What is so great about The River?

[LightningBolt]

I'm a huge fan of Bruce Springsteen. He's my favorite musician and it's not even close. But this is one album that I seriously can't get into. It has its fantastic songs; "Independence Day", "Hungry Heart", "The River", "Point Blank", "Drive All Night", and "Wreck on the Highway" are among his best songs. But for an album with 20 songs, I think it needs more than 6 fantastic songs to get the kind of reputation it has. What songs do you guys love that I'm just not "getting" right now? To me, while none of the songs are outright bad, I don't think too much of pretty much any other song on the album. I just can't put this album anywhere near the same level as anything he recorded up to and including Born in the U.S.A.. I've been listening to The Promise a lot over the past few days and I personally think it blows away The River as far as double albums go.

Come on, guys. What am I missing here?

[GivenToFly]

Generally the big, sprawling albums, where they try all sorts of things are my favorites by the acts I listen to, but The River is an exception. I'm not very much into it either. Cadillac Ranch is my definite favorite. I like Sherry Darling, Point Blank and I'm A Rocker, but I wouldn't say I love them. So the rockers, I suppose. To be honest I don't really listen to Springsteen albums, there's songs off each that I like.

[NightProwler]

Huge Springsteen fan here...The River is an interesting album. It's definitely one of my favourites from Springsteen...I can't put my finger on it, but it's just a fun album. The only two songs that I can say I skip are You Can Look (But Better Not Touch)...although the Tunnel of Love version of that song was superb and Crush on You. Outside of those two songs, I think the first disc is amazing. I really love, "I Wanna Marry You."

As for the second disc, it's clearly superior in songwriting and it's got a good mix between fast rockers (Cadillac Ranch, I'm a Rocker, Ramrod) and great story telling songs (Wreck on the Highway, Price you Pay, Drive all night etc).

I have it in my top 5 of Springsteen albums.

[dalsh327]

Some of "The River" have "Darkness" leftovers on it, and prob. the more upbeat songs he had left off of there, because, face it, he's really pissed off on "Darkness". He put out some more "pop" stuff that he avoided before, some things to come with "Nebraska" are on there. It's prob. the one album that prepped him for "Born in the USA", and I will say that the 1980 tour was prob. one of the best tours he's done to date. He'd just turned 30, and you hear the songs reflecting that time in his life.

[dalsh327]

My fave Springsteen song.

[LightningBolt]

Interestingly enough, that's my favorite too!

[NightProwler]

Interestingly enough, that's my favorite too!

Was lucky enough to see Lost in the Flood in Buffalo 09. Good stuff. Still chasing New York City Serenade. Such a beautiful piece of music.

[axlslash]

The River is a goddamn magnum opus. the River, Price You Pay, Crush On You, Out In The Street, I'm a Rocker, Sherry Darling, You Can Look, Drive All Night, Hungry Heart...just a classic piece of rock n roll history, the first time Bruce turned really dark and brooding, three shades darker than Darkness on the Edge of Town. Not my favorite Bruce record, but that's mostly a comment on the quality of every other record he's done. The River would be my favorite album by just about anyone other than Bruce, but he wrote Born To Run, Greetings, Darkness, The Wild The Innocent and the E Street Shuffle...goddamn I love the Boss.

[The Sandman]

Interestingly enough, that's my favorite too!

Spartacus-esque, but probably mine off that album too.

Cadillac Ranch is also great, I really like Drive All Night, Sherry Darling, Jackson Cage...

[izzygirl]

The River is a goddamn magnum opus. the River, Price You Pay, Crush On You, Out In The Street, I'm a Rocker, Sherry Darling, You Can Look, Drive All Night, Hungry Heart...just a classic piece of rock n roll history, the first time Bruce turned really dark and brooding, three shades darker than Darkness on the Edge of Town. Not my favorite Bruce record, but that's mostly a comment on the quality of every other record he's done. The River would be my favorite album by just about anyone other than Bruce, but he wrote Born To Run, Greetings, Darkness, The Wild The Innocent and the E Street Shuffle...goddamn I love the Boss.

This.

I think albums don't do him justice. His amazing live performances make every song sound much more powerful, passionate and magic on his concerts. The album version of You Can Look is not outstanding (in my opinion) but the live version is one of my favourites.

If I had to choose one song of The river (apart from The river song itself), I think it would be Out In The Street. I always loved that song and I don't know why.

[dalsh327]

The River is a goddamn magnum opus. the River, Price You Pay, Crush On You, Out In The Street, I'm a Rocker, Sherry Darling, You Can Look, Drive All Night, Hungry Heart...just a classic piece of rock n roll history, the first time Bruce turned really dark and brooding, three shades darker than Darkness on the Edge of Town. Not my favorite Bruce record, but that's mostly a comment on the quality of every other record he's done. The River would be my favorite album by just about anyone other than Bruce, but he wrote Born To Run, Greetings, Darkness, The Wild The Innocent and the E Street Shuffle...goddamn I love the Boss.

He could've made "The River" 4 albums. He had that much music left over, and that's not even counting what he had left over from "Darkness on the Edge of Town". Even when he did "Nebraska" and "Born in the USA", he had triple the amount of songs that were released, there's stuff that hadn't made it on to "Tracks".

There's something I like about the production of "The River" that I can't put my finger on, but as far as the keyboards go, I like them better on there than "Born in the USA", where it's one of the things that annoys me the most about that one. Bruce became more comfortable about writing "radio friendly" songs. The songs aren't dated, they stand side by side with anything he's written over the past 10 years. I do think he's still writing great songs and amazing that people are making him #1 on Billboard. It's like Dylan, Bruce, and Neil Young have the passion to keep doing it, even if no one wants to buy it. But people want to still hear what they have to say.

Strength of that singer-songwriter era from the early 70's, the "sons of Bob", is still strong as far as fanbases go, and granted, some of that music from the early 70s is boring as hell, but the best of them are still performing and recording new stuff.

He could do a "Nebraska" style "Born in the USA" alternate album, I think all those songs were acoustic versions, and some of "Nebraska" prob. could've been on "Born in the USA", and has done band versions of half the album.

HELD UP WITHOUT A GUN

1980 b-side

BE TRUE

1981 b-side / TRACKS

ROULETTE

1988 b-side / TRACKS

MARY LOU /TRACKS

I WANNA BE WITH YOU/TRACKS

BRING ON THE NIGHT/TRACKS

RICKY WANTS A MAN OF HER OWN/TRACKS

LOOSE ENDS/TRACKS

DOLLHOUSE/TRACKS

WHERE THE BANDS ARE/TRACKS

LIVING ON THE EDGE OF THE WORLD/TRACKS

RESTLESS NIGHTS/TRACKS

TAKE ‘EM AS THEY COME/TRACKS

FROM SMALL THINGS/ESSENTIAL

CINDY/circulating finished

WHITE LIES/circulating unfinished

JANEY NEEDS A SHOOTER

MAN WHO GOT AWAY

CHAIN LIGHTNING

FIND IT WHERE YOU CAN

BREAK MY HEART

OUT ON THE RUN (LOOKING FOR LOVE)

NIGHT FIRE

IN THE CITY

UNDER THE GUN

I DON’T WANNA BE

CHEVROLET DELUXE

SLOW FADE

JOLE BLON /Gary US Bonds

TONIGHT

I’M GONNA TREAT YOU RIGHT

DEDICATION/Gary US Bonds

YOUR LOVE/Gary US Bonds

THIS LITTLE GIRL/Gary US Bonds

But I will say this, whenever anyone's sang with Bruce, it's only good when they sing separate verses and not together. It was nice for Bruce and Axl to sing together, but listening to it and enjoying it's another story.

[GivenToFly]

There's something I like about the production of "The River" that I can't put my finger on, but as far as the keyboards go, I like them better on there than "Born in the USA", where it's one of the things that annoys me the most about that one. Bruce became more comfortable about writing "radio friendly" songs. The songs aren't dated, they stand side by side with anything he's written over the past 10 years. I do think he's still writing great songs and amazing that people are making him #1 on Billboard. It's like Dylan, Bruce, and Neil Young have the passion to keep doing it, even if no one wants to buy it. But people want to still hear what they have to say.

Regarding Bruce and Bob Dylan I think their last 4-5 albums are as good if not better than what they put out in their respective 'golden eras' or 'prime' or whatever you want to call it.

[dalsh327]

There's something I like about the production of "The River" that I can't put my finger on, but as far as the keyboards go, I like them better on there than "Born in the USA", where it's one of the things that annoys me the most about that one. Bruce became more comfortable about writing "radio friendly" songs. The songs aren't dated, they stand side by side with anything he's written over the past 10 years. I do think he's still writing great songs and amazing that people are making him #1 on Billboard. It's like Dylan, Bruce, and Neil Young have the passion to keep doing it, even if no one wants to buy it. But people want to still hear what they have to say.

Regarding Bruce and Bob Dylan I think their last 4-5 albums are as good if not better than what they put out in their respective 'golden eras' or 'prime' or whatever you want to call it.

Bruce was always a good entertainer who had a reputation even before he was out of high school. When he went to San Fran, Bill Graham paid for his demos. And if Graham heard it in him in 1968? He was that damn good, but I think Bruce didn't care for the phony peace and love stuff going on, there were too many musicians there trying to make names for themselves, but it's possible Bruce could've been a big name. I'm sure he made connections with bands there, and the ones that came through Asbury Park, he had either opened for them, or been at their shows, when he wasn't doing his.

"Wrecking Ball" wasn't even supposed to be the next album. This one wasn't a full band album and tacked on some songs he'd done at past shows. There's a whole album he finished that he's been sitting on.

I've been reading posts where his wife isn't showing up for some of the shows, and some photo of her coming out of a store crying. We know about the rumors of the affair, and truth be told, she did hook up with him when he was married, so it's not like people would be shocked about it coming out.

Usually the rock stars that don't do drugs are the ones getting in trouble with women.

[GivenToFly]

There's something I like about the production of "The River" that I can't put my finger on, but as far as the keyboards go, I like them better on there than "Born in the USA", where it's one of the things that annoys me the most about that one. Bruce became more comfortable about writing "radio friendly" songs. The songs aren't dated, they stand side by side with anything he's written over the past 10 years. I do think he's still writing great songs and amazing that people are making him #1 on Billboard. It's like Dylan, Bruce, and Neil Young have the passion to keep doing it, even if no one wants to buy it. But people want to still hear what they have to say.

Regarding Bruce and Bob Dylan I think their last 4-5 albums are as good if not better than what they put out in their respective 'golden eras' or 'prime' or whatever you want to call it.

Bruce was always a good entertainer who had a reputation even before he was out of high school. When he went to San Fran, Bill Graham paid for his demos. And if Graham heard it in him in 1968? He was that damn good, but I think Bruce didn't care for the phony peace and love stuff going on, there were too many musicians there trying to make names for themselves, but it's possible Bruce could've been a big name. I'm sure he made connections with bands there, and the ones that came through Asbury Park, he had either opened for them, or been at their shows, when he wasn't doing his.

"Wrecking Ball" wasn't even supposed to be the next album. This one wasn't a full band album and tacked on some songs he'd done at past shows. There's a whole album he finished that he's been sitting on.

I've been reading posts where his wife isn't showing up for some of the shows, and some photo of her coming out of a store crying. We know about the rumors of the affair, and truth be told, she did hook up with him when he was married, so it's not like people would be shocked about it coming out.

Usually the rock stars that don't do drugs are the ones getting in trouble with women.

Fascinating. But, I'm not sure what any of that has to do with my post?

[dalsh327]

There's something I like about the production of "The River" that I can't put my finger on, but as far as the keyboards go, I like them better on there than "Born in the USA", where it's one of the things that annoys me the most about that one. Bruce became more comfortable about writing "radio friendly" songs. The songs aren't dated, they stand side by side with anything he's written over the past 10 years. I do think he's still writing great songs and amazing that people are making him #1 on Billboard. It's like Dylan, Bruce, and Neil Young have the passion to keep doing it, even if no one wants to buy it. But people want to still hear what they have to say.

Regarding Bruce and Bob Dylan I think their last 4-5 albums are as good if not better than what they put out in their respective 'golden eras' or 'prime' or whatever you want to call it.

Bruce was always a good entertainer who had a reputation even before he was out of high school. When he went to San Fran, Bill Graham paid for his demos. And if Graham heard it in him in 1968? He was that damn good, but I think Bruce didn't care for the phony peace and love stuff going on, there were too many musicians there trying to make names for themselves, but it's possible Bruce could've been a big name. I'm sure he made connections with bands there, and the ones that came through Asbury Park, he had either opened for them, or been at their shows, when he wasn't doing his.

"Wrecking Ball" wasn't even supposed to be the next album. This one wasn't a full band album and tacked on some songs he'd done at past shows. There's a whole album he finished that he's been sitting on.

I've been reading posts where his wife isn't showing up for some of the shows, and some photo of her coming out of a store crying. We know about the rumors of the affair, and truth be told, she did hook up with him when he was married, so it's not like people would be shocked about it coming out.

Usually the rock stars that don't do drugs are the ones getting in trouble with women.

Fascinating. But, I'm not sure what any of that has to do with my post?

Sometimes I start writing something, and I delete it, then go off the reservation.

This is what I wrote, more or less -

Bruce has always been a great entertainer, guys like Neil Young, Bob Dylan, Bruce, and a few others continue to write great songs in their older years, but it's a small select group of people, the "sons of Dylan" which included Tom Waits and Billy Joel in '73. If you play Tom's "Closing Time", Bruce's "Greetings from Asbury Park", and Billy Joel's "Piano Man", there's not much difference. Since then, Billy became stagnant in pop stardom and retired. Bruce dropped the E Street Band for a while, regrouped and just proceeded on this new journey with them, sounding better than ever. Waits went in a whole other direction that Dylan himself was being influenced by. I think that you hear it on Bob's later albums.

But I think with Bob, Neil, Bruce, and Tom, none of them are going to put anything out that sucks, and have a fanbase that's pretty much ready for anything they've got. They record companies are going to have their backs (even Bob's Xmas album... how can anyone bash something that was going to feed the hungry?)

I can't think of many other artists who are that age and can put songs out that hold their own. To me, Bob's later era stuff and what he did from '62-66 are two separate worlds. It was like back then, he was trying to sound like an old man, and found his voice from "Oh Mercy" to "Tempest". He was lost and adrift in the mid 80s. I think that might have been why he was pissed off at Springsteen at the time.

Springsteen and Waits faked the grit in their voices, now it's natural. Neil can sing 40 year old songs as well as ones he wrote last week.

[GivenToFly]

Bruce has always been a great entertainer, guys like Neil Young, Bob Dylan, Bruce, and a few others continue to write great songs in their older years, but it's a small select group of people, the "sons of Dylan" which included Tom Waits and Billy Joel in '73. If you play Tom's "Closing Time", Bruce's "Greetings from Asbury Park", and Billy Joel's "Piano Man", there's not much difference.

I see some limited similarities in that they're all storytellers but that's about it and it's definitely not something new. Granted I haven't heard Piano Man beyond the singles but Dylan was all folk at the beginning, Waits came from the jazz school, Joel it seems to me was more influenced by the old pre-rock'n'roll music and crooners and Springsteen was slightly closer to rock'n'roll and pop than the others. Thematically, they each went with what their world provided and brought a distinctly local flavour to their music. So neither lyrics nor music lump them together, I think calling them 'sons of Dylan' is going a bit far.