COLUMBIA RECORDS FLASHBACKS

Bruce Springsteen- The Wild, The Innocent & the E Street Shuffle (1973)

*Review* Bruce Springsteen- The Wild, The Innocent & The E Street Shuffle (1973) (CBS)
The Boss, as he is affectionately known, became a household name with his 1975 smash Born to Run album, however the one he made before that has been immortalised in the minds of long time fans, an artistic statement, which was the pinnacle of his career. Born To Run would prove to be his commercial breakthrough, but The Wild.. became much more than that.
Being one of the most overlooked albums of all time, one has to wonder why the appeal of it’s successor eclipsed this set of music. Simply because of commerical potential. A lot of promotion went into Born To Run, it was being hyped to the max and columbia records saw it as a once in a llifetime opprortunity to propel Springsteen into the mainstream. If he couldn’t achieve it with Born to Run, then it would never of happened.

In hindsight, many facets of Springsteen’s music has been continual over his 30 plus year career.

His E Street Band, his style of songwriting, his management (Jon Landau).
However, in my opinion he peaked on this one. It’s like when Brian Wilson from the Beach Boys tried to follow up the pet Sounds album, he had an unstable personality but anyway he had a nervous breakdown because he accomplished so much on that record, that he was artistically burnt out.

In no way did the Boss burn out after this though. But material wise, the second album was his strongest to date. It starts of with The E Street Shuffle, you get a feeling of the summer air in New Jersey as you walk the streets, and see the children playing under fire hydrants, (it sounds like the first scene of Spike Lee’s Crooklyn). Interracial families hanging out by the diner, the young men in their Sunday best trying to make the girls swoon. It’s typical 1950’s New Jersey which Springsteen paints a picture, and from there he takes you on a journey.
Sandy, is a song about a beloved girl who falls in love a boy and they ponder over leaving the wreckless town in which they live.

Kitty’s back, about the ex-girlfriend, who’s back in town and you don’t want to be lured in again by the reckless vixen.

Side two is essentially a three song suite, which run into one another. It opens with the classic “Incident on 57th Street”, refers to Spanish johnny the central character of the song, he can’t find a true heart and thinks it can be bought, however finds his true love in puerto rican Jane whom he leaves at the end, to succumb to the street hood he was and always is.
Rosolita, is about the rock n roll singer and his girlfriend’s disaprroving parents. It’s a plea to the girlfriend to see some sense and make a decision on whether they should go steady.

The closer “New York City Serenade”, is the centrepiece of the album. Describing the dusk atmosphere of early morning New York, walking past buskers and corner boys down on their luck. Set against an orchestral backdrop, it threatened to be one of the all time classics in contemporary music. Had it not been for it’s unrecognised reception upon release, it may well of been considered his greatest album. He followed this album up with the classic
“Born To Run”, his first mutli platinum classic.