Two hearts (Bruce Springsteen) (LP 3874 - 3877)

Bruce Springsteen  The River (Vinyl, CBS Records, 1980) *****  

Bruce Springsteen  Nebraska (Vinyl, CBS Records, 1982) *****  

Bruce Springsteen   Born in the USA (Vinyl, CBS Records, 1984) ****  

Bruce Springsteen   Tunnel of Love (Vinyl, CBS Records, 1987) ***** 

Genre: Rock 

Places I remember: Marbecks Records

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: The River

Gear costume: Hungry Heart (The River)

They loom large in his legend (The Album Collection playlists): Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4; Part 5; Part 6

Active compensatory factors: The River kicks off as if Darkness on the Edge of Town had never happened. The Ties That Bind, Sherry Darling, Jackson Cage, Two Hearts are all - 'let's get this party started' songs. All those songs happen on side one before Independence Day. It's not like he and the E Streeters dashed these off (the album's sessions ran for 18 months and yielded over 50 songs) but it sure sounds that way in terms of their immediacy. The sound is rawer, more garage rock this time out. 

Side 2 has Hungry Heart - a fantastic pop song. Then it's back into the garage rock songs until The River ends the side magnificently. Sides 3 and 4 continue the balance between rockers and ballads. If Born to Run is a piano led album, then The River features a fair few songs written on the electric geetar.

Thematically, this was some distance from the mythic youth of the first three albums, and builds on the more relationship oriented focus of Darkness on the Edge of Town. Bruce's main concerns here are adult responsibilities, even if girls and cars are still featured (although here he's driving a stolen car, rather than racing in the street).

Nebraska is an extraordinary album. I bought it when it was released while working at Marbecks and I played it over and over while living on my own and attending Teachers' College. Recorded by Bruce alone and intended as demos for the E Street Band, it's an uncompromising album - but like the blues, it's also weirdly life and family affirming.

It remains a very powerful record - a song like My Father's House still sends shivers down my spine, in a way that his next record, the mega successful Born in the U.S.A. couldn't replicate to the same extent.

Unfortunately, it's that album that now sounds of its time - 1984, much more so than Nebraska. It's those synths that anchor it in the eighties, rather than the spirited delivery by Bruce and the E Street Band. As the succession of big hits from the album showed, this is Bruce as big time rock'n'roll star. A position that he'd retreated from before after Born to Run. So, what would he do next?

Well, he'd married in 1985 for one thing, but that union was crumbling. And for another he'd go solo, as he did for Nebraska, but this time it would stick.  Some of the E Streeters would appear on Tunnel of Love, but for the most part Bruce recorded most of the parts himself, often with drum machines and synthesizers.

Bruce does what he does best on this exploration of a wobbly marriage - lays his soul bare and I loved the record. Still do. It holds up, long after the love affair with Julianne Phillips had ended.

Where do they all belong? That's it for his eighties albums, with consistently brilliant success throughout.