Springsteen took me a while. I’ve spent a few weeks trying to work my way into it from a position of near-total ignorance; fortunately, I can say that while it's been hard work, I feel that it was worth it and I got there in the end. I had a few preconceptions, it’s true. I’ve heard Born in the USA rather more times than I’d like, I’m aware that it’s ironic – a point seemingly often missed by the politicians who co-opt it – and I was broadly aware of the Voice.
The huge, heavy-headed, raw, cigarette-stinking, whisky-sodden voice, lurching around the stage. I’d heard it before and was pretty sure I didn’t like it but I don’t think I’d paid any real attention. I was convinced, for example, that it was often off-key. It’s not, it never misses a note unintentionally, it’s just so broad in its sound that it somehow seems to spread out beyond the central note being held. I didn’t think it was any good, I don’t think I had the faintest idea of just how awesome a tool it is. It’s not small and it’s not subtle and I don’t think – at least, based on my one album – that it can do restrained but that aside, it’s got incredible range. More on this below.
The music, similarly, had never really grabbed me; it had always struck me as somewhat predictable and obvious. Safe, simple chords, the change in the usual place, limited orchestration. I’ve not fully changed my mind on that point but, again, I’ve only heard one album and I’m aware, for example, that Springsteen has also done folk albums which, I would assume, have to sound quite different.
The album I picked, then, was Darkness on the Edge of the Town, often hailed as his best, more the connoisseur’s choice than the more obvious Born in the USA or Born to Run. It’s his fourth album, released in 1978 – thanks, Wikipedia – when Springsteen was only 29. The kind of abuse a voice has to undergo to sound like that in a man under thirty, I can’t even imagine.
While listening to the first track, Badlands, I had a revelation which, I think, brought me closer to understanding what’s meant by “Americana” than I’ve ever come before. You could strip out Springsteen, have Meatloaf sing the lyrics and it would pass for a – presumably ironic – Jim Stallman song. Odd. Back to the music, though; this song challenged my notions of Springsteen by being optimistic. It’s far from sunshine and flowers, the theme being kicking a hostile environment until it starts behaving itself, but it does at least carry the possibility of positive change. Another surprise – the piano (which probably triggered my Meatloaf flash-sideways); anyone who knows anything about Springsteen would, I’m sure, laugh at me, but I always had him down as guitar rock. There’s a lot of piano in the songs, a Hammond organ or similar features regularly and the guitar and saxophone aren’t over-used. Also, another good drummer; who knew?
The second track, Adam Raised a Cain, was more what I was expecting – proper rock, a story of viciousness viciously sung, the sort of thing an American teen might listen to while driving down I66 in his Chevy Impala - in my head, at least. True negativity, an energetic and enthusiastic description of a bad seed. Something in the Night carries on the theme, if not the tone; the music is softer but it’s still a song about hopelessness and the general pointlessness of life, probably not ideal listening if you’re feeling a bit down in the first place.
The fourth song, though, is just confusing; is it hopeful or not? The intro to Candy’s Room is just weird – a fast drum rhythm with spoken words over it, leading into piano. The story’s about what I assume to be a prostitute, a devastatingly pretty young girl who receives whatever she wants from rich men from the city. There’s a sadness in her eyes that no man can protect her from – oh God, the world’s a horrible place again – but wait, it’s not that simple. The singer is her boyfriend, the man that she actually loves; or is he? He acknowledges what she is but then portrays himself as the one man she truly feels something for – deluded or not, I can’t tell. Some fantastic musical moments, either way, the sense of speed and power is incredible and this is one of my three favourite songs on the album.
Next, though, is my absolute favourite; Racing in the Street. Whatever I was expecting from Springsteen – rage, rumbling incoherence, slightly corny saxophony – it wasn’t a cleverly layered song which, while building on his apparent trademark of ‘all life is doomed and pointless’, refers out both to Dancing in the Street and Little Deuce Coupe. Little Deuce Coupe, for those of you who’ve spent less time listening to the Beach Boys than I have, is a song about an unbeatable, grossly souped-up street-racing car and it’s young, joyful drivers. This takes the same theme and turns it into something profoundly hopeless, street-racing as a dangerous (fair enough), destructive (got me there, too) escape from the awful boredom and futility of a worthless life. Piano only, bar the Hammond organ towards the end and a song that simply leaves you wondering why anyone ever bothers to be born.
Sticking for a moment with the “Oh God, why”s, The Factory is about exactly what you’d expect; how horrible it is to work in a factory, to get up in the morning, go there, give up your strength and vitality, come home and beat your family because you have to share the pain somehow. Not cheery, though the music is gorgeous.
Streets of Fire and Prove it all night I wasn’t particularly taken with but the album ends on a high, the titular Darkness on the Edge of Town; I’m not entirely sure what it’s about, beyond the obvious “I’ve lost my wife and family and don’t seem to have obtained the alternate woman that I was hoping for but hey, tell her I’m here” but something in it grabs me anyway. The music is bombastic – apparently a general thing with Springsteen, working-class bombast - the voice does its incredible staggering thing and hey presto, a great song.
Apparently, the album wasn’t a great commercial success – I can appreciate that, there are no obvious standout tunes that would make for number one hits but the thing taken as a whole is raw and gorgeous. The Voice is amazing, the music’s better and deeper than it seems, there’s actually a great deal more optimism than I was expecting – desperate, we win or we die optimism but there nonetheless – and in spite of the emotional buffetting I will be listening to more, once my general equilibrium is ready for it.
Next – my first Mavis recommendation, "Stunt" by the Barenaked Ladies.
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