Bruce Springsteen, Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. (1973-Columbia)
The Boss has made some great music but I have to say this could well be one of his best. As a debut goes it is pretty much solid. Great tunes and a really cool mix of music from all out rock to a more folk/country style. But near half the album was recorded just Bruce and a guitar and rest was the full band. But it all seems to mix in so well and that is where the Boss gets his name.
This album has sold well now but I feel many record collections may have this to complete an artist. I do the same my self, it is more an OCD sort of thing. But it really is an amazing album.
Recorded on a shoestring budget the idea of the acoustic tracks is more from having no choice as their was no budget. Here is when pressure makes someone write better.
Single "Blinded by the Light" was not a hit or even played on radio but I can see why it is a little too loose for the pop market and I mean loose in a fun way. It is a little bit of a mixed song is it country or rock. Some blues and that saxophone is digging it as well. It really is a song for all radios and I bet record shops in 1973 had no clue what section to put it in. Classic live Springsteen and a style he will use forever.
One of my favourite songs by Bruce is "Does This Bus Stop at 82nd Street?" So simple and catchy I think he wrote it more as a kids song at the start but it really does catch your imagination as all children's music should. You are living this song, a bus ride in NY in the early 70s is not much of a subject. But I feel the song is a kind of positive intro to "Lost in the Flood" and again he really can pen a tune. Amazing lyrics and his voice is so clear and concise here giving the picture of the songs contents perfectly. Back in 73 songs of Vietnam war veteran was simply not the sort of thing that would be ok in the mainstream. But he got away with it and again he crafts it into something so much bigger and better than the cheap studio ever provided.
All out rock track "Spirit in the Night" gives the listener a chance to look back at times when they were young as a very loose story of some kids goofing off and enjoying being teenagers. I think finding the right musicians was key in this album. Three of the musicians here went on to be in the E Street Band forever.
The album had a tune for everyone and I mean everyone with the inclusion of a classic ballad song in "The Angel" some old school rockers may not be into a ballad but this one has a nice auto mobile theme to it that I bet would get the presenters on Top Gear sniffing about wondering who it was.
As first albums go for me it is near perfect and I think made his career as failure needs to happen for someone to truly get it. Selling only 25,000 units in a year the record label would have been very much licking their wounds. But as bad as the labels can be they did stick by him. A rare album in my blog a second by one artist but as I say people may well have overlooked this gem and with the reissues and live tour all ongoing it is well worth a listen again.
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