Thoughts?

I've read alot about his stuff before Born In the USA that's very appealing.

you've read about them you say.

Essential listening.
The Wild, The Innocent, and The E Street Shuffle is outstanding.
Nebraska is a bleak folk masterpiece.
And Born To Run is a pretty much just a perfect rock record.

I'm going to tiptoe out on this limb and assume you aren't joking. That way, even if you are, maybe someone who might be too timid to ask about 70s Bruce can get some input.

This is my personal order of favorites from before Born in the USA (1984), which I actually owned on cassette when it came out.

»Darkness on the Edge of Town (1978).
My favorite, but that's probably more sentimental than anything else. My old man used to play this a lot on Sunday after church. Darker than the big time Springsteen stuff. Soundwise it's between Asbury Park and Born to Run, which is a nice medium for Bruce's songs. "Adam Raised a Cain" was my favorite back then, which is sorta scary for a 7 year old kid.

»Greetings from Asbury Park, NJ (1973).
Young Springsteen with natural talent and an uncontrollable urge to make a mark. It's enthusiastic without being pretentious. A songwriter's record propelled by solid rock and roll that stoutly stands between the sparseness of some-guy-in-a-motel-room and the Supreme Rock God Laser Excess. I love "Lost in the Flood". "Growin' Up", "It's Hard to be a Saint in the City" and "Blinded by the Light" are good as well.

»The River (1980).
I can't recall ever hearing the second disc of this twofer, but the first is badass, despite some shiny production. I have already have a predisposition against double albums, and since the first one is so damn good, I almost always just stop there. Also, "Sherry Darling" is just too damn fun for words.

»Born to Run (1975).
The breakthrough. The Classic. The Summer Blockbuster of Albums. Big and Loud and Anthemic. I've never thought too much about why, but I sort of need to be in a BTR mood before I'll throw it on. The title track & "Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out", however, I can listen to every single time they come on.

»The Wild, The Innocent & the E Street Shuffle (1973).
This one is sort of odd. It's not bad, but it's a couple steps away from BRUCE™. "Rosalita" is always a barnbruner, but I find Vini Lopez' drumming a distraction at times on this record.

The indiefolk favorite tends to be Nebraska (1982), which is probably why I've avoided it. I've heard a few songs, but never the album as a whole. Boo, me. Also, don't skip over Born in the USA. It sounds dated, but the songs themselves are not bad at all, with "I'm Goin' Down" hiding in there.

I think it's gonna be a BRUCE day at work now.

it is funny how Nebraska has become the acceptible "indie" intro to bruce.

Born in the USA made him an MTV superstar but he'd been a rock star with classic albums under his belt well before then.

He put out 6 studio albums before Born in the USA and all are fantastic IMO.

His first 3 albums, "Greetings from Asbury Park, NJ", "The Wild, the Innocent, and the E Street Shuffle", and "Born to Run" are Bruce at his youthful, romantic best. He still romanticizes the Jersey shore, loves his 50's rock heroes, and still makes you feel pity for the tragic heroes he sings about. These records are about everyday losers finding optimism in the face of a dead end world.

He had so much hype after Born to Run (cover of Time as rock's savior, etc) that it led to record company issues and he didn't put anything out for 3 years.

When he did his stuff still had that energy but some bitterness had crept in that culminated in Nebraska. A record that the record company initially thought was a demo. It's stark and bleak as hell but a great, protest album.

Darkness on the Edge of Town is my favorite song of this period off the record of the same name.


Needless to say, I'm a fan. You won't be dissappointed in those 1st 6 albums. They are the bedrock that made him the "Boss" well before Born in the USA.

I'd also like to add that the live Box set Live 1975-1985 with the E Street Band is beyond good.

It is absolutley essential road trip music. Almost 4 hours of amazing live material where he was always his best and how he built his rep and fan base.

The spoken intro to the River is worth the price of admission alone.

I collect most of his releases and checked out the early stuff- Before The Fame (2-CD collection)- not bad. Lots of solo acoustic performances and LIVE captures. Easy to get hooked on all his concert unplugged releases.

Heh. I thought this thread was gonna be about some unearthed recordings pre-Greetings from Asbury Park or something.

Paging Ish...

I think Born to Run and the River show him at his peak.

His earlier records have moments too and Nebraska is good, but not really an intro to what his other stuff is like since its so different. I'd think Born to Run would be the place to start. If you don't get something outta that, you may just not like the guy.

Interesting. How so?

I agree with everything that Fu said, right down to never hearing the 2nd disc of The River, and loving/finding hilarious Sherry Darling.

Although, I guess I don't agree with everything, because Adam Raised a Cain is probably my least favorite Bruce song of all time.

Good point on Born to Run, too. Some truly great songs in there, despite the 80s-centric production values.

It's all great. Springsteen is one artist that I got into chronologically by slowly emersing myself in his catalog. It is interesting to watch his growth as a songwriter and performer.

I'm not going to get into each release here, but go ahead and start at the beginning with Greetings. The first two records sound pretty lousy due to some shoddy production and horrible studio facilities, but they're great.

And when you get to Born to Run, check out the DVD thing that came with the reissue. Really tells the story of that record well.

PM me if you want some sendspace gold.

No, I honestly read about him. I've stayed very far from his stuff growing up, just cause. Then while checking out the new Killers album I noticed a heavy U2 influence.

I went to Allmusic to see what they thought about Sam's Town and along with backing my U2 theories they mentioned Flowers obsession with Springsteen, more importantly early Springsteen. Two clicks later I'm reading up on him and finding a very different person than I thought, someone who could be easily identifiable with the strong music crowd. So here I am.

How strong a presence do you think he has on modern music?

Oh, pretty big, I'd say.

If you're new to the man, the live factor is huge. That box set is crazy good, but it's pretty doctored up. Still amazing. Even the recent DVDs of the E Street's recent shows are balls good.

I, too, stayed away from the Boss until about 96, I'd say. Growing up in the midwest, I have a instinctive distrust of all things "classic rock" and have to discover it on my own.

Darkness on the Edge of Town is in my all time top ten

Yeah, I agree it's definitely Bruce's masterwork. Not to take anything away from his many critically acclaimed albums with the word "Born" in the title, but that one's my favorite.

if you can by any means find some classic Boss shows, download them. They're all fucking incredible. I have a few if you want them.

I find this surprising. I've spent a lot of time with most of Bruce's catalog, and the thing I return to the most is the 2nd side of The River. I suppose it's because I tend to enjoy the dark, desperate slow songs far more than the arena rockers and the River has a boatload of them. "Stolen Car" is my favorite Bruce song ever, possibly my favorite song period. "Wreck On The Highway," "The Price You Pay," and "Drive All Night" are all songs that rank way up there for me as well. If you do like Nebraska, you can see that these songs gave birth to those ones.

they sound pretty great to me. do you have them on CD?

greetings was my favorite for years

Don't sleep on the fact that The Wild, The Innocent has one of the truly great Springsteen songs, "Incident on 57th Street". I agree with you though on the drumming--its just too busy in places, like dude is trying to channel Keith Moon, which in a band with as much instrumentation as the E Street isnt necessary at all.

I not a big fan of Nebraska either even though I do like a few of the songs in other arrangements (mst notably "Atlantic City" and "Mansion on the Hill").

Also any of those albums (including Born In The USA) are just stupid good and I would have a hard time ranking them.

Yeah. Maybe that's the problem.

Everything I've read about those records says that they were done on the cheap in some pretty inferior rooms. I think they said they were especially disappointed by the drum sound. Some of the drum performances are also a little dodgy.

By "Born to Run," Landau got him some of the production values that they missed on the first two.

I love "Hungry Heart," but am always taken aback by how much it DOESN'T sound like Bruce singing, the same way "Lay Lady Lay" sounds NOTHING like Dylan.