Leave a Comment | Posted by Rob Lucas on July 12, 2007
Posted in: Born In The USA 23 Years Later
I bought a new CD the other day. Bruce Springsteen’s Born In The USA. That’s not very interesting, I know, but what came out of it, might give you some ideas about revisiting your favorite old album. Why did I buy it? I have just about everything Bruce has done..knockoffs, video, singles (sadly I think I have all 7 picture sleeves from the singles off the album. By the way, how many you can name without cheating?) And while there a tons of copies of all his hit material, and radio has played Born/Dancing In The Dark/Glory Days to death, I was feeling the need to hear the non-hits that I haven’t spent time with in about 20 years. So I bought the full CD. Have it down in the basement in pristine Vinyl (which always sounds better). But have never had the full album on CD. And I have listened to it for 2 days. Non-stop. Kind of like I did when it came out in 2004. Which brings me to:
The great thing about our digital age is immediate access to music. The bad thing is a shorter attention span. Full albums don’t get listened to anymore. I don’t necessarily blame this on younger music buyers. They’ve been burned way too many times by paying $15 for a CD, only to have it contain one or two good songs and the rest be awful. I do blame record companies for the failure to develop and promote artists with writing and music skills that have the talent to put out an album with one or two hits, and the rest be very good, memorable songs…not awful. As a result, the art of listening to an album from start to finish has reached all time lows.
And going back to revisit BORN IN THE USA, has reminded me of what a well crafted album sounds like. From start to finish, every song fits. A common thread runs throughout, even on this, Bruce’s most singles oriented album (to that point). My reaction to many of the songs was just the same as the first time I heard them in 1984, because in many cases, it wasthe first time since the early 90’s that I DID hear them. I was struck again by the three song combination of Darlington County, Working On The Highway, and Downbound Train. I don’t know if there has ever been a non-hit run of songs that better represented the life of a small town (or big city suburb) working stiff. Work for THE MAN all day, find a girl and party at night, and pray that something changes while you sleep. I know Dylan had full albums like that, but we’re talking about the pop side here.
I was struck by the PHIL SPECTOR influenced production of John Landau. Nothing like a glockenspiel and handclaps on a rock record! It all sounded new again, even the title cut, probably the only Springsteen song I truly don’t care for.
So the moral of this post is: Go out, find a great album you listened to 15-20 years ago, buy it, and listen to it. You will be amazed how good you feel, and how much you forgot how good the music was. And still is.