Bruce Springsteen’s latest effort is an interesting one. Although this a collection of tracks from various albums, it is not a “greatest hits.” He has a number of those already. It is has been released as a partner to his new memoir Born to Run and is a collection of songs which chart his musical development through his career. The first five tracks have never been released before, and it’s this first side (I bought the vinyl release) which charts his early efforts both as a solo artist and with his earlier bands. It is these tracks I will be concentrating on as I think they are the most interesting by far and least well known, plus the rest of the tracks featured in the album have been written about to death.
These tracks provide an insight into Bruce Springsteen’s early efforts and musical influences when he was young. The opening number, “Baby I” is very much a track of its time, you can hear the obvious influence of early pop bands such as The Beatles, The Yard Birds and The Beach Boys. This is not surprising considering the song was written and recorded in 1966 when Bruce was a mere 16 years old and was with the band The Castiles. However, when you move onto the next track, “You Can’t Judge a Book by the Cover”, there is a sharp change to a more R’n’B sound as The Castiles cover a Willie Dixon song recorded in 1967.
We then jump forward to 1970 and “He’s Guilty (the Jungle Song)” by The Steel Mill, a track carrying on where we left off with the previous track although this is one written by the band rather than a cover. One of the more interesting things about this track is that its the first recording featuring Danny Federici on the organ, who would later join the E Street Band and would also appear on many of Bruce Springsteen’s solo efforts as well.
The “Ballad of Jesse James” (The Bruce Springsteen Band) is the first track that to me sounds like a Bruce Springsteen track listening to it cold. I think you really hear his song-writing developing into what would become his sound signature sound and style. It is also interesting to hear his voice start to develop the gruffer working class sound that made him beloved by many of his fans. This is the first track on the album to feature the truly brilliant finger work of the multi-talented Stevie Van Zandt, the only thing I’m going to say is to check out his work both musically and as an actor. Do it……. now…..Done it yet? I said Now!!! and then come back and read the rest of this review please.
Good…now you’re back we can carry on. “Henry Boy” is the first time we hear Springsteen talk about small town America and its various issues. This is a key theme for some of Springsteen’s great later works, and it is interesting to first hear him talk about these for the first time in a song committed to tape. This song is about a new guy coming to town, and apparent decision to leave by the end of the song. From this, we slide into “Growin up”, the first track which has been released before (in this case on the greatest hits compilation, Tracks). Both of these tracks are solo efforts, and again this one covers small town America although this second track seems to be more biographical and about growing up.
From here the album slides through his career up to 2014’s “Wrecking ball”. Most of the tracks you probably know, and if you don’t well, …..you should go out and buy some Springsteen now. Immediately, in fact. Buy this album, it’s a good place to start.
The only thing I want to comment on regarding these tracks, see point at the beginning of the article, is the sound quality. In the leaf notes, it has that dreaded phrase remaster, a word which can bring both hope and dread to any music lover. I’ve heard some really good remasters and I have heard some truly dreadful remasters, I’m not criticising you, the mastering industry, I know it’s the industry obsession with everything being loud and I will stop ranting now because that would add another few of hundred words to this and I don’t have the word count available. In the case of this album, Bud Ludwig has done a good job. None of the detail has been lost from the recordings, even the compressed version streamed I’m currently listening to sounds good.
Criticisms, I would say that considering the amount of space available on a record sleeve, the amount of information, or rather lack of, is disappointing. It would have been nice to have anecdotal notes on the music, especially on the first few tracks but I guess they are saving it for the book. Although the pictures they do include are interesting as they cover the same time period as the music.
The other thing I would say is that, whilst I get the purpose of the record, and its a great introduction to those who haven’t listened to Bruce Springsteen before, I’m not sure if it’s focused enough. People who want to hear early Springsteen are probably ardent fans, and those fans probably have a lot of his music, so why do we have so many of his hits? I would have liked to have seen another disc with some more obscure stuff for the fans such as B sides and demos possibly.
Author: Jon, Cardiff Store
