Gary "US" Bonds: On The Line - 1982
To be honest, despite the presence of seven Springsteen compositions and one Steve Van Zandt track, this is a bit of a patchy, underwhelming album. However, a recent listen to it found me re-appreciating it, so there you go. It is full of enthusiastic, uplifting Asbury Parkery - you know - saxophones, wall-of-sound backing, soulful vocals etc etc. As a confirmed boardwalker, I can hardly reject that now, can I? The album certainly resonates with me as a nostalgic 1982 period piece, as I played it a lot back then. I remain very familiar with many of the songs.
The previous album, Dedication, is the better one, I have to say. The standout tracks are Out Of Work, the soulful Club Soul City, the uplifting, muscular soul cover of The Box Tops' Soul Deep and the fairground rock of Angelyne. Springsteen's Rendezvous is competent enough, but was done better by him, performed live on his Tracks box set. I have to say also that when Bonds sings with such commitment on Out Of Work, he comes over as possibly far more convincing than the song's composer - Springsteen - would have done. Bonds was, of course, a journeyman fallen on hard times. He would have lived the lyrics, for sure. He had run those hard yards. Club Soul City would seem to have been tailor-made for Bonds too. Springsteen possibly wrote both of those with Bonds specifically in mind. Furthermore, just how suitable was Soul Deep for Bonds? 100%, that's how much.
The opener, Hold On (To What You Got) is ok, as is Van Zandt's archetypal heartbreaker, Last Time. However All I Need and Love's On The Line are certainly nothing special. The latter is much the best of these four.
Turn The Music Down is a bit of an embarrassment, it has to be said. Unsurprisingly, perhaps, it wasn't written by Springsteen, being one of Bonds' own songs. Gary's Bring Her Back isn't great either. One can't help but feel, however, that most of the tracks are a bunch of Springsteen rejected songs. Those are the superior tracks on the album, though.
There were to be no more albums, either, so the venture had run its course. That said, though, there are cast-offs and there are Springsteen cast-offs. There is a difference.
