Bruce Springsteen: The Wild, The Innocent & The E St. Shuffle - 1973
“Music that was filled with deep longing, a casually transcendent spirit, mature resignation, and … hope … hope for that girl, that moment, that place, that night when everything changes, life reveals itself to you, and you, in turn, are revealed" - Bruce Springsteen
For many people, myself included, this album, from 1973, is up there as one of their favourite Bruce Springsteen albums. After the somewhat half-cooked debut of 1973's Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J. This saw a bit of a shift from verbose Dylanesque semi-folky stuff to more wide-ranging influences creeping in - rock n roll, Phil Spector, Stax & Atlantic funk, Latin rhythms.
However, Bruce still looks like a cross between Al Pacino's "Serpico" and Gil Scott-Heron on the cover. I remember seeing this album as I idly leafed through albums in my local record shop as a teenager in 1974 and thinking it was a laid-back "hippy" rock album and dismissing it in favour of the pompadour-glamorous images displayed on the covers of albums by Bowie, Roxy Music and Cockney Rebel. It would be another four years before I would be entranced by it, but when that occurred, it did so, big time. I got into it after Born To Run and Darkness as my liking for Springsteen really took off.
This album featured the first line-up of the E St. Band by the way, featuring drummer Vini "Mad Dog" Lopez and keyboardist David Sancious. No Max Weinberg or Roy Bittan as yet. Consequently, the sound is not quite the E St. sound of subsequent years. Lopez's drumming has a rolling gait to it that differs a lot to Weinberg's powerful thump and Sancious's keyboards are inventive and maybe a bit lighter than Bittan's.
So, down to the boardwalk with those factory girls....
The first track, The E Street Shuffle - a bit of a cousin, once removed, to Blinded By Light - is a funky number, featuring frantic wah-wah guitar, swirling saxophone, rhythmic congas and an authentic street soul feel. It is one of those songs that is almost impossible to categorise. It's soul, it's rock, it's jazz, it's funk - whatever, it's great. It gave its name to the band too.
A classic Springsteen dramatic ballad, 4th Of July, Asbury Park (Sandy) is packed full of atmosphere, one that perfectly evokes the boardwalk summer life of Asbury Park. Its low key but melodic guitar opening sees Springsteen developing the impressive guitar style that would serve him so well over subsequent years. Danny Federici's accordion is an integral part of the track too. For me, there is also something quite sexy about the song's summery passion - "chasin' them factory girls underneath the boardwalk...". Bruce even paraphrases Shakespeare ("other Eden") with his "little Eden" line. A Shakespeare of the streets indeed.Kitty's Back is an extended piece of jazzy rock with a riff that surely Boz Scaggs "borrowed" on 1977's Lido Shuffle. Again, it starts with some searing guitar from Springsteen. For some reason, though, I've never been a huge fan of it. It probably goes on too long without really getting anywhere, not an accusation you can make of many of Springsteen's lengthy numbers.
The album's oddity is undoubtedly Wild Billy's Circus Story, a rather sad tale featuring various circus characters backed by bassist Garry Tallent playing the tuba and Bruce telling us how "elephants dance real funky". Contrary to many fans, I've always really loved it, it has a great atmosphere and superb characterisation. It ends with the line "all aboard, Nebraska's our next stop...". It wouldn't be Bruce's until 1982, though.
The old "side two" is truly magnificent, possibly the best side of music Springsteen ever recorded. Three tracks flowing into each other - firstly the street romance we find on Incident On 57th Street between "Spanish Johnny" and "Puerto Rican Jane" two of those characters that Springsteen delighted in creating in this era. Springsteen's guitar as the track ends is a joy, as indeed it is all the way through the track. The bit where the music stops and you get these lines is classic early Springsteen -"...Johnny was sittin' on the fire escape, watchin' the kids play down in the street...he called down "hey little heroes, summer's long, but I guess it ain't very sweet around here anymore...". Janey sleeps in sheets damp with sweat...Johnny sits up alone and watches her dream on, dream on...and the Sister prays for lost souls, then breaks down in the chapel after everyone's gone..." .
That is early Springsteen encapsulated in one block of verse - the heat of the summer, the forlorn hope, the false street "heroism", the hope, the dreams, all topped off with a bit of Catholicism too.
Then, as if it couldn't get any better, we get this tour de force, a frenetic, Latin-influenced stormer of a rock track that is still a concert favourite. The part where Incident... suddenly becomes Rosalita (Come Out Tonight) as the guitar kicks in is simply magical. I remember seeing him perform this on The Old Grey Whistle Test and being just blown away. All those girls rushing on stage to kiss him, his energy, the great band - this was for me, alright. Despite my enthusiasm for punk at the time this was what rock music was all about.
Finally comes the jazz-tinged epic, New York City Serenade. There is a fair case for this being the finest piece of music Springsteen ever composed. For me, this is the summery, street romanticism that serves as the very essence of Bruce Springsteen. Musically is superb - great classically-influenced keyboards from David Sancious, guitar, saxophone, backing vocals. Everything about it is perfect. It has been unfairly overlooked when any "best of" Springsteen lists are compiled.
I could make another of those fair cases for this being his best ever album, even over Born To Run or Darkness. There is a slight imperfection to its instrumentation and recordings, clunky piano pedals clearly audible at times, but there is a loose, enthusiastic, excitable energy that you could almost say was never truly caught on record again. Seven impressive and different tracks that make this a completely unique album within the Springsteen canon. It is just a pleasure from beginning to end. Give me this over bloody Born In The USA any day.
