." Perfect end to the record.

Bryant: 3.75/5 Definitely great, but not a personal favorite for me. I agree that it's a wonderful album-closer, though. I wonder if people took it that way when it came out?  I bet a few fans were a little worried about the direction it was pointing.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Bryan: Total 74.25 Avg: 3.71 In many ways the pivotal album of the catalog, the one that harnessed the momentum and careful step-by-step placement of the first four and set the stage for everything that came after.

Bryant: Total 67.75 total, 3.39 average  I'm a good bit lower than you on this one.  Don't get me wrong, though; I love it. Sure, it's not "as good" as the previous two albums; but I don't think it was designed to be. I think it was designed NOT to be. Either way, it's crammed full of great songs.

~

THE RIVER

was produced by Jon Landau, Steven Van Zandt, and Bruce Springsteen

and featured

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

Flo and Eddie – backing vocals on "Hungry Heart"