Springsteen Album-By-Album Discussion/Costume Party

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by Dr. Zoom, May 31, 2019.

  1. graveyardboots

    graveyardboots Resident Patient

    Location:
    Atlanta, GA, USA
    Springsteen's first eight studio albums are my eight favorite Springsteen albums. It's an impressive body of work that set an extremely high bar, which makes many of his subsequent releases disappointing by comparison. Springsteen fans not uncommonly state that his songs are better in concert than they are on vinyl. As a rule, I'm not sure I agree, but he does have three albums where I believe the live versions are indeed superior to their studio counterparts. This is one of those albums (the other two are Darkness on the Edge of Town and Lucky Town).

    Despite it's short length, nearly half an hours' worth of music from this debut has featured prominently throughout his now lengthy touring career with songs like Growin' Up, Spirit in the Night and Saint in the City being among his most indelible songs. As others have commented, Mary Queen of Arkansas is probably my least favorite track from this era (oh how I wish he would have traded it for If I Were the Priest) but even Mary Queen of Arkansas manages to contain one of my favorite lines in, "I don't understand how you can hold me so tight and love me so damn loose."

    The next LP, though, is a full star better.
     
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  2. Adam9

    Adam9 Русский военный корабль, иди на хуй.

    Location:
    Toronto, Canada
    I had heard about Bruce Springsteen and I think the first song I ever heard by him was "Growing Up" on the radio. I knew he was great then.
     
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  3. Dr. Zoom

    Dr. Zoom Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Monmouth County NJ
    That IS a great line...
     
  4. BeatleBruceMayer

    BeatleBruceMayer Forum Resident

    Location:
    Florida
    I agree about Mary, Queen and The Angel, but not sure about the replacements. I haven't heard them in a long time, but I remember them not doing anything for me. I know it wasn't part of the recording sessions for the album, but If I Was The Priest would have been a great replacement, as well as Prodigal Son. Just my opinion.
     
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  5. robcar

    robcar Forum Resident

    Location:
    Denver, CO
    I did not hear Greetings From Asbury Park N.J. until around 1986-7, when I completed buying all of Springsteen's early LPs. The album was a commercial stiff upon release and didn't attain platinum status in the US until much later after Bruce's BIUSA popularity explosion. Generally speaking, Greetings is a promising debut, but not a great or even particularly good album. Suffice it to say that Springsteen would not have become a global superstar or even a critic's darling if he had continued releasing albums like this one. He was hit with the "new Dylan" tag right off the bat, and it is somewhat easy to see why: he was signed by the same label and same A&R man as Dylan, he played acoustic guitar and harmonica, and he wrote songs that had a poetic and at times surreal flair. But it was never a terribly accurate term for Springsteen.

    The album was a somewhat uncomfortable compromise between Bruce the solo folky troubadour and Bruce the rock/white soul band leader. The originally submitted version of the album emphasized the former, with two songs ("Arabian Nights" and "If I Was The Priest") that were in the acoustic, solo style and would have fit comfortably alongside tracks like "Mary Queen of Arkansas" and "The Angel". They were arguably better than those two, particularly "If I Was The Priest". Two other outtakes were also under serious consideration for the LP ("Jazz Musician" and "Visitation at Fort Horn"), but were left off, along with a pile of around a dozen other solo recordings made by Springsteen during/at the same time as the LP sessions. None of these outtakes has seen official release to date, although "Henry Boy", another outtake from the sessions that wasn't given serious consideration for inclusion on his debut was eventually released on Chapter and Verse. Clive Davis, the then-head of Columbia, sent the proposed debut back, asking for two more radio-friendly band cuts. Bruce quickly composed "Spirit In the Night" and "Blinded by the Light", and those two tracks were recorded and slotted into the LP running order.

    Thoughts on individual tracks:

    "Blinded by the Light" - Although it flopped as a single, it would later be covered by Manfred Mann's Earth Band and would become a huge pop hit in 1975 for them. While the melody is great, the song is a mess from a lyrical standpoint. Springsteen has admitted using a rhyming dictionary to write it, and while it does have a few memorable lines in it, overall, it's not very good. Way too wordy and chaotic, without any thread of real meaning running through it.

    "Growin' Up" - The first Springsteen classic and the one cut on the album that really still stands up today. Probably his first statement of purpose. Love the interplay between the piano and acoustic guitar. Impeccably arranged.

    "Mary Queen of Arkansas" - a bit of a slog to get through, this solo acoustic track shares many of the weaknesses of the numerous solo outtakes from these sessions, and isn't as strong a track as songs like "Prodigal Son", "Jazz Musician", or, particularly, "If I Was The Priest". It does have a few good lines in it, but overall is a candidate for one of Bruce's weakest ever album tracks.

    "Does This Bus Stop At 82nd Street?" - One of the better tracks on the LP, this one shares some of the wordy, Dylan-esque imagery of "Blinded by the Light", but without the annoying affectations of that song. Great folk-rock melody.

    "Lost in the Flood" - Probably the most ambitious cut on the LP, this one tries to pull of a big statement about Vietnam veterans (a very current thing when it was written in late 1972) but falls well short of the mark, certainly in comparison to Springsteen's far superior later songs about the subject from the 1980s. The melody is strong and the band's performance tries to sell it, but Bruce's vocal is off and the whole thing threatens to collapse near the end. Again, this track hints at the amazing potential and promise of Springsteen as a writer and singer, but shows that there was still a lot of polishing that needed to happen.

    "The Angel" - another solo acoustic track that may have been better consigned to the outtake bin. Not bad, but not very memorable either.

    "For You" - A bizarre lyric coupled with a great melody and solid band performance. I've never been able to warm up to this song; I think the lyric is just too hard for me to get inside. I know that many like it, but this one is another in the "shows promise but needed editing" category for me.

    "Spirit in the Night" - The other major highlight of the LP, this is the best example of the early E Street Band's facility at the "Jersey Shore" R&B/soul/rock hybrid sound. A fantastic lyric populated with interesting characters and a strong narrative storyline, and a wonderful melody and perfect arrangement.

    "It's Hard to be a Saint in the City" - A strong album closer, if a bit underperformed on record. Another semi-autobiographical lyric here and probably the most rocking cut on the album.

    The LP was recorded at a cut-rate studio outside of NYC and was produced by a couple of guys who really didn't know a ton about recording, and it shows. The sound quality is poor and many of the band performances are stiff, at least compared to how they sounded in live performance. The album cover and artwork is one of the best of all Springsteen albums, however. To me, the live performances of these songs are far more definitive than the original album recordings, particularly the ones included on Springsteen's 1986 Live/1975-85 release.

    Summing up: A promising debut, but, in light of what would come later, one of the three or four weakest albums of Springsteen's career.
     
  6. Dr. Zoom

    Dr. Zoom Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Monmouth County NJ
    That’s an excellent analysis. I like that you used the word “stiff” twice. It’s a great word.
    “That guy is a stiff”.
     
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  7. robcar

    robcar Forum Resident

    Location:
    Denver, CO
    I was listening to a Stiff Records album last night, so it must've been in my head.
     
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  8. robcar

    robcar Forum Resident

    Location:
    Denver, CO
    This is similar to Elton John's early shows in America. His American debut LP was largely mellow chamber pop (his actual debut LP was more eclectic, but wasn't readily available in the US at the time), but when people went to his early club shows, they saw an unrestrained rock performance.
     
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  9. PacificOceanBlue

    PacificOceanBlue Senior Member

    Location:
    The Southwest
    For a song widely panned, it had its moments (or quality lines to be more accurate).
     
  10. The MEZ

    The MEZ Forum Resident

    Location:
    CT
    Real Good debut album imo. Mary Queen of Arkansas and The Angel, the only "duds" yo.
     
  11. Davido

    Davido ...assign someone to butter your muffin?

    Location:
    Austin
    "Lucky" enough to have heard Mary, Queen of Arkansas twice live, which seemed to be a common rarity in Houston shows for a spell in the early aughts. Finally made my peace with the song just 'cause I love the title.
     
  12. DavidD

    DavidD Forum Resident

    :):):) 1/2

    I'm not sure what I may have thought of this album if it was my introduction to Springsteen. But looking back, I see embryonic Bruce stylistically distinguishing himself from his more established peers, while being both interesting and familiar enough to hold your attention.

    Blinded By The Light is one of the most intriguing and instantly recognizable songs in his entire catalogue. (Who hasn't tried to figure it out?). The alliteration is terrific, and his mosaic of characters previews a little of what's ahead, and the wordsmith within.

    Blinded By The Light by Bruce Springsteen - Songfacts


    Mary Queen Of Arkansas introduces the listener to Springsteen the dreamer, a theme he returns to over and over with more refined craftsmanship later in his career.

    Springsteen closes with three solid, yet again raw, cuts: For You, Spirit In The Night, It's Hard To Be A Saint In The City. These aren't designed for mainstream consumption or to be chart-toppers , but they all plant seeds. To my ears, they are classics and hit chords in me that are pure Springsteen.

    Perhaps it was by knowing The River, Darkness and Born To Run, that my youthful exploration of his back catalogue allowed me to easily accept this formative lump-of-clay album. MaryQOA may not be a fan favourite, but I am glad it is there as an early milepost to his future work, and I enjoy listening to it in much of the same way I like looking at old pictures of family and friends. I wouldn't want it any other way, and the idea of replacing it with a 'stronger track' just seems wrong.

    What I really like about the album is that Springsteen can't hide from it. It reveals his honest voice, not yet fully tapped, and illustrates an artist who can inhabit a song. He doesn't phone in a single track. I'll take Greetings over his most commercial and successful album every day of the week. Every song earned its place on Greetings. A solid album of real character right out of the gate.
     
  13. Dr. Zoom

    Dr. Zoom Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Monmouth County NJ
    [​IMG]

    914 Sound Studios, Blauvelt NY. Now an auto detailing garage. Vini Lopez once told me him and Garry would sleep in a tent in the woods behind the studio rather than spend money on a motel. Humble beginnings.
     
    Last edited: Jun 1, 2019
  14. dharma bum

    dharma bum Forum Resident

    Location:
    New Jersey
    Bruce is my favorite artist so this will be fun.

    Greetings is flawless. The eternal dialogue with Springsteen fans is and always will be what albums would have been improved had he included this song instead of that song... and I can do that with every album, but I'll try not to. So even though "The Angel" and "Mary Queen of Arkansas" could obviously have been replaced with better songs, they have grown into the whole of the album as a body of work and its history, and belong there. I always think of the first line of the Lester Bangs review..."Anyone remember PF Sloan?"...referring to all the "next Dylan"s who critics praised but never lived up to the hype. Lester loved Bruce though, and eventually knew he deserved the praise...especially after he stopped being the next Dylan and opted to be the first Springsteen. Bruce was trying too hard in those early days, but fortunately got some great material out of not knowing yet exactly who and what he wanted to be. The stream-of-conscience mush mouth raspy vocals fit the songs perfectly, although it wouldn't have worked past The Wild, the Innocent and the E Street Shuffle. Traces of that voice can still be heard in certain moments of the Born To Run album, and you can hear that struggle between Greetings Bruce and evolving Bruce.

    Anyway, Greetings is as strong a debut from a solo artist as a solo artist could hope for. For artists like Bruce, critical praise should come before commercial success and that's exactly what happened. In fact, nearly everything in Bruce's history happens at exactly the right time and place... so even though he was about to be dropped from the label if Born To Run had failed, Greetings at the very least would have made a great footnote to the early 70s.
     
    Last edited: Jun 1, 2019
  15. robcar

    robcar Forum Resident

    Location:
    Denver, CO
    I went up there one day and remember thinking “THIS is where “Rosalita” and “Born to Run” were birthed?”
     
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  16. Adam9

    Adam9 Русский военный корабль, иди на хуй.

    Location:
    Toronto, Canada
    I heard Greetings live in Buffalo in 2009 which was very cool and likely unrepeatable. Also Clarence's last arena show, sadly.
     
  17. Dr. Luther's Assistant

    Dr. Luther's Assistant dancing about architecture

    Location:
    San Francisco

    Probably a good way to get released, now that you mention it.
     
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  18. Dr. Zoom

    Dr. Zoom Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Monmouth County NJ
    That was something I never thought I’d see.
     
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  19. Yankeefan01

    Yankeefan01 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Tonawanda, NY, USA
    Just curious, is that the same building or was it leveled and rebuilt to what it is now?
     
  20. Dr. Zoom

    Dr. Zoom Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Monmouth County NJ
    Same building.
     
  21. Dr. Zoom

    Dr. Zoom Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Monmouth County NJ
    [QUOTE="dharma bum, post: 21349704, member: 99999]
    Anyway, Greetings is as strong a debut from a solo artist as a solo artist could hope for. For artists like Bruce, critical praise should come before commercial success and that's exactly what happened. In fact, nearly everything in Bruce's history happens at exactly the right time and place... so even though he was about to be dropped from the label if Born To Run had failed, Greetings at the very least would have made a great footnote to the early 70s.[/QUOTE]



    The release date (first week of January 1973) is pretty indicative of Springsteen’s clout at the time. The slowest retail week of the year, right after the holidays.
     
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  22. DavidD

    DavidD Forum Resident

    To answer the question yet unasked, one of my favourite songs on the album is It's Hard To Be A Saint In The City. With the Johnny Cash-esque vocals that remain entirely Springsteen's, the twisted lyrics, and the vibrant imagery, I think this song more than the rest has almost all the elements of the best Springsteen songs yet to come. A classic cut from the debut.
     
  23. Dr. Zoom

    Dr. Zoom Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Monmouth County NJ
    Saint is probably the best song on the album. It was the one that got John Hammond’s ear.
     
  24. adm62

    adm62 Senior Member

    Location:
    Ottawa, Canada
    Around 1984 it was considered his weakest album, that is no longer the case. A few weak tracks, and he hadn't yet realised that sometimes less is more regarding lyrics. About 4-5 outstanding songs, Down in the Flood, Does this Bus Stop, Hard to be a Saint and (especially) For You, shows remarkable songwriting maturity. Was lucky enough to see him perform it in full for the only time in Buffalo 2009, what a night!
     
    Last edited: Jun 4, 2019
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  25. DBMartin

    DBMartin Forum Resident

    Location:
    The Netherlands
    Probably a very unpopular opinion, but the first time I heard this album, which was after having listened to the seven classic albums that would follow it, I thought Mary Queen and The Angel were the most interesting tracks on the album... :sigh:

    Later, songs like Lost in the Flood and For You made much more of a lasting impression, especially as live versions. It's a good debut album, a pretty fun and engaging listen, but I'd say all seven albums that followed it were much better.
     

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