Music: Re: [Classic_Rock_Forever] Best Albums of the 80's Series

The River is my favourite Springsteen album and would definitely be in my top 10 favorite album list.

I don't listen to Springsteen constantly but when I get the urge ... I enjoy him as much now as I ever did. Good music never dies.

BobK

On 2011-02-26, at 1:58 AM, GPS2003 wrote:

1980

Bruce Springsteen - The River

It is thought the concept of The River go back into earlier parts of Springsteen's recording career. "Independence Day", "Point Blank", "The Ties That Bind", "Ramrod", and "Sherry Darling" were leftovers from the previous Darkness on the Edge of Town album and had been featured on the 1978 tour, with parts of "Drive All Night" as a long interpolation within the track "Backstreets". "The River" had premiered at the September 1979 Musicians United for Safe Energy concerts, gaining a featured spot in the subsequent July 1980 No Nukes documentary film.
Springsteen is quoted as saying-

[The River] was a record that was sort of the gateway to a lot of my future writing. It was a record we made after Darkness on the Edge of Town. It was a record made during a recession - hard times in the States. Its title song is a song I wrote for my brother-in-law and sister. My brother-in-law was in the construction industry, lost his job and had to struggle very hard back in the late 70s, like so many people are doing today. It was a record where I first started to tackle men and women and families and marriage. There were certain songs on it that lead to complete records later on: "The River" sorta went to the writing on Nebraska, "Stolen Car" went to the writing on Tunnel of Love. Originally it was a single record. I handed it in with just one record and I took it back because I didn't feel it was big enough. Wanted to capture the themes I had been writing about on Darkness. I wanted to keep those characters with me and at the same time added music that made our live shows so much fun and joy for our audience. So, In the end, we're gonna take you down to The River tonight.

Concert, 8th November 2009
Springsteen decided the original cut was "too pop"and added darker material after he'd written "The River". Indeed, The River became noted for its mix of the frivolous next to the solemn. This was intentional, and in contrast to Darkness, for as Springsteen said during an interview, "Rock and roll has always been this joy, this certain happiness that is in its way the most beautiful thing in life. But rock is also about hardness and coldness and being alone ... I finally got to the place where I realized life had paradoxes, a lot of them, and you've got to live with them."
"Hungry Heart" was Springsteen's first U.S. pop singles chart top ten hit single, reaching #5. (Springsteen had not intended the song to be for himself, having initially written it for The Ramones; manager/producer Jon Landau convinced Springsteen to keep the song for himself.) The album hit number one on the U.S. pop albums chart, a first for Springsteen, and sold 1.6 million copies in the U.S. between its release and Christmas. Sales faltered when "Fade Away" was a disappointing follow-up single, only getting to #20; the decision to make it the second single has often been questioned.
The album was followed by a lengthy tour of North American and Western Europe during 1980 and 1981. Several of the album's up-tempo rockers became concert staples for decades to come, including "Cadillac Ranch", "Ramrod", and "Out in the Street" (a song so idealistic that Springsteen almost kept it off the album, as did "Two Hearts" (with sidekick Steven Van Zandt acting as the second 'heart').
"Stolen Car" and "Wreck on the Highway", the closing tracks on the original LP's sides three and four, bore unusually quiet, haunted arrangements that presaged much of the musical direction Springsteen would take in the future.
"Point Blank" took its title from a 1967 movie starring Lee Marvin.
Since its release "The River" has been certified quintuple platinum by the RIAA in the U.S., making it one of Springsteen's best-selling albums. In 2003, the album was ranked number 250 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.
"Drive All Night" and "Stolen Car" played a key role in setting the tone of the 1997 film Cop Land.
"Drive All Night" and "Out In The Street" were used in the 2007 film "Reign Over Me", and the album was mentioned multiple times throughout the movie.
Some songs on the album have music elements that Springsteen borrowed from songs in the past. The organ riff in "Ramrod" shares the same beat as the organ riff in "Let's Dance" by Chris Montez, and many of the verses in "Out in the Street" can be compared musically to the Elvis Costello song "Oliver's Army".
On November 8, 2009, near the end of the Working on a Dream Tour, Springsteen and the E Street Band performed The River in its entirety for the first time at Madison Square Garden in New York City.

Track listing
All songs written by Bruce Springsteen

Side 1

"The Ties That Bind" – 3:34
"Sherry Darling" – 4:03
"Jackson Cage" – 3:04
"Two Hearts" – 2:45
"Independence Day" – 4:50

Side 2

"Hungry Heart" – 3:19
"Out in the Street" – 4:17
"Crush on You" – 3:10
"You Can Look (But You Better Not Touch)" – 2:37
"I Wanna Marry You" – 3:30
"The River" – 5:01

Side 3

"Point Blank" – 6:06
"Cadillac Ranch" – 3:03
"I'm a Rocker" – 3:36
"Fade Away" – 4:46
"Stolen Car" – 3:54

Side 4

"Ramrod" – 4:05
"The Price You Pay" – 5:29
"Drive All Night" – 8:33
"Wreck on the Highway" – 3:54

SmUrFy

"Rebel souls, deserters we are called.
Chose a gun and threw away the sun.
Now these towns, they all know our name.

6-gun sound is our claim to fame.
I can hear them say"