Bruce Springsteen: The River - 1980
Having mentioned the album's "filler", however, just listen to the unbridled energy and commitment that those "filler" tracks, like Crush On You, You Can Look (But You Better Not Touch) or I'm A Rocker are given and you realise that there is "filler" and there is "Springsteen filler". Check out the sax on the former or the fairground organ on the latter for starters.
I remember buying this album on the day of release while studying in Canterbury, in October 1980, full of excitement. It didn't let me down simply because of the sheer wealth of material on the album. This was Springsteen's London Calling. Looking at it in retrospect, though, it is certainly inferior to the three albums that came before it, for me. Indeed Springsteen dismissed the afore-mentioned first, single album version of the album saying that its songs lacked "unity and conceptual intensity". So - he then went and put out a sprawling double album!
As someone who has lived with Springsteen’s music since 1978 and has been lucky enough to see him live on eighteen occasions, I have to say that I have always had a big problem with the sound on this album. This latest remaster, by the vastly experienced Bob Ludwig, does the job as best as he can, and it certainly sounds as good as it has ever done. However, no amount of remastering will repair the tinny, treble-heavy sound that the original recording had. Bob Ludwig’s work thankfully realises that Garry Tallent played bass on this album and finally we are allowed to hear him, particularly on the slower, bassier tracks like Point Blank, The River, I Wanna Marry You, Independence Day and Fade Away. As I said, this is the best I have heard the album so far, easily. It makes it a better listen by far but it still doesn’t paper over all the cracks. Springsteen, never the master of the studio in my opinion, intended to capture a sixties jangly guitar/AM radio sound on many of the tracks, so fair enough, but the original recording’s production did leave a lot to be desired. Nevertheless, I still love so many of the songs.Here we go, then, on account of the economy.....
The upbeat, jangly rock of the Searchers-influenced The Ties that Bind kicked the album off in lively fashion, setting the tone for what would contain lots of carefree, vibrant and somewhat tinny rock songs. Max Weinberg's drumming lays the album's foundations too.
Some false crowd noises introduce the sax-laden, fairground fun of Sherry Darling, a song that finds Bruce griping about his girlfriend's omnipresent mother. Clarence Clemons contributes a notable piece of good-time saxophone. It's a track I have always loved, for its summery joie de vivre, as much as anything else. I bought the single at the time, despite having the album, due to the attractive presence of the non-album (and excellent) 'b' side, Be True.Some of the previous album's dark themes are present on the grinding, bleak rocker, Jackson Cage. Despite its pace and aural attack, this ain't no good time song, sir. The first of several short, comparatively throwaway rockers, with love-based lyrics as opposed to anything more dark and despairing. Two Hearts doesn't require any more analysis than that.
Independence Day was the album's first big, emotional slower number, a melodious organ introducing Bruce's anguished goodbye to his father as he prepares to leave home, the conflicts between them just to regular to stand anymore, despite his inner love and respect for the older, world-weary man.
Hungry Heart was a first big hit single for Bruce, the first signs of his moving from being a cult artist to generating some mainstream followers. I wasn't happy with that at all. Neither have I ever been a particular fan of the song, for some reason, in spite of its shimmering, Spectoresque sound. I always preferred the romantic rocker Out In The Street to Hungry Heart, possibly because of its trademark Clemons saxophone solo but also its proclamation of positivity in when I'm out on the street I am where I want to be, free of all those irritatingly worldly concerns such as jobs, relationships and responsibility.Crush On You was a pleasant enough but dispensable and lyrically unimpressive (ooh, ooh I got a crush on you..") rocker enhanced by another fine piece of mid-song sax. Songs like this while rousing enough, were not good for proving my case to people that Springsteen was a genius of a songwriter. The upbeat rock continued on the mildly amusing You Can Look (But You Better Not Touch). The pace doesn't let up and, although songs like this and its predecessor were quite ordinary, in many ways, one cannot help but admire the verve, enthusiasm and commitment with which Springsteen delivers them. He always gave his all, didn't he?
I Wanna Marry You is more my kind of thing. The Drifters meet Mink De Ville and hook up with Bruce and the band (in my mind) to give us this sax-powered and very romantic beauty of a song. Bruce sets his cap to winning over a rundown single mother he has his eye on in an impressive show of loyal steadfastness as opposed to jack-the-laddery. It's a proper love song, in my eyes.
The River is one of Bruce's perennial crowd favourites. Again, like Hungry Heart, perversely, I have never particularly gone for it. Mind you, it is chock full of typical Bruce imagery as he muses on the pitfalls of marrying far too early. Best wait a while and take up with that single mum, Bruce.
Point Blank is not an instantly appealing song, but it is possibly one of the album's best - a brooding, sombre piano-based ballad that shows up those disposable rockers for what they are. If The River was a single album, this would be one of my cornerstones. As so often with Springsteen, it is a song that carries very little hope for its downtrodden protagonists.
Cadillac Ranch is a lightweight, fun song but one I dearly love, from Max Weinberg's drum intro to Bruce's singalong guitar riff and Clarence's blaring solo it is highly enjoyable from beginning to end and makes a great live song too. Oh, and my wife loves it. No, she seriously loves it, whooping with delight and bouncing around like a teenager when Max Weinberg hit those introductory drums at one of our many Springsteen gigs. Rotterdam, I think it was.I'm A Rocker is possibly the worst of the album's meaningless songs. Dominated by tinny keyboard riffs it doesn't do much for me, really. Considering just how many songs of serious quality Springsteen left off the album, its presence is definitely questionable. The ballad equivalent of I'm A Rocker, Fade Away is redeemed by some nice organ from Danny Federici and some mournful lyrics. Unremarkable otherwise.
An archetypal Springsteen song of hopelessness, Stolen Car has a much better alternative version on the Tracks box set, one that uses far more piano and has an extra verse. This version is too short and too murky.
Along with Cadillac Ranch, Ramrod is my favourite River rocker - a fairground ride of joy embellished by the swirling keyboards and unsurprisingly powerful saxophone. This was good-time E St. music at its best.
The Price You Pay is another of the album's finest tracks, if not the finest. Utilising Bruce's penchant for Biblical analogy and imagery it warns us over a mid-pace and attractive rock backing that that there's a price to pay for everything. I love it. Incidentally, Emmylou Harris did a great cover of it in 1981.
Drive All Night is a leviathan of a track that was my initial favourite on first hearing the album, however, time has tempered that a bit. I love the slow, dramatic build up of the song and the line "I'd drive all night just to buy you some shoes". Bruce can turn the most humdrum line into the biggest romantic statement. I accept that the song is probably two minutes too long, though.The album ends on a totally miserable note with the tragic tale of a fatal car accident, Wreck On the Highway. Springsteen takes this popular early sixties song theme to sombre new depths. It is not a listenable song at all.
In conclusion, maybe this wasn't such a good time album after all, there is still a now trademark darkness running through it. It is those tracks that re-summon the spirit of Darkness On The Edge Of Town that are the unspoken cornerstones of this apparently high-spirited album - Point Blank, The Price You Pay, Stolen Car, Independence Day and the rocking bleakness of Jackson Cage. Also, one listen to the “rejects” from these sessions to be found on the Tracks box set makes one question Springsteen’s song choices. There again, he’s “The Boss”, so he gets away with it. It's up to him what he puts on there, but, like Dylan, some decisions raise eyebrows.
Funnily enough, Bruce on the tour in 1980-81 looked different to how he does on this cover – he had combed his hair back and grown sideburns in a sort of Joe Strummer-ish vaguely rockabilly-influenced look.
