Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band "Live 1975-85" (1986)

This box contains 5 LPs, and me and my brother bought it together for our mom at Christmas, the year of the release. It was a serious and expensive Christmas gift, I was only 14 years old, my brother five years older, and neither of us had a lot of money. But we knew our mom liked Springsteen, so together we managed to cough up enough money. It felt good to be able to give something so colossal as a gift. I had just passed the age when the presents one gave were 10-minute drawings, or "beautiful" handicraft done in schools's art class.

The box contains more than 3.5 hours of music, and although our mom liked Springsteen, I realize now that the passion might not have been so strong that she would listen for 3.5 hours of him very often (she only had Born In The USA, so she was no fanatic). But this means that the albums today are in top condition, NM (Near Mint), as it's usually called in vinyl circles, as they probably only have been played a few times. Like some other albums in the collection, this was saved when my parents were to get rid of their entire collection. I couldn't let such an item be lost.

For a Springsteen fan this box is a must in the record collection, I suppose. Many fans had long been waiting for a live album from the Boss, and when it finally came, it delivered, both in quality and quantity. There are songs from all of his career, up to 1986 of course, the sound quality is great, and there's a clear live feel. Three songs were previously unreleased - Seeds, Because Of The Night and Fire. It beat the record of pre-orders in terms of worth of dollars, and it went straight to Billboard's number one.

Personally, I'm not a big Springsteen fan, although many songs are qualitative, and his lyrics are often well written, his straight rock n'roll - bar rock, as it's often called - is not my thing. Lots of guitar, saxophone and powerful singing, it's often loud and uptempo. However, I like his calmer and darker side that sometimes appears, such as songs from the Nebraska album, or I'm On Fire, another old favorite just like The River. In songs like these, the sadness, melancholy or nostalgia that is found in the lyrics, really moves me. Sometimes I'm almost brought to tears when I read the words as I recognize the feelings.

As it often was at this time, there is a pamphlet in the box informing the buyer of other records that one could also purchase. I think these were adapted a little bit to the album, to maximize the outcome (a rock n'roll album's accompanying sheet should primarily display other rock n'roll albums). The pamphlet in this box featured names like Steve Tibbetts, Keith Jarrett, Jan Garbarek, Pat Metheny and other similar artists. Almost as far from the Boss you as you can come. A little odd.

In summary, a good overview of Springsteen's career, up to 1986, and although I'm not really in the target group, I'm still glad I've got it. First of all, it's fun to have a box of five LPs, but also for the calmer parts on the albums that I think are beautiful.


Tracklist

Side A
1 Thunder Road 5:41
2 Adam Raised A Cain 5:25
3 Spirit In The Night 6:22
4 4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy) 6:29

Side B
1 Paradise By The "C" 3:34
2 Fire 3:12
3 Growin' Up 7:57
4 It's Hard To Be A Saint In The City 4:37

Side C
1 Backstreet 7:27
2 Rosalita (Come Out Tonight) 9:59
3 Raise Your Hand 5:10

Side D
1 Hungry Heart 4:28
2 Two Hearts 3:05
3 Cadillac Ranch 4:50
4 You Can Look (But You Better Not Touch) 3:51
5 Independence Day 5:09

Side E
1 Badlands 5:15
2 Because The Night 5:18
3 Candy's Room 3:09
4 Darkness On The Edge Of Town 4:28
5 Racing In The Street 8:13

Side F
1 This Land Is Your Land 4:17
2 Nebraska 4:16
3 Johnny 99 4:21
4 Reason To Believe 5:15

Side G
1 Born In The U.S.A. 6:07
2 Seeds 5:13
3 The River 11:37

Side H
1 War 4:51
2 Darlington County 5:12
3 Working On The Highway 3:59
4 The Promised Land 5:32

Side I
1 Cover Me 6:58
2 I'm On Fire 4:23
3 Bobby Jean 4:27
4 My Hometown 5:08

Side J
1 Born To Run 5:02
2 No Surrender 4:42
3 Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out 4:18
4 Jersey Girl 6:31

Bruce Springsteen – ”Born In The U.S.A.” (1984)

I was 12 years old when this album was released, and just like many others, I thought the title song was about how proud Springsteen was to be born in the USA. A patriotic song in true American spirit. I was fascinated by Bruce's voice, which was the roughest voice I had ever heard, it felt more like screaming or bawling. This was new to me, at the age of 12 I had no idea who Springsteen was. Honestly, I didn’t really like what I heard, there was better stuff being played on the radio. But Springsteen undeniable made an impression on me, I thought his voice was totally crazy.

This is a record I saved from my parents' LP collection a few years ago, where it rested in the attic headed for the trash. Although I am not a big Springsteen fan I couldn’t let the album be thrown away.

Born In The USA was Springsteen's seventh album, but fact is most of the album was recorded already a few years earlier, at the time of the recording of the more dark and acoustic Nebraska. On Born In The USA Springsteen's music takes a more commercial road and it became 1985's best-selling album in the U.S., and Springsteen's best-selling album ever. Springsteen also managed to get seven singles from the album on to America's top 10 list, an almost unique achievement (only Michael Jackson and Janet Jackson makes him company in this). During his career Springsteen's had twelve top 10 singles altogether, more than half of them from Born In The USA. And if you like statistics it can be mentioned that its 84 weeks in a row on the top 10 list is the world record, and that it is 3rd in the contest concerning the total number of weeks in the top -10.

 

Despite all these confirmations of the album’s greatness, it’s not entirely to my taste. I can’t deny that it's pretty good songs, accessible and with their own characters. But straightforward rock n' roll of this kind is simply not my thing. Personal favorite on the album is undoubtedly the calmer and darker Fire. However, I’m happy to have saved the album from death in the trsh, I'd rather see the record in my collection than burned up and recycled as energy in my radiators.

It may be added that the title song is not the patriotic song I thought as a child, supposedly it’s about the Vietnam War’s impact on the United States and the country's lack of ability to take care of the veterans of this war. Although the Reagan administration misunderstood the song at first, and wanted to use it in their election campaign.

Tracklist

Side A

1. Born in the U.S.A. – 4:39
2. Cover Me – 3:27
3. Darlington County – 4:48
4. Working on the Highway – 3:11
5. Downbound Train – 3:35
6. I'm on Fire – 2:37

Side B

1. No Surrender – 4:00
2. Bobby Jean – 3:46
3. I'm Goin' Down – 3:29
4. Glory Days – 4:15
5. Dancing in the Dark – 4:00
6. My Hometown – 4:34