Review This Again: The Ghost Of Tom Joad By Bruce Springsteen!

The Good: Moments of vocals, A handful of lyrics
The Bad: Murky instrumental accompaniment, Mumbling vocals, Produced to obscure lyrics.
The Basics: The Ghost Of Tom Joad stands as an album where Bruce Springsteen struggles to make his words comprehensible opposite indistinct instrumental accompaniment.


[There is a big meme in the art community going around now called "Draw This Again." In the meme, artists illustrate how they have grown in their chosen medium by putting side-by-side pictures of art they created in the past and now. My wife had the great idea that I should do something similar with my reviewing. So, for 2017, I will be posting occasional "Review This Again" reviews, where I revisit subjects I had previously reviewed and review them again, through a lens of increased age, more experience, and - for some - greater familiarity with the subject. This review is one such review, where I am re-experiencing The Ghost Of Tom Joad after many years and with more experience as both a reviewer and one who has heard much of the Bruce Springsteen library. The album was originally reviewed here!]

Many years ago, when I was still writing for a now-extinct website, there were very few reviews of mine in the music category that garnered a lot of readers and many comments. The lone exception that I can easily recall is the Bruce Springsteen album The Ghost Of Tom Joad. When I first reviewed The Ghost Of Tom Joad, the album was more than a decade old and I received dozens of comments on my review, which was not an overly favorable one, which surprised me. Now, The Ghost Of Tom Joad is more than twenty years old and I popped it in for my Review This Again project because so far in my Review This Again project, I had not re-listened to an album I had originally panned.

Now on my third listen through The Ghost Of Tom Joad after not hearing the album for around a decade - and without re-reading my original review - I am wondering how many Bruce Springsteen fans would actually rally to the defense of the album now. If asked to describe The Ghost Of Tom Joad, the word that comes instantly to mind is "murky." And I am not certain there is an actual tune on any of the songs that could be hummed if one tries; The Ghost Of Tom Joad is one long chord with occasional strumming and even more infrequent harmonica parts held together by Bruce Springsteen quietly mumbling his way through his own lines.

With only 12 songs, occupying 50:16 on c.d., The Ghost Of Tom Joad is short and unmemorable, though it is very much the work of Bruce Springsteen. Springsteen wrote all of the songs and he provides the lead vocals on every track. Springsteen plays instruments - guitar, harmonica, and keyboards - on each song and he is credited as a co-producer on the album. The Ghost Of Tom Joad is very much his musical vision.

Instrumentally, The Ghost Of Tom Joad is quiet and subtle, with no strong tunes. The keyboard and light guitars are consistent slow and quiet ballads from track to track, making for very little distinction on the album's songs. The Ghost Of Tom Joad is an album that is exceptionally easy to fall asleep to because it never quite breaks out with a sound that is distinct or interesting. Instead, the songs blend together in the musical equivalent of anonymity.

Similarly, Bruce Springsteen's smooth and gravely vocals are presented in the same way, track to track. Springsteen mumbles and sings his way through his songs, with the instrumentals being produced to easily compete with his more whispery voice. The result is that listeners have to strain to try to hear why Springsteen is singing and even his longer-held notes never hit a crescendo. Instead, even Springsteen's harmonica outshines his voice.

On the lyric front, The Ghost Of Tom Joad is lacking in anthemic lines that stand out while Springsteen is singing. Instead, The Ghost Of Tom Joad is a mix of musical storysongs that work to create characters and settings to present his themes. While lines like "I got my discharge from Fort Irwin / Took a place on the San Diego county line / Felt funny bein' a civilian again . . . I was still tryin' to find my way back whole / Went to work for the INS on the line / With the California border patrol" ("The Line") work, they are hardly universal sentiments.

Springsteen manages to make one superlative song about relationships on The Ghost Of Tom Joad. "My Best Was Never Good Enough" is sad and poetic as it explores insecurity in relationships through the use of popular cliches. When Springsteen sings "'Now don't try for a home run baby / If you can get the job done with a hit / Remember a quitter never wins / And a winner never quits / The sun don't shine on a sleepin' dog's ass.' / And all the rest of that stuff / But for you my best was never good enough" ("My Best Was Never Good Enough"), it is hard not to feel for his musical protagonist.

But not all of Springsteen's musical storysongs are exceptional on The Ghost Of Tom Joad. Springsteen does not wow his listeners with the rhymes "Well my daddy worked the furnaces / Kept 'em hotter than hell / I come home from 'Nam worked my way to scarfer / A job that'd suit the devil as well / Taconite coke and limestone / Fed my children and make my pay / Them smokestacks reachin' like the arms of God / Into a beautiful sky of soot and clay" ("Youngstown"), even if they are not the worst sentiments ever sung!

The Ghost Of Tom Joad is much more indistinct than it is bad, but most of the album is thoroughly unmemorable, which makes it much tougher sell than even a Bruce Springsteen fan might hope. The best track is "My Best Was Never Good Enough," the low point is probably the thoroughly unmemorable "Straight Time."

For other Review This Again reviews, please check out:
Falling Into You - Celine Dion
The Times They Are A-Changin' - Bob Dylan
Minutes To Midnight - Linkin Park

2.5/10

For an organized listing of all the albums and singles I have reviewed, please check out my Music Review Index Page!

© 2017 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Yet Another Bruce Springsteen Compilation: Chapter And Verse Is An Odd Mix.

The Good: Good lyrics, Moments of voice and music, Duration
The Bad: Repetitive sound, Oddly overproduced at key musical moments
The Basics: An odd compilation of the entirely obscure and the overly familiar, Bruce Springsteen's Chapter And Verse is more average than exceptional.


I generally like the works of Bruce Springsteen. I like compilation albums from Bruce Springsteen because there are a number of his albums where the two or three known hit songs on them are the superlative songs and some of the other tracks are just filler (it seems). So, as I peeked back in on Bruce Springsteen and his newer works, I was somewhat surprised to discover that 2015 and 2016 seemed to be the Years Of The Springsteen Compilations! One of the pure compilations - as opposed to newly-released live show albums that dominated Springsteen's 2015 released - was Chapter And Verse.

Chapter And Verse is a career-retrospective album that is sold on the early recordings Bruce Springsteen was involved with - songs from The Castiles and Steel Mill - that were previously unreleased. The "new, fresh" content is paired with exactly the songs one might expect a Bruce Springsteen compilation album to contain - "Born To Run," "Born In The U.S.A.," "Brilliant Disguise," etc. The result is a compilation that stars out noisy and unsophisticated and develops into the coldly familiar, with little left that truly intrigues the ear or mind.

With eighteen songs, clocking out at 77:51, Chapter And Verse makes good use of the c.d. medium. All of the songs on Chapter And Verse were written or co-written by Bruce Springsteen and he provides the lead vocals on all of the songs. As well, Springsteen plays guitar on almost all of the tracks and he is credited with producing Chapter And Verse. Chapter And Verse is very much the compilation album Bruce Springsteen intended to release.

Musically, the songs on Chapter And Verse are very much what one expects of Bruce Springsteen. The songs vary widely only between rock ballads and straight out rock and roll songs. The early songs - the previously unreleased ones from before Bruce Springsteen launched his solo career - are up-tempo, guitar-driven rock songs that are much more noisy than they are melodic or memorable. They are balanced by the familiar ("Born In The U.S.A.") and the contemplative - ballads like "The River" and "The Ghost Of Tom Joad." But, songs like "Baby!," "He's Guilty (The Judge Song)" and "Henry Boy" have a predictably less-sophisticated quality to the instrumentation, indicative of the young artist and performer.

Vocally, Chapter And Verse is mostly a compilation that makes the implicit argument that Bruce Springsteen has an amazing voice and a register he performs in. Springsteen growls sexy and smooth through songs like "Brilliant Disguise" and while "Born To Run" may be more melodic and energetic, it is still clearly Springsteen's voice. Springsteen does not present any of his falsetto songs in this compilation, so Chapter And Verse is a celebration of Springsteen's distinct and wonderful voice.

While the compilation might not be the most exceptional one, Chapter And Verse does a good job of showcasing Bruce Springsteen's exceptional writing style. It is very easy to see how Springsteen rose to popularity and prominence with lines like "In the day we sweat it out on the streets of a runaway American dream / At night we ride through the mansions of glory in suicide machines . . . It's a death trap, it's a suicide rap / We gotta get out while we're young / 'Cause tramps like us, baby we were born to run " ("Born To Run").

The thing is, on many of Springsteen's newer works, he clearly still has something to say. When Springsteen sings ". . .we know that come tomorrow, none of this will be here / So hold tight to your anger / Hold tight to your anger / Hold tight to your anger, and don't fall to your fears" ("Wrecking Ball"), he makes a cry out for relevance in a world that might have forgotten him and he succeeds with all who hear him. Springsteen has a number of timeless messages in his works.

Sadly, it is not all great on the writing front. Early works like "Baby I" illustrate a very youthful lack of sophistication with the writing, as one might expect. While with The Castiles, Springsteen wrote "Baby I don't need your tender kiss / Baby I you'll never miss . . . 'Cause I got someone new / Somebody better than you / Somebody who'll be true / Somebody better than you" ("Baby I") and it is hardly his most memorable poetry!

Despite the weird mix, Chapter And Verse is a decent compilation worth listening to, at least for those who have not yet picked up any of Springsteen's other compilation albums.

The best songs are "Ballad Of Jesse James" and "The River," the low points are "Baby I" and the less memorable "Badlands."

For other works by Bruce Springsteen, please check out my reviews of:
Born To Run
Born In The U.S.A.
Tunnel Of Love
Greatest Hits
The Ghost Of Tom Joad
Live In New York
The Rising
Devils & Dust
We Shall Overcome - The Seeger Sessions
Magic
Working On A Dream
High Hopes

5/10

For other music reviews, please check out my Music Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2017 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Bruce Springsteen Performs His Own ‘50s Rock On Tunnel Of Love

The Good: Some of the lyrics
The Bad: SHORT, Some painfully predictable rhymes, Instrumental accompaniment and vocals are boring.
The Basics: A surprisingly lackluster album from Bruce Springsteen, Tunnel Of Love ages poorly.


Every now and then, I find myself completely surprised by an album I am reviewing. After eight listens to the Bruce Springsteen album Tunnel Of Love, I found myself surprised: it is not, in fact, a cover album. While Springsteen’s die-hard fans might be aghast saying, “Of course not!” the album itself does not make that evident. Tunnel Of Love has a very 1950’s rock and roll sound to it, from the opening number “Ain’t Got You,” which sounds like a lost Elvis record, to the fact that “Two Faces” borrows several stanzas from the Lou Christie song “Two Faces Have I” (how the hell Springsteen got away with not crediting them is a mystery to me!). So, having recognized some lines and hearing a sound that was very 1950’s, I actually thought Tunnel Of Love might be a cover album.

But, it’s not. As it turns out, Tunnel Of Love is an album of (mostly) original works by Bruce Springsteen. The album came out in 1987 and it is hard not to note that it might not have aged as well as some of Springsteen’s other works. While some of his earlier albums have an originality or Dylanesque timeless quality to them and some of Springsteen’s newer works have a freshness that is very modern, the sound on Tunnel Of Love sounded old when the album was first released.

With a dozen songs clocking out at only 46:25, Tunnel Of Love is short and has a very retro rock and roll sound. Bruce Springsteen wrote all of the songs on the album (though at least one has lines from another song!) and he composed all of the music for them. In addition to presenting all of the lead vocals, Springsteen played a number of instruments on each of the songs (though members of the E Street Band appear on most of the tracks) and Springsteen was a co-producer of the album.

Instrumentally, Bruce Springsteen presents a somewhat more Spartan album than many of his other studio recordings. Springsteen is a man on guitar and/or bass or keyboards with percussion on most of the tracks. Despite the full rock and roll sound of “Ain’t Got You,” the album is actually one of the musically less rounded or powerful albums Springsteen has created. Outside “Tougher Than The Rest” (which was a bit repetitive), I’m not sure I’d be able to pick out a tune from any of the tracks on Tunnel Of Love if I heard them again without the vocals.

Vocally, Tunnel Of Love is thoroughly unimaginative; Bruce Springsteen growls his way through all twelve songs. While he arranges the songs well, he takes no real vocal risks on Tunnel Of Love. The lines he lifted from “Two Faces Have I” on his song “Two Faces” are lower (Springsteen does not play with falsetto at all on Tunnel Of Love) than in the original and in his song, the tempo is changed as well. On Tunnel Of Love, Springsteen sings lower and less articulately than he does on most of his albums.

Lyrically, Tunnel Of Love is also one of Springsteen’s least imaginative albums. While Tunnel Of Love has musical storysongs that one might expect from Bruce Springsteen, the poet uses far less complicated or impressive rhyme schemes on this album than on others. For example, it’s hard to imagine “C'mon Slim slip me in man / I'll make it up to you somehow / I can't be late I got a date / With all that heaven will allow / Rain and storm and dark skies / Well now they don't mean a thing / If you got a girl that loves you / And who wants to wear your ring” (“All That Heaven Will Allow”) popping up on other, better Springsteen albums.

That said, Springsteen does try to present his characteristic sense of creating musical storysongs on Tunnel Of Love. He creates characters, settings, and themes on songs like “Spare Parts.” When he sings “Bobby said he'd pull out Bobby stayed in / Janey had a baby it wasn't any sin / They were set to marry on a summer day / Bobby got scared and he ran away / Jane moved in with her ma out on Shawnee Lake / She sighed Ma sometimes my whole life feels like one big mistake / She settled in in a back room time passed on / Later that winter a son come along” it is hard not to feel like the familiar Springsteen is present and singing something he cares about. Even with its predictable rhymes, “Spare Parts” is an uncommon, somewhat folk-like song on the lyrical front.

Springsteen infuses some of the songs with decent imagery as well. It is hard to deny Springsteen is a poet with lines like “Bird on a wire outside my motel room / But he ain't singin' / Girl in white outside a church in June / But the church bells they ain't ringing / I'm sittin' here in this bar tonight / But all I'm thinkin' is / I'm the same old story same old act / One step up and two steps back” (“One Step Up”).

In the end, Tunnel Of Love is not bad, it’s just unmemorable. As such, it’s hard for me to come up with the usual best and worst tracks of the album. It’s not unpleasant to listen to at all, but it’s hard to argue it’s worth it, either.

For other works by Bruce Springsteen, please check out my reviews of:
Born To Run
Born In The U.S.A.
Greatest Hits
The Ghost Of Tom Joad
Live In New York
The Rising
Devils & Dust
We Shall Overcome - The Seeger Sessions
Magic
Working On A Dream
High Hopes

5/10

For other music reviews, please check out my Music Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2014 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Classic Springsteen That Holds Up Today: Born To Run!

The Good: Lyrics, Instrumental accompaniment
The Bad: SHORT, Not the most imaginative vocals
The Basics: Born To Run still resonates after almost forty years!


My first conscious experience with Bruce Springsteen’s pre-‘80s works was actually a parody. Robert Wuhl used to sing his version of the song “Born To Run” during one of his comedy routines on New Jersey and I remember seeing that as a kid. So as I sit down now to listen to the album that is older than I am, Born To Run, I find myself frequently smiling irrationally even to some of the darker songs. Born To Run was Bruce Springsteen’s third album and it was his breakout; it remains one of the two seminal Bruce Springsteen albums, with just cause.

Almost forty years since its original release, Born To Run is probably the most famous working class hero album of Bruce Springsteen’s. While most of the songs have heavily political undertones, the album also has Springsteen singing about relationships. The impact of economics and relationships is poignant throughout Born To Run, even if Springsteen’s vocals are very safe for him and his established range.

With only eight songs, clocking out at 39:26, Born To Run is arguably most hampered by its short duration. Springsteen, as we know, has had something to say for quite some time and it’s hard to believe there was not additional audio material from producing Born To Run that could have been included when it was remastered for compact disc. That said, the album is a legitimate success for the content it possesses. Bruce Springsteen wrote all eight songs – both the lyrics and music. Springsteen also provides all of the lead vocals and plays instruments (usually guitars) on each track. As well, Springsteen was a co-producer on the album, so it is hard to argue that he was not able to present his distinct musical vision with Born To Run.

That musical vision is not hampered by Springsteen’s vocals, though Born To Run is hardly a great example of the range he actually possesses. Born To Run has Springsteen spending most of his time at the higher registers – not the falsettos he would eventually do, but the higher tenor range, as opposed to the lower, growling sound he would do in the 80’s – sounding more like a similar-era Bowie than the familiar (to a child of the 80s and 90s) Springsteen. That said, Springsteen illustrates pretty impressive lung capacity and he sings most of his songs very clearly so his lyrics may be easily understood.

Born To Run has Springsteen accompanied by guitars, organs, percussion, and bass. Instead of choosing between piano or guitar, Springsteen’s E Street Band accompanies him on both and the sound is much richer for what (lyrically) seems much more like a Folk album than a rock and roll outing. Springsteen and the E Street Band also mix up the sound by throwing in trumpets and the occasional brass instrument (as well as a violin) to shake things up auditorily. The result is actually an album with so much instrumental sound that it’s hard not to pick something new out of each listen (at least for the first eight spinnings like I went through!).

Lyrically, Born To Run is most made up of musical storysongs, like one gets from folk singers. Springsteen sings about American life and he does so with a vividness that is compelling. In fact, before it degenerates into an insufferable repetition of “hiding on the back streets,” “Backstreets” is powerfully poetic. With lines like “One soft infested summer / Me and Terry became friends / Trying in vain to breathe / The fire we born in / Catching rides to the outskirts / Tying faith between our teeth / Sleeping in that old abandoned beach house / Getting wasted in the heat,” (“Backstreets”) Springsteen perfectly paints a picture with his words.

Not only focused on painting pictures of specific times and places, Springsteen also uses Born To Run to present thoughts on human relationships. When Springsteen sings “With her killer graces / And her secret places / That no boy can fill / With her hands on her hips / Oh and that smile on her lips / Because she knows that it kills me / With her soft French cream” (“She’s The One”), he wonderfully captures the emotions of desire and frustration. Springsteen understands attraction and unrequited love and he presents it well on “Born To Run.”

On Born To Run, Springsteen also has a tendency to go for longer – and less conventional rhyme schemes. For example, on “Jungleland,” he opens with “The Rangers had a homecoming / In Harlem late last night / And the Magic Rat drove his sleek machine / Over the Jersey state line / Barefoot girl sitting on the hood of a Dodge / Drinking warm beer in the soft summer rain / The Rat pulls into town rolls up his pants / Together they take a stab at romance / And disappear down Flamingo Lane,” which is not at all a typical rock stanza.

Ultimately, Born To Run holds up for the most part and is a poignant album of American life filled with the desire, longing for something better, and dreamy nature of the American dream presented by Bruce Springsteen.

For other works by Bruce Springsteen, please check out my reviews of:
Born In The U.S.A.
Greatest Hits
The Ghost Of Tom Joad
Live In New York
The Rising
Devils & Dust
We Shall Overcome - The Seeger Sessions
Magic
Working On A Dream
High Hopes

7/10

For other music reviews, please check out my Music Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2014 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Inverse “Live Album:” High Hopes Has Bruce Springsteen Compiling Songs Of American Desperation And Desolation.

The Good: Generally good production, Most of the lyrics, Duration.
The Bad: Some annoyingly drawn out instrumental moments, Nothing impressive on the vocals.
The Basics: The two-disc High Hopes illustrates well that Bruce Springsteen and his E Street Band can still rock, even if the material is culled and reworked from their b-sides!


Live albums have a tendency to suffer when I review them. The reason for this is very simple: on nine out of ten (or an even worse proportion!), songs are presented by their original artists with minimal reinterpretation and crowd noises that distract from what the performers are trying to do. If the live versions are culled from different albums, they have a tendency to be the same or similar to the ones on an artist’s “Greatest Hits” album. So, I am usually left with the question, “What’s the point of getting a new version with more superfluous noise if there is an album that has all the songs in the way the artist originally intended them?!” I mention this at the outset of my review of the latest Bruce Springsteen album, High Hopes, because I find myself faced with a legitimate construction of the inverse: for High Hopes, Bruce Springsteen has culled through his live songs, concert tracks and b-sides and reworked and re-recorded them as studio tracks.

The result is a surprisingly cohesive (for most of it) album. Unfortunately, it also seems the Bruce Springsteen’s tendency for the b-sides, remixes and songs he had only previously recorded as live versions was to write and perform songs that are largely depressing. With three songs opening the album that chronicle the depression, failings, and disintegration of America today, High Hopes is almost a concept album of the struggles people today face. The thing is, despite being culled from different time periods in Bruce Springsteen’s career, High Hopes holds together much better than most “live” albums or albums of remixes. The result is that Springsteen has reason to expect that 2014 will be a very good year for him.

With a dozen songs clocking out at 56:24, High Hopes is mostly the work of Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band. Springsteen wrote nine of the twelve songs, but three of the songs (“High Hopes,” “Just Like Fire Would,” and “Dream Baby Dream”) are covers. Springsteen provides all of the lead vocals and plays piano, guitar, bass, banjo, drums, and several other instruments over the course of the album. As one of three co-producers on the album, it seems very much like this was Springsteen’s musical vision being accurately represented.

Vocally, there are no surprises on High Hopes. Bruce Springsteen presents his characteristic gravelly, mid-range vocals. He sings all of the songs so the lyrics may be clearly understood and there is generally a straightforward, literal approach to the songs, as opposed to Springsteen infusing the lines with a lot of vocal emotion. The obvious exceptions are on “American Skin (41 Shots)” where Springsteen presents the lines with a softness that makes the song all the more haunting and “Frankie Fell In Love,” where Springsteen makes his vocals a bit more energetic and happy.

Instrumentally, High Hopes has a good mix of tracks that are very much the embodiment of a full rock band sound (which is, admittedly, atypical in today’s music). The guitar, bass, and drums blend with pianos, keyboards and the occasional saxophone. Almost all of the songs have a hummable tune and the anthemic tracks are appropriately energizing, calling the listener to action. While the album starts slow and melancholy, this seems to be a concept album about rising out of the muck, fighting for a better life (“This Is Your Sword”) and ending up at a better place (“Dream Baby Dream”). Musically, the album works well toward that crescendo. The only songs that musically stands out for any sort of problematic reason are “The Ghost Of Tom Joad” and “Heaven’s Wall.” On “Heaven’s Wall,” the musical accompaniment seems gratuitous and distracting, drawn out in a showy way that does not serve the song. The excessive guitars are revisited on this album’s version of “The Ghost Of Tom Joad,” where Springsteen and Tom Morello drag out their electric guitars as if to prove definitively to listeners that they actually know how to play them (we never doubted!). The extended extro to “The Ghost Of Tom Joad” is bloated and irksome to listen to, especially the more one listens to High Hopes.

Lyrically, High Hopes is a good blend of musical storysongs and political anthems. Springsteen is known for creating vivid musical slices of life in his songs while focusing on powerful emotions and/or social problems. On High Hopes, that tradition is carried on by songs like “Harry’s Place.” Springsteen creates a very realistic sense of emotion and setting when he sings “Downtown hipsters drinking up the drug line / Down in the kitchen working in the coal mine / Got a special sin, mister, you can't quite confess / Messy little problem, maybe baby need a new dress / Razor-back diamond you shine too hard / Need a hammer help you handle a little trouble in your backyard / Bring it on down to Harry's Place” (“Harry’s Place”). There is a sense of storytelling in Bruce Springsteen’s lines that are distinctly his own (despite how some might be tempted to compare him to Bob Dylan).

One of the gems I did not recall hearing on other Bruce Springsteen albums was “Down In The Hole.” With lines like “Dark and bloody autumn pierces my heart / The memory of your kiss tears me apart / The sky above is turning, the world below's gone gray / I thought that I could turn and walk away / Fire keeps on burning, and I'm working in the cold / Down in the hole” (“Down In The Hole”), Bruce Springsteen reminds listeners just how much of a poet he is. Springsteen writes some of the most beautiful lines about angst, loss, and poverty that I have ever heard and “Down In The Hole” is one of his most potent auditory paintings.

Of course, Bruce Springsteen is well-known for political songs and while the lyrics to “American Skin (41 Shots)” are entirely unsurprising (the song was presented on prior albums), the sound of it on High Hopes is. “American Skin (41 Shots)” is Springsteen’s masterwork on gun violence and race relations in the United States. He sings his cautionary tale: “Lena gets her son ready for school / She says, ‘On these streets, Charles / You've got to understand the rules / If an officer stops you, promise me you'll always be polite / And that you'll never ever run away / Promise Mama you'll keep your hands in sight’" (“American Skin (41 Shots)”) and on prior albums, the song seemed repetitive and overbearing, but on High Hopes it seems pointed and as if it is delivering the most poignant representation of how these problems do not go away on their own.

Ultimately, High Hopes is smart, political and well-produced: everything one hopes for from a Bruce Springsteen album. The album holds together very well over multiple listens, which is a rarity for a compilation album; maybe more artists should make their “assembled” or “recycled” albums the way Springsteen does!

The high point is “Down In The Hole” (though calling the best track on High Hopes is tougher than on most Springsteen albums!), the low point is the repetitive “Heaven’s Wall.”

For other works by Bruce Springsteen, please check out my reviews of:
Born In The U.S.A.
Greatest Hits
The Ghost Of Tom Joad
Live In New York
The Rising
Devils & Dust
We Shall Overcome - The Seeger Sessions
Magic
Working On A Dream

7/10

For other music reviews, please visit my Music Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2014 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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The Working-class Hero Returns With A Thoroughly Average Album:Working On A Dream By Bruce Springsteen.

The Good: Decent lyrics, Good vocals
The Bad: Short, Unmemorable musical accompaniment, Vocally limited
The Basics: Repetitive in sound and lyrics and unchallenging with the vocals, Bruce Springsteen's Working On A Dream is shockingly average folk-rock.


On the Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers song "Into The Great Wide Open," there is the wonderful line from the A&R man, "I don't hear a single." That line resonates now in my mind as I consider Bruce Springsteen's latest opus, Working On A Dream after my two-dozenth listen to the album because that qualifies well the listening experience. The album, not truly a concept album, is arguably one of the least-challenging albums Springsteen has ever released and a poor follow-up to the surprise genius of Magic. On Working On A Dream, Springsteen growls his way through his songs in very familiar ways and his statements are neither timely nor particularly interesting.

This is not to say Working On A Dream is a poor album; it isn't. But it doesn't have a single song that stands out in such a way that makes one think "well, that should be on his all-time greatest hits." Instead, almost all of the songs sound strangely familiar, like other Bruce Springsteen songs released over his vast career. As I listen to "What Love Can Do," I know I've heard it from him before. And the songs that don't sound like previously-released Springsteen seem to sound like one another: "Outlaw Pete," "Queen Of The Supermarket," and "The Wrestler" all seem to have the same general musical theme, vocal presentation, and instruments. "This Life" I recognize as a variation on "Girls In Their Summer Clothes," as that was one of my favorite songs off Magic. The point here is that if one is looking for something new from Bruce Springsteen, they are likely to feel letdown by Working On A Dream.

With thirteen songs, clocking out at 51:34, Working On A Dream is mostly the musical vision of Bruce Springsteen as he is now. All of the songs were written by Springsteen and he provides the lead vocals on all of the tracks. As well, he plays multiple instruments throughout the album, from the guitars and harmonica that are no surprise to fans of Springsteen to the keyboards, percussion and glockenspiel on other songs. But Springsteen does not have anything to do with the production aspects of the album, though given his celebrity one assumes this is the musical vision he set out with and is pleased enough with its execution.

But Working On A Dream is essentially a short, contemporary folk-rock album with a few dreadfully long songs. Springsteen wears out his welcome with "Outlaw Pete," an interminably long story song with the recurring refrain of "Can you hear me?" The song is an adequate storysong, but between the many times the musical protagonist identifies himself and cries out to potential listeners, he is hardly an empathetic musical character. Fortunately, the album gets better after the opening song.

What follows are songs where Springsteen sings about trying to make it by (“Working On A Dream”), falling in love with commoners ("Queen Of The Supermarket"), and the uncertainty of time ("Tomorrow Never Knows"). Many of the songs - like "The Last Carnival" - have a folk-rock sensibility of being musical storysongs where the song is just an evocation, a musical painting, of a specific time and place and with Springsteen's vocals, almost the entire album sounds like it is created on the heat and wind of the dustbowl. The "bonus" track, "The Wrestler," actually fits the album quite well as it is quiet and about the struggles of day-to-day life.

Working On A Dream, the album, has a subdued musical quality to it. The only song Springsteen actually sounds like he is in competition with his instrumental accompaniment - from the E Street Band - is on "My Lucky Day," which is also one of the more energetic songs. The problem with the music on the album is that it seems familiar and track to track there is little differentiation in the sound of the songs. "My Lucky Day" blends into Working On A Dream and into "Queen Of The Supermarket;" they all have different tunes, but they utilize essentially the same combinations of guitars, bass, keyboards and drums in such similar ways that the songs blend together. On the last half of the album, before "The Wrestler," the songs are so indistinct that after two dozen listens, looking at the titles and lyrics in the liner, I still couldn't pick out a melody to any of the songs!

What makes the album Working On A Dream such a borderline album ultimately are the lyrics. Bruce Springsteen is a great writer, but on this album, he beefs up an already short running time through sheer repetition of lines. "Surprise, Surprise" has the title word repeated an agonizing forty-two times over the course of the brief, uncomplicated song! The title track is a little ditty which repeats its title at least twenty times over the course of the three and a half minute song. One song with such repetition would be one thing, two would be another, but with virtually every track having the same style of lyrically-repetitive arrangements, the album soon becomes problematic and unfortunately dull.

What ultimately got me to make the narrow recommend for Working On A Dream was the lyrics, though. On "Queen Of The Supermarket," Springsteen paints such a picture of unadulterated reality with lines like "With my shopping cart I move through the heart / Of a sea of fools so blissfully unaware / That they're in the presence of something wonderful and rare / The way she moves behind the counter / Beneath her white apron her secrets remain hers / As she bags the groceries, her eyes so bored / And sure she is unobserved." Springsteen is a poet and he makes magical the common on his songs.

And even on the brief "Good Eye," Springsteen manages to do something that few artists even attempt these days. Coming out of the 1930s and 1960s, there were a plethora of folk songs that have since become almost universally-known, but there are few artists who seem to want to try to add to that tradition to create something that can so effectively endure as "If I Had A Hammer," "Blowin' In The Wind," or even "Puff The Magic Dragon." Springsteen gives it a fair stab with "Good Eye," though, with its memorable, simple rhymes "I was standing by the river where the cold black water run / I had my good eye to the dark and my blind eye to the sun / I had all earthly riches I had each and every one . . . But I had my good eye to the dark and my blind eye to the sun." That song has a very classic folk-rock sound and sensibility to it and it is easy to envision kids in twenty years sitting around campfires singing it.

But those who have loved at least one other Bruce Springsteen album are unlikely to find much on Working On A Dream that sounds or feels different from what they have already heard. This is unfortunate and if Springsteen had taken longer and made another album like Magic, we would have said it was worth the wait. As it was, this album seems more like a Super Bowl halftime stunt.

The best song is "Queen Of The Supermarket," the low point is the terribly repetitive "Surprise, Surprise."

For other works by Bruce Springsteen, please check out my reviews of:
Born In The U.S.A.
Greatest Hits
The Ghost Of Tom Joad
Live In New York
The Rising
Devils & Dust
We Shall Overcome - The Seeger Sessions
Magic

6.5/10

For other music reviews, please check out my Music Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2013, 2009 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Bruce Springsteen Becomes The Folk-Rock Badass With We Shall Overcome - The Seeger Sessions (Sort Of)!

The Good: Some good vocals and interesting interpretations of folk standards
The Bad: Some tracks are simply unimaginative
The Basics: In a razor decision, there was not enough novelty, originality or substance to allow me to recommend Bruce Springsteen's covers of old folk-rock standards.


Despite what some around here might think, I do have the ability to learn! For example, I've learned, following the reaction to not particularly enjoying the Bruce Springsteen albums The Ghost Of Tom Joad or Devils & Dust that any critique of the works of Bruce Springsteen that results in a "Not Recommend" yields a backlash from loyal fans of the singer. With his post-Devils & Dust We Shall Overcome - The Seeger Sessions, I found myself in a position where I was once again evaluating a Springsteen disc that just didn't grab me.

First, my story: I was raised by a man who was a huge fan of Pete Seeger, Arlo Guthrie and other folk artists like Joan Baez and Peter, Paul and Mary. My earliest repressed memories (I swear, I'm working to repress them!) involve being taken to folk rock concerts like Seeger and Guthrie. In all seriousness, I like folk-rock music - Dar Williams is probably my favorite current folk-rock artist - and I've heard quite a lot of it, whether I've liked it or not. I'm fine with Pete Seeger, despite the fact that as a kid I probably would rather have gone to concerts with other artists performing. I mention this because with "We Shall Overcome," Bruce Springsteen puts his own spin on traditional folk-rock songs that Pete Seeger and other folk artists have been performing for decades.

With thirteen tracks clocking in at just over an hour in music, this DualDisc remakes Bruce Springsteen as a folk artist, which is not exactly the biggest stretch in the world. Springsteen performs such classics as "Old Dan Tucker," "Erie Canal," and "Pay Me My Money Down," which are wonderful folk songs that I think most kids learn growing up in America. I guess they do if they have parents who were hitting their teens in the late 60's anyway. Outside "Jesse James," "Eyes On The Prize," and "My Oklahoma Home," the authors to the songs are unknown, which gives you an idea of how old they are.

These are distinctly American folk songs and they evoke the feel of the frontier. There is a rugged quality to the vocals that works, recreating an air of wide open country and a simpler life. Springsteen is decent with the vocal performances and the disc does have the clear sound of a man who has effortlessly made the transition from rock star to folk artist. This transition is not much of a leap for those of us who have listened to Springsteen's full albums; the man is a poet and many of his songs are stories. Folk music is known for putting songs to music and having a strong sense of poetics.

This is well-illustrated on We Shall Overcome with Springsteen singing "O Mary Don't You Weep," which comforts Mary by recounting God's wrath toward Pharaoh's armies. "Jesse James" tells the story of how Robert Ford killed folk hero Jesse James, "Mrs. McGrath" sings about a man who lost his limbs at sea, "John Henry" about a man who works from early childhood on and "My Oklahoma Home" is a lament about a farm getting blown away (and still having to deal with the mortgage!). The songs often have a strong sense of tongue-in-cheek humor or irony, like the lines "You can't grow any green / If you ain't got any rain / Everything 'cept my mortgage blown away" ("My Oklahoma Home").

The nature of folk music as a storytelling medium means that songs do quite a bit that most other forms of music do not do. A lot of pop love songs, for example, are sung in the first person, expressing emotions to another; a lot of (especially early) rap is sung second person as directives or observations directed at you. Folk music, though often is characterized by telling stories with a familiarity to them. They have characters like "John Henry" who ". . . worked so hard / he broke his heart ." The song "Jesse James" glorifies Jesse James and is sung as a lament over his assassination.

The thing is, folk music - and Springsteen captures this perfectly on We Shall Overcome - often has the sound like the singer knows the character personally. On "John Henry," Springsteen sounds like he truly misses the protagonist of the song.

This does not always work to his advantage, though. On "Jesse James," there is something in the way he sings the lines "But that dirty little coward / That shot Mr. Howard / He laid poor Jesse in his grave" where he tries to evoke a genuine sense of personal injustice over the killing of Jesse James and it just comes out sounding . . . well, silly. I'm not say that a guy from New Jersey can't have a personal stake in the killing of a Western hero who was killed over a hundred years ago, but in this particular case, Springsteen just doesn't pull it off. It sounds like Springsteen is singing with almost a parody of emoting. The best analogy I can give is in movies where the soundtrack telegraphs the emotions, essentially screaming "FEEL THIS NOW!" The way Springsteen sings sometime simply sounds like "I'M FEELING THIS!"

Sadly, this is not the only problem with We Shall Overcome. Some of the lyrics are just ridiculous and unfortunately, the album begins with the worst of them. "Old Dan Tucker," which opens the album is just about as sophisticated as a nursery rhyme set to music with lines like "Old Dan Tucker was a fine old man, / Washed his face in a fryin' pan, / Combed his head with a wagon wheel, / Died with a toothache in his heel." It's silly and upbeat and while Springsteen cannot be criticized for the quality of the lyrics he didn't write, he is responsible for which songs he chose to cover and going with songs like "Old Dan Tucker" are just beneath him.

As far as the vocals go, We Shall Overcome is pretty standard Springsteen. He brings his deep, gravely voice to the album and it works for the folk songs, evoking a strong sense of a rugged persona. The album plays to Springsteen's strengths in that regard, not particularly challenging him. As a listener, it's not necessary that our favorite artists be challenged, but what I tend to want whenever I pick up a new album is . . . well, something different.

Herein lies the main problem with Springsteen's We Shall Overcome; as someone who grew up on folk standards, nothing was particularly surprising or new on this album. Sure, it's Bruce Springsteen singing folk songs, but so many of his songs bordered on folk anyway so this it not a huge deal. Springsteen does not so much reinterpret or make any of the standards his own as much as he vocally replicates what others have done in the past.

Ultimately, what brought the fairly average album down to a coin toss for the recommendation was the instrumental back-up. Springsteen, his guitar and banjo, are backed with an eighteen piece orchestra that includes more strings, an occasional brass section and some pretty kicking percussion on a lot of tracks. The result is a much richer and full sounding folk-rock experience than most of the classic folk interpretations of these standards. So while vocally Springsteen plays many of the tracks safe and true and obvious, the back-up music is pretty decent and works out well.

This is a dual-disc, which I always find weird to review. The DVD side includes the full thirteen track album, two bonus tracks, filmed versions of six of the tracks and a thirty minute documentary about the making of the album and Springsteen's thoughts on the music. It was informative and worth the one viewing, but like many people and Dual-Discs, my equipment is not sophisticated enough to get the most out of the DVD audio on the b-side of the disc. Will Springsteen fans enjoy the album? Probably, though I suspect many will miss the lyrics of Bruce Springsteen. Will general fans of folk-rock music enjoy the disc, possibly. They will probably get a kick out of the little film and hearing Springsteen talk about his appreciation for the folk standards.

Ultimately, though, this was not enough for me to recommend the disc. It's familiar and the ultimate feeling I had after listening to the disc once was "I've heard this before." After seven listens, I appreciated Bruce Springsteen's efforts, but I felt it was pretty much a novelty album. Springsteen doesn't need novelty; his own folk-rock music works just fine.

The best track is "My Oklahoma Home," the weak link is the pretty unmemorable final track, "Froggie Went A Courtin.'"

For other works by Bruce Springsteen, please check out my reviews of:
Born In The U.S.A.
Greatest Hits
The Ghost Of Tom Joad
Live In New York
The Rising
Devils & Dust
Magic

5/10

For other music reviews, please be sure to check out my Music Review Index Page!

© 2013, 2007 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Springsteen, Live Again, Surprisingly Average With Live In New York City.

The Good: Some nice reinterpretations of classic Springsteen songs, Some good lyrics, vocals and instrumentals
The Bad: Some very long, dull performances, Tragic "live" experience conceits, Replays poorly
The Basics: Live In New York City presents Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band's live recording of a fairly uninspired musical outing.


According to an article on Wikipedia about Bruce Springsteen, some years ago fans and the media were shocked to learn that Springsteen apparently uses a teleprompter at his concerts. That does not bother me, considering that Springsteen has over thirty years worth of music in his repertoire and that's an impressive arsenal by any standard. Having enjoyed Bruce Springsteen's Greatest Hits and more recently, his classic album Born In The U.S.A., I decided it was time to give the two-disc Live In New York City a couple of spins. Well, I suppose I'm about to raise the ire of the die-hard fans of Springsteen yet again. After eight listens to each of the two discs, I remain unimpressed.

Live In New York City is twenty tracks ("Born To Run" closes out the first disc and is not listed on the track listing) and over an hour and a half of music, consisting entirely of previously released (in studio versions) material. In fact, six of the twenty tracks appear on Greatest Hits. Live In New York City is not "Greatest Hits - Live," which makes this listener wonder a bit as to why. After all, when presenting live interpretations of your music, one might think the audience would be most enthralled by the best works an artist had to put forth. Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band seem to think otherwise and the resulting album is shakier than most of Springsteen's endeavors.

First off, of the live songs I recognized - eight of the twenty tracks - only one of them was a distinct reinterpretation of the original. Springsteen's version of Born In The U.S.A. on disc 2 is accompanied by a zither, is slow and wrenching without the upbeat drumming and utterly lacking in the ambiguity that allowed Ronald Reagan to co-opt the work as a patriotic anthem. No, here Born In The U.S.A. is stripped down to its lyrics (virtually) alone, with minimal accompaniment and it is a powerful ballad, with little pretense of anything other than chronicling the decay of the United States of America. This truly is a reinterpretation, a reinvention of the song and it works wonderfully.

However, it is more or less unique on the albums. While "The River" starts with a slower tempo than the studio version, it soon picks up and sounds mostly like the original. Similarly, "Youngstown," "Murder Incorporated," and "Born To Run" are following so closely in line with the original versions that they do not add anything to the previous recordings. I enjoyed the live rendition of "Atlantic City," even though it basically sounded like an acoustic version of the original.

Here's my thing about live albums in general: live albums often seem like a way to milk die hard fans for a few extra bucks to me. Most of them do not offer anything genuinely new and instead they take established songs and present them with pretentious "live" audience noises and a lack of production that somehow justifies them to the fans. This is a critique that has dominated other live albums like Green Day's Bullet In A Bible (reviewed here!) and Sarah McLachlan's Mirrorball. In fact, one of the few live albums in my collection that gets decent attention from me is Heather Nova's Wonderlust (reviewed here!), in part because Nova does an amazing and inspired cover of Bruce Springsteen's "I'm On Fire" which is unique to that album.

I mention this because my rating is essentially a gimmie for Live In New York City based mainly on the fact that I've been relistening to disc one repeatedly for the last few hours. Disc two, while it contains the worthwhile Born In The U.S.A. is also the home to a long, terrible extended track called "Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out." This track has Springsteen going on a weird rant that culminates in him introducing the E-Street Band and it perfectly exposes the limitations of a live album.

Live albums often try to capture the energy and enthusiasm of a crowd, a set or an experience that most people were simply not a part of by virtue of not being in a certain place and time. So, while Springsteen may have been so moved by the crowd to declare the event a "Rock and roll exorcism / . . . a rock and roll baptism . . . / a rock and roll bar mitzvah . . ." ("Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out") this recording just seems weak when Springsteen calls these things out and it certainly does not hold up over multiple listens. As Springsteen introduces the members of the E Street Band, I thought - the first time - that was nice and very cool of the superstar. By the third listen, it just became a waste of space and time. A live recording is not the same as a live event and the pretenses and perceptions between being in an auditorium or amphitheater or club versus the experience of listening to music at home or in a car are vastly different. The second disc of Live In New York City may well capture the reality of the moment, but it does nothing to create an interesting or compelling auditory experience for those who are exclusively listeners to the album.

This ranges from the annoying (as on "Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out") to the absurd, as Springsteen curtly declares "We need some quiet" on the beginning of "American Skin (41 Shots)". The funny thing is with a decent system, the listener can hear that the crowd does not quiet down fully and the song goes ahead anyway. Disc one is devoid of most of the conceits of a live album, save the dutiful noises of the crowd responding to the songs, a conceit that seems sillier with each listen. There is a fresh enough sound to the songs to distinguish them as live, without the noise of the audience.

That said, Live From New York City does manage to present some of the strengths of Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band. While the album may not be terribly original, some of the songs are some of Springsteen's best written works. So, for example, "Atlantic City" contains some wonderful poetry as Springsteen sings "Everything dies baby that's a fact / But maybe everything that dies someday comes back . . ."

Moreover, Springsteen sings very well. Unlike those who argue about Bob Dylan as a great songwriter vs. singer/performer, Bruce Springsteen seems indisputably a decent performer who can sing and who generally rocks. Springsteen may stay within his range on Live From New York City, but he is a master of it.

The E Street Band is a very competent combination of instrumentalists and vocalists who do a wonderful job of presenting Springsteen's music. Unlike so many bands that focus on either guitar/bass/drums or piano, the E Street Band combines several guitars, organs, pianos, bass, and drums to create a very rich and complete sound. Almost all of the songs on Live In New York City contain the full band and a very well orchestrated sound. In fact, the fact that most of the band sits out "American Skin (41 Shots)" adds to its poignancy and punch.

All in all, though, the weaknesses of the second disc, combined with the lack of originality on the first disc are not enough to sell this album to anyone but the die hard fans. Bruce Springsteen's presentation is not so extraordinary that this live recording holds up over multiple listens for the average listener. Moreover, it's not enough to get a newbie into Springsteen's other albums (whereas listening to his Greatest Hits might).

The best tracks are "Atlantic City" (disc 1) and "American Skin (41 Shots)" and “Born In The U.S.A.” (disc 2) and the weak tracks are "Mansion On The Hill" (disc 1) and everything else on disc 2.

For other works by Bruce Springsteen, please check out my reviews of:
Born In The U.S.A.
Greatest Hits
The Ghost Of Tom Joad
The Rising
Devils & Dust
Magic

5/10

For other music reviews, please check out my Music Review Index Page for an organized listing of my music reviews!

© 2013, 2007 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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You've Seen The Image, But Have You Heard Born In The U.S.A.?

The Good: A decent mix of rock and roll and pop, Some wonderful lyrics, Good voice
The Bad: Some very lame lyrics, Remarkably derivative sounds
The Basics: Bruce Springsteen creates a seminal rock album about urban decay and consequences of loneliness and loss with Born In The U.S.A.


Recently, I've been listening to a great deal of Bruce Springsteen's music, though most of it has been his newer works. I praised his middle-of-the-road endeavor The Rising and panned The Ghost Of Tom Joad. After being utterly unimpressed by his album Devils & Dust, I decided it was time to go back to the source. No, I didn't head for Springsteen's debut or his popular "Born To Run," I went for his iconic Born In The U.S.A. Anyone who lived through the '80s can pick the cover to Born In The U.S.A. out easily; it's the one with Bruce Springsteen's jean-clad butt in front of the American flag. You know, the one with the red baseball cap in his back pocket. If you didn't live through the 80s, it's an iconic image of the decade. Seriously.

With twelve tracks clocking in at just under 47 minutes, Born In The U.S.A. is Bruce Springsteen's best-selling album to date having spawned hit songs Born In The U.S.A., "I'm On Fire," "Glory Days," and "Dancing In The Dark." Those just tuning in might know "No Surrender" from the campaign John Kerry ran for president; if only had heeded it's message and not ceded so quickly on Ohio . . . Sigh.

Bruce Springsteen is a rock and roll star and Born In The U.S.A. is a strong rock and roll showing that easily rivals other albums of the time to define what the sound of the decade was. Unlike outings like Huey Lewis and the News's album Sports (reviewed here!), which harkened back to the doo-wop sound, Springsteen creates a sound reminiscent of Elvis Presley meets Johnny Cash. "I'm Goin' Down" sounds like it could have been a lost Elvis track the way Springsteen presents it with his gravely voice and articulate wailings. Similarly, "Working On The Highway" is even accompanied in such a way that makes the listener think of Elvis. I wish there were a Johnny Cash cover of "I'm On Fire," as I suspect it would sound phenomenal from him, so intriguing is the song and so like a Cash song.

Ironically, the title track, co-opted by Ronald Reagan as a patriotic anthem, “Born In The U.S.A.” (the single) is indicative of a pretty dodgy album in terms of themes. Born In The U.S.A. (the album) is mostly about decay, aging and loneliness. “Born In The U.S.A.” (the single) is about a troublemaker sent off to war who comes home and finds limited economic opportunity ("Got in a little hometown jam so they put a rifle in my hand / Sent me off to a foreign land to go and kill the yellow man / . . . Come back home to the refinery / Hiring man says 'son if it was up to me' / Went down to see my V.A. man / He said 'son don't you understand now'"). Far from patriotic, it decries the way veterans are treated and the unfortunate reality that the government uses its undesirables for combat as opposed to developing programs to allow them to reform and grow.

Following on the heels of such a strong rock anthem is the surprisingly poppy "Cover Me," a singsongy track about a person who wants to hide from the world. Unlike most of the album, "Cover Me" resorts to some of the most unfortunate and simple rhymes out there (both today and back in the early 80s when the album was released. Hearing Springsteen eke out rhymes like tougher/rougher, score/more, and door/more as well as rhyming "us" with itself made me cringe. This made me cringe because Springsteen closes the album with the brilliantly folk-like "My Hometown," which tells a story of urban decay and conflict with complex lines like, "In '65 tension was running high, at my high school / There was (sic) a lot of fights between the black and white / There was nothing you r could do / Two cars at a light on a Saturday night, in the back seat there was a gun / Words were passed, in a shotgun blast / Troubled times had come to my hometown . . ." It's not simple and Springsteen is not simplistic.

Springsteen is very much an artist, though. Born In The U.S.A. was entirely written by Springsteen (lyrics and music) and he co-produced the album as well. Interestingly, he also holds the copyright, something almost unheard of in this age of corporate contracts. He plays guitar, but is backed by the E Street Band on this album. They are a great combination of guitars, pianos, keyboards, drums, bass, saxophone and organs. They provide a solidly rock and roll foundation for Springsteen.

What impresses me about Born In The U.S.A. today is how the album was praised as an innocuous album and co-opted by Reagan for its title track. "Darlington County" is a song about two guys who just got their paycheck and solicit a couple of girls, "Working On The Highway" is a lament about laboring for the state and "Downbound Train" has a protagonist who is laid off! Even the sultry, "I'm On Fire" has a tentative, very lonely quality to it.

Perhaps the masses just liked the sound. It's an easy album to like the sound of, if you don't listen to the lyrics. Springsteen has a great baritone voice that is clear, but easy to get lost in. The combination of instruments backing his voice creates a very rich sound, especially by today's standards.

And that's not to criticize the lyrics, they are wonderful. Springsteen is a poet with some of the best musical stories, rivaling even Dylan on Born In The U.S.A. When he sings, "Hey little girl is your daddy home / Did he go away and leave you all alone / I got a bad desire / I'm on fire" ("I'm On Fire"), I still get chills. But thematically, Born In The U.S.A. is about decay and collapse.

Only Springsteen could make that sound real good. On Born In The U.S.A. he does.

The best track is "I'm On Fire," the low point is "Cover Me."

For other works by Bruce Springsteen, please check out my reviews of:
Greatest Hits
The Ghost Of Tom Joad
The Rising
Devils & Dust
Magic

9/10

For an organized listing of all the albums I have reviewed, please check out my Music Review Index Page!

© 2013, 2007 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Not All The Greatest Hits, But A Nice Collection of Springsteen Regardless

The Good: Decent songs, voice, lyrics, Liner notes
The Bad: Where is "I'm On Fire?!"
The Basics: In a good collection of Bruce Springsteen's works, the listener is treated to tracks, new and old that are legitimate hits or interesting stories that never succeeded on the charts.


Having recently started a pretty intensive study of Bruce Springsteen's more recent works like Devils & Dust and The Rising, I was eager to go back and see what made Springsteen a legendary singer-songwriter. In the search for earlier works, I came across Greatest Hits, the Bruce Springsteen album released in 1995 and I was surprised enough that it was only one disc (there is an album called The Essential Bruce Springsteen that is a 2 - or 3, if you can find it - disc set). I was even more surprised to discover that this album (nor the extensive follow up) have Springsteen's masterful track "I'm On Fire," which charted as high on the Billboard 200 as "My Hometown."

Regardless, Greatest Hits is an impressive collection of 18 tracks, clocking in at over 76 minutes worth of music. For the record, before listening to this album repeatedly, I only knew seven of the tracks and I remember seeing comedian Robert Wuhl (best known for Arli$$) do a rendition of "Born To Run" in one of his routines. I mention this because I'm not a scholar of Springsteen in terms of knowing the background of all of these songs, so my listen is very much a layman's opinion and fundamentally what reviewers are good for; anyone can sell a Springsteen album to a Springsteen fan. If you're not (at least not in name) this review might be worthwhile to you.

Bruce Springsteen is an American rock and roll artist, a singer-songwriter possibly best known for his songs "Dancing In The Dark" and "Born In The U.S.A." and, more recently "Streets of Philadelphia" and "Secret Garden." Springsteen is often accompanied by the E-Street Band and his sound is generally a gravelly voiced, man with a guitar style rock and roll. Honestly, is early tracks on this album - "Born To Run," "The River" - sound like Elvis Presley. "Atlantic City" sounds like it could have been Bono doing backing vocals.

For the most part, Springsteen has a distinctive style that combines the storytelling nature of folk music with the guitars, drums - and occasionally synths - of rock and roll. Quite astonishingly, "Dancing In The Dark," which is listed as his big smash stalled at #2. It's interesting when one thinks of an artist as accomplished as Springsteen never having a number one. It makes one cry when one thinks how a tool like Britney Spears has had . . . . how many? Anyway, on Greatest Hits Springsteen reveals himself as an artist who is solidly rock and roll, but with lyrics well above the curve and vocal abilities that are natural and impressive for their lack of production.

On the topic of the vocals, Bruce Springsteen reveals himself to be a talent of significant range in his vocals. Most of the vocals are safely baritone and he has a wonderful voice. On some of the tracks, he ventures into the tenor range, like his highest notes of "My Hometown." For the most part, he is a mid-range vocalist who alternatively mumbles and articulates his way through songs of terrific lyrical range.

Springsteen's lyrics are often little stories that he sings. He has decent thematic range among his Greatest Hits. His songs tell stories of growing up and starting a family ("The River"), longing and desire ("Hungry Heart"), economic depression and blue collar issues ("My Hometown"), reminiscing ("Glory Days") and love ("Secret Garden"). Some of his more eclectic works muse on dying ("Streets of Philadelphia") and reliance on guns for security ("Murder Incorporated"). This is a good thematic mix that is bold and diverse and the common threat that binds them is that all songs were written and sung by Bruce Springsteen.

And he is a talented, expressive poet. So, for example, one of his lesser known Greatest Hits is a ballad of uncertainty in his relationships. When he sings "I heard somebody call your name / From underneath our willow / I saw something tucked in shame / Underneath your pillow / Well I've tried so hard baby / But I just can't see / What a woman like you / Is doing with me / So tell me who I see / When I look in your eyes . . ." ("Brilliant Disguise"). Springsteen is able to capture essential human emotions and he does it with a remarkably precise sense of poetics and metric rhythm.

And when Springsteen tells stories, he does it quite well. It's surprising how well he develops his imagery with an economy of words. The opening to "Thunder Road" is so perfectly evocative with lines like "The screen door slams / Mary's dress waves / Like a vision she dances across the porch / As the radio plays / Roy Orbison singing for the lonely / Hey that's me and I want you only . . ." he creates a very precise sense of place and time that any listener can easily conjure in their mind.

For a Greatest Hits album, I'm surprised by how few of the songs endure on mainstream radio. For example, while I was subjected last year to sixteen hours a day of a classic rock and roll station, they never played any of Springsteen's works. As an artist whose songs have been, like John Mellencamp's, the politically vocal sound of rock and roll capturing the working class struggle, it's a surprise the songs are not played more on mainstream and classic rock stations.

As for the idea of this album as a collection of greatest hits, it's certainly a wonderful primer to the music of Bruce Springsteen. There are instantly recognizable hits, there are songs those of us who listen to more pop-rock than modern rock may not have heard. But overall, Bruce Springsteen's Greatest Hits is a solid collection of decent songs. It's funny because when I just wrote the name John Mellencamp, I was reminded of his album Words and Music (reviewed here!) which struck me as a more solid and memorable outing. That album is more consistently great and recognizable track to track. Springsteen's Greatest Hits had a bit more in the way of peaks and valleys than that, I think. That is, to cite examples, an easily recognizable legitimately great track like "Glory Days" is followed by the virtually unknown - but decent - "Brilliant Disguise" and "Streets of Philadelphia" is preceded by "Better Days," which did not chart on the Hot 100.

That's not to say it's a bad album, it's just a little more inconsistent than some other Greatest Hits compilations from similar artists. It's a great album for anyone who likes rock and roll. It's actually decent for fans of folk music, as well, as Springsteen's writing style is distinct, deliberate and often tells stories.

The best track is "Streets of Philadelphia," the weak link is "Blood Brothers."

For other works by Bruce Springsteen, please check out my reviews of:
The Ghost Of Tom Joad
The Rising
Devils & Dust
Magic

7/10

For other music reviews, please check out my Music Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2013, 2007 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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