Don't look back (Bruce Springsteen) (LP 3894 - 3898)

Bruce Springsteen  Tracks (4CD, Columbia Records, 1998) ****  

Bruce Springsteen   The Essential Bruce Springsteen (3CD, Columbia Records, 2003) ****  

Bruce Springsteen  Chapter and Verse (CD, Columbia Records, 2016) *****  

Bruce Springsteen  Born To Run 2003 Vol 1 (CD, Covermount Uncut, 2003) ***  

Bruce Springsteen  Born To Run 2003 Vol 2 (CD, Covermount Uncut, 2003) *** 

Genre: Folk-rock, Rock 

Places I remember: Marbecks Records

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Don't Look Back (Tracks)

Gear costume: Linda Let Me Be The One (Tracks); From Small Things (Big Things One Day Come) (Essential)

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: Another BIG box set - Tracks has a whopping 66 mostly never previously released songs. These are songs that he decided didn't fit the albums he was working on so he shelved them. There are also a number of single B-sides, as well as demos and alternate versions of already-released material. 

It's a lot to get through and in truth I often find myself agreeing with his decisions. There are plenty of gems as well though - apart from the two I've highlighted above - try also Bishop Danced, Thundercrack, Give the Girl a Kiss, Roulette and his version of a terrific song he gave to Southside Johnny - Hearts of Stone. 

The Essential Bruce Springsteen is a three-disc set. The first two discs are the big hits/songs from throughout his career up to 2003. It's handy having them all in one extended format. Disc three is why I bought it though - a bonus CD of 12 songs that are like those on Tracks - unreleased, live or hard to find songs from film soundtracks.

Even though it doesn't present a coherent picture (as Tracks and Chapter and Verse do) there are some real gems among the twelve. From Small Things, Missing and Trapped are three. 

Even better is the Chapter and Verse compilation that was designed to accompany his autobiography Born to Run (that's also a must have). His early bands (The Castiles, Steel Mill, The Bruce Springsteen Band) are represented before a cherry-picked selection of the important songs along the way. It's made even more meaningful because Bruce selected the songs to show his development as a person as well as a musician and songwriter. It's a brilliant collection!

The two volumes from Uncut magazine have a variety of cover versions. Some great ones too from Badly Drawn Boy (Thunder Road), The Band (Atlantic City), Link Wray (Fire) on Volume 1 and Heather Nova (a smoldering version of I'm On Fire), and The Hollies (4th of July, Asbury Park) on Volume 2.

Where do they all belong? Woh - that took a while! I play each of my collection's albums as I write posts on this blog and many of the Bruce Springsteen albums have 2, 3 or 4 albums each so it's a massive body of work.

Thundercrack (Bruce Springsteen) (LP 3885 - 3893)

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band  Live at My Father's Place in Roslyn, July 31, 1973 (Vinyl, Dol Records, 2015) ***  

Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band  Live/ 1975 - 85 (Vinyl - 5 album box set, CBS Records, 1986) **** 

Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band  Hammersmith Odeon, London '75 (CD, CBS Records, 2006) ***** 

Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band  The Fox Theater, Atlanta, Georgia USA 30th September 1978 (3CD, Echoes Records, 2014) ****

Bruce Springsteen  Live at the Roxy Theater, Hollywood 1978 (Vinyl, Bootleg) *****

Bruce Springsteen Piece de Resistence (Vinyl, Bootleg) *****

Springsteen The E Street Band  The Legendary 1979 No Nukes Concerts (2CD/DVD, Sony Music, 2021) *****

Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band  Live in New York City (2CD, Columbia Records, 2001) *****

Bruce Springsteen  Live to Air (2CD, Bootleg, 2014) ***

Genre: Folk rock, rock

Places I remember: JB Hi Fi for most, except the bootlegs were mail orders and Live 1975/85 is from Marbecks Records.

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Lost in the Flood (Live in New York)

Gear costume: Kitty's Back (Hammersmith Odeon) American Skin (41 Shots) (Live in New York)

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 billing is fairly shared between Bruce and the band on many of the live albums because he couldn't have done what he did without them. It was and still is a symbiotic relationship, and live is where all things Bruce became fully ALIVE!

We start in 1973 with a radio show that has songs from his first two albums. At this stage the E Street Band was Clarence, Garry, Danny, David Sancious and Vini Lopez.

It's now a historical record of where they started and it does feel a bit tentative. The sound is also a tad thin given it's a radio broadcast. Fourth of July was yet to gain its epic arrangement for instance. Spirits in the Night is sung with passion and played well by the band - a definite highlight.

The five album box set was all you could get of Bruce live in 1986, unless, like me, you had some bootlegs - which I think are far superior but more on that to come.

The box set suffers through its cherry-picked format, rather than being one concert. Again - those releases would eventually come. However, if you listen to the ten sides in one go like I've just done, it all makes sense and feels like one epic concert by the Boss and the E Street Band. 

That said, I still prefer the single concert experience and Hammersmith Odeon, London '75 delivers that and some. In 2006 Bruce presumably gave the okay for this release. Aside from the crime that it took so long, this is a very welcome double CD release.

The whole concert is outstanding and justifies the hype that Bruce disliked so much - the future of rock'n'roll was a heavy tag to place on him, but he's still going strong in 2025!

Disc two is an amazing series of climaxes - Kitty's Back (a great jazzy version) is followed by Jungleland is followed by Rosalita is followed by...OMG...Sandy!! And there are still three songs to go!! You get the picture? BTW: the shock of hearing the Jersey references being met with a London silence is just plain weird, and it must be the only place and time when Jungleland wasn't sung back to the band!

One of the strengths of this set from my pov is that it only draws on the first 3 albums - so it's tight, and it's my favourite period of the E Street Band - which helps!

Next up -1978! The Fox Theater concert was a radio broadcast. The three CDs document the concert which includes a couple of songs that he was road testing for The River. It's a good summation of Bruce and the E Streeters 1978 concert experience, but it doesn't quite have the excitement of my next two albums.

Both the Roxy (a double album) and Piece de Resistence (a triple album) are bootlegs. The sound is superb on both.

First the Roxy one - some of the songs turned up on the Live/ 1975 - 85 box set, but they are better here as they are included as part of the stand alone concert. Bruce is pretty loose - chatty and engaging with the smaller club atmosphere (capacity of 500).

Piece de Resistence is a triple vinyl bootleg that documents 'the entire 75th performance of the 1978 tour/ recorded at the Capitol Theater, Sept 19, 1978/ Passaic, New Jersey'. It comes with a stamped number on the box lid - mine is 01773. No one could ever say that Bruce and the band ever phone in a performance. This album is a five-star classic.

One of the events of 1979 was No Nukes. This was a series of concerts put on by Musicians United for Safe Energy (MUSE). There was a triple album (we'll get to it in the fullness of time when I finish the zeds and get onto various artists) and a film (I went with Margo and Clay - she was NOT impressed by the Bruce showmanship section!).

It took a while - 2021 - but we finally got the full Springsteen/E Street Band extravaganza on a double CD and DVD package. The set list is mainly from Born to Run and Darkness on the Edge of Town plus Rosalita and two songs from The River which had yet to be released in 1979. 

He rips into the encores like a man possessed with The Detroit Medley and an epic Quarter to Three and then a blast of Buddy Holly to finally end things. Massive!

Live in New York is great for a few reasons: this is an expanded E Street Band with Nils, and Patti joining for a 1999-2000 reunion tour; the audience participation is a nice feature; Bruce is in great form, as is The Big Man; they're in New York; older songs and their arrangements are dusted off and shine in the new E Street sound; newer songs like Youngstown (given the full E Street Band arrangement, and American Skin (41 Shots) are brilliantly performed; they sound like they mean it and they sound like they are having fun!

And finally, Live to Air - a bootleg compilation of songs done live in a variety of contexts. The sound quality is good but it's a disparate collection of songs with and without The E Street Band.

Where do they all belong? Next up - a run-down of some compilations.

Into the fire (Bruce Springsteen) (LP 3878 - 3884)

Bruce Springsteen  The Rising (CD, Columbia Records, 2002) ****  

Bruce Springsteen  Magic (CD, Columbia Records, 2007) *** 

Bruce Springsteen  Working on a Dream (CD, Columbia Records, 2009) *** 

Bruce Springsteen  Wrecking Ball (CD, Columbia Records, 2012) ****

Bruce Springsteen  High Hopes (CD, Columbia Records, 2014) **** 

Bruce Springsteen  Western Stars (CD, Columbia Records, 2019) ****

Bruce Springsteen  Letter To You (CD, Columbia Records, 2020) ****

Genre: Rock

Places I remember: JB Hi Fi

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Radio Nowhere (Magic)

Gear costume: Outlaw Pete (Working on a Dream); Land of Hope and Dreams (Wrecking Ball)

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: I did buy his nineties albums on cassette (Human Touch, Lucky Town, In Concert Unplugged) or CD (The Ghost of Tom Joad) but they have long gone from my collection. 

I was really disappointed with them all generally. No E Street Band in the nineties and no real inspiration. I tried really hard to like Tom Joad (I adore Grapes of Wrath and Steinbeck) but it was just too depressing.

So, it was the return of the E Street Band and Bruce's return to form on The Rising that made me pay attention to his career again. It's a masterful collection of songs that came in the aftermath of the World Trade Center atrocities of 2001. They reflected on that traumatic event but obliquely and that was important. He wasn't preaching, he was sharing.

The songs are terrific: Lonesome Day; Mary's Place; Waitin' on a Sunny Day and the title track are all exceptional. The E Street Band had grown by the time they were reconstituted for the album. Core members (Roy Bittan, Clarence, Danny Federici, Garry Tallent, Steve Van Zandt, and Mighty Max Weiberg) were joined by Nils Lofgren and Patti Scialfa). 

I did buy both Devils & Dust and We Shall Overcome; The Seeger Sessions but I didn't keep them. I found Devils too dour and the drunken Pete Seeger homage too shouty. So Magic is up next.

It kicks off with a fantastic song - Radio Nowhere. While nothing comes close to that one (Terry's Song comes closest), the rest of the album has a reinvigorated E Street Band (yes, another reunion after a couple of 'solo' albums). The band doesn't quite rock out as the opener suggests, so for me this one is a bit of a missed opportunity.

Working on a Dream followed up in the same manner as Magic as, glory be - he retained the E Street Band! It again starts with a great song - Outlaw Pete and The Big Man has more of a presence on a few tracks. That sax sound is unmistakably his alone. Dan Federici had passed away by this album's creation and The Last Carnival is a great tribute to him.

Another E Streeter would soon fall in 2011 - titan of the band, King of the world, master of the Universe - Clarence Clemons - The Big Man. His presence is all over Wrecking Ball, even if he only appears on two songs. Land of Hope and Dreams is one, and that plus Bruce's liner notes about his friend are worth buying the album for alone. Bruce expands his musicians for this one, although a few E Streeters appear. 

It feels like things were revving from Magic onwards and I think High Hopes is a climactic moment. The growing inclusion of Tom Morello (Rage Against the Machine) from two tracks on Wrecking Ball to most of High Hopes is telling. He integrates brilliantly with the E Street Band members - check out the electric redo of The Ghost of Tom Joad. 

American Skin (41 Shots) was also revived (the album is a curious mix of covers and outtakes that works well when joined together). What a song that is. I'll save it for my highlights on the live section of posts.

Western Stars was a different look. It was a fair distance from rock'n'roll as Bruce embraced his country side - his inner Glen Campbell if you will. Who doesn't like the mythic western heroes of yester-year? I was brought up on John Wayne, John Ford and the iconic westerns they starred in or made. He called it "a return to my solo recordings featuring character-driven songs and sweeping, cinematic orchestral arrangements". It was a perfect realisation of that goal.

Letter to You was his twntieth studio album. That's something! His quality control has been pretty amazing too (I'm ignoring those nineties albums). The E Street Band regroups for this one - a song cycle looking at mortality and aging. One minute you're here, next minute you're gone. Some of his bandmates have gone - and he's aging - that must be a sobering thought.

He's relatively nostalgic on this album - even reviving three unrecorded songs from when he split his first band - The Castiles. It's fitting that the E Street Band rip into these songs. They were recorded live in the studio, rather than the painstaking overdub/ tinkering methods he used in the early days, and they sound pretty vital to my ears.

Where do they all belong? I'll have a listen to his latest studio album - Only the Strong Survive. Like We Shall Overcome, it's a covers album - this time of R&B and soul songs. Up next are the live albums. 

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.

It's hard to be a saint in the city (Bruce Springsteen) (LP 3868 - 3873)

Bruce Springsteen  Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. (Vinyl, CBS Records, 1973) **** 

Bruce Springsteen  The Wild, The Innocent & the E Street Shuffle (Vinyl and CD, Columbia Records, 1973) *****  

Bruce Springsteen  Born To Run (Vinyl and CD, Columbia Records, 1975) *****

Bruce Springsteen  Wings for Wheels: The Making of Born to Run (DVD, Sony Music, 2005) *****

Bruce Springsteen  Darkness on the Edge of Town (Vinyl and CD, Columbia Records, 1978) *****

Bruce Springsteen  The Promise (CD, Columbia Records, 2010) *****

Genre: Rock, folk-rock, jazz-rock, pop. 

Places I remember: Marbecks Records, JB Hi-Fi for Wings for Wheels

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Thunder Road, Born to Run

Gear costume: Jungleland (Born to Run), Racing in the Street (Darkness...)

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: While I am not a completist, I do have a large number of Springsteen's albums, so this will be another multi-post effort on my part. 

First up will be the seventies albums, starting with his debut - Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J., then the rest of the studio albums before the live albums. The compilations will be the final segment.

The debut is what it is - a start, a greeting, amid a rush of Dylanesque imagery. It was recorded in 1972 and included some terrific songs like Growin' Up, Lost in the Flood and For You. Two singles were released from it: Blinded by the Light and Spirits in the Night but both failed to chart.   

The album is a mixture of solo style songs and band songs which introduce Bruce's signature energy, his desire, his wide poetic vision, and romanticism for a mythic life. By so doing, it announced a major talent had kicked off a career that is still going. The rock'n'roll fire burns in Bruce Springsteen!

In many ways The Wild, The Innocent & The E Street Shuffle is my favourite album. I'd first found Bruce via the Born to Run single that exploded out of my transistor radio in 1975 and when I bought the album it was so damned good that I had to do a catch up of the first two. The Wild etc was a revelation! Born to Run hadn't emerged out of nowhere!

My listening to the album coincided with seeing the boys doing a live version of Rosalita (Come Out Tonight) on TV. That was another musical epiphany for me - similar to see The Beatles on Ed Sullivan as a youngster. The album itself is one great song after another - like Born to Run. 

I'll need to quote the AllMusic review at length here because it perfectly described this album: His chief musical lieutenant was keyboard player David Sancious, who lived on the E Street that gave the album and Springsteen's backup group its name. With his help, Springsteen created a street-life mosaic of suburban society that owed much in its outlook to Van Morrison's romanticization of Belfast in Astral Weeks. Though Springsteen expressed endless affection and much nostalgia, his message was clear: this was a goodbye-to-all-that from a man who was moving on. The Wild, The Innocent & the E Street Shuffle represented an astonishing advance even from the remarkable promise of Greetings; the unbanded three-song second side in particular was a flawless piece of music...The truth is, The Wild, The Innocent & the E Street Shuffle is one of the greatest albums in the history of rock & roll.

Born to Run is another album that fits into that last description as well. Having just listened to it and rewatched the making of it film - Wings for Wheels, it really is a seminal album both for music generally and Bruce specifically. It certainly was a painstaking process that went into its production.

The band settled itself in with Mighty Max Weinberg and Professor Roy Bittan replacing 'Boom' Carter and David Sancious. The jazzy combination became the rock-solid Mighty Max and the different piano style of Roy Bittan.

The album celebrates friendship - hence that iconic cover, and songs that are about those bonds and the need to escape (for Bruce that was Freehold, N.J.). The film is cool in that it has Bruce being interviewed driving back to Freehold (the diner there is another great choice of location).

For me the album has some epic music and some romantic ideals that stay with me all these years later - Scooter and The Big Man, Thunder Road's pulling out of here to win and especially Jungleland. The Big Man's finest moment? For me it is.

What followed was Bruce appearing on the cover of Time and Newsweek in the same week, and being presented in London as part of the Born to Run tour as the saviour of rock'n'roll. Of course, his reaction was to back pedal on his next album - Darkness on the Edge of Town, which came out three years later.

From go to woh, it is a dark record. The cover says it all - a morose, haunted looking Bruce. When I bought it in 1978, I embraced that darker, raw side of his music. The three singles encapsulate that feeling: Badlands, Prove It All Night, The Promised Land.

The Promise is a double CD compilation which presents an alternative reality to the Darkness on the Edge of Town. It features 21 recordings from the sessions. Highlights for me are the alternative version of Racing in the Street plus his take on Because The Night (which became a hit for Patti Smith) and best of all - Talk To Me, a great song that he gave to Southside Johnny.

Where do they all belong? Next up - albums from The River onwards.

Welcome to the overground (Badly Drawn Boy) (LP 382)

Badly Drawn Boy Born In the U.K. (CD, EMI, 2006) ***

Genre: UK pop/rock 

Places I remember: M

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: The Long Way Round




Gear costume: Born In The U.K., Promises, Journey From A To B 

Active compensatory factors: Damon Gough (a.k.a. Badly Drawn Boy) is a Springsteen fanboy and this was a natural step for him - an album that channelled a Springsteen spirit of big themes, but in his own context - life in the U.K.

It's kinda fun hearing some Springsteenian echoes in the lyrics and music -  Promises and elsewhere have some great neo Roy Bittan piano and the car image is a nice vehicle (haha) for Gough's thoughts in Degrees Of Separation.

The well thought out, expanded sound suits the 2006 BDB.


Where do they all belong? The About A Boy soundtrack casts a huge shadow on the BDB catalogue. Just saying!