Bruce Springsteen
Tracks
»
Bruce Springsteen
Tracks
Columbia, 1999
RiYL: Van Morrison, Bob Dylan's Bootleg Series |
After those 12 songs (better known as Born In The USA) produced seven chart-topping singles and launched the singer/songwriter to the forefront of the international music scene, who was going to ask what happened to the other 90-odd numbers? Throughout the next 15 years, there would be more songs, hundreds of them, piled on the already substantial mass of unheard music in the Columbia archives.
Springsteen's four-disc box set, simply titled Tracks, attempts to give average listeners a healthy taste of his best unreleased material culled from the last 25 years, while satiating die-hard fans, who have been swapping crusty, muddled and incomplete versions of these tunes for years.
The set is filled with compelling moments. On first listen, Springsteen's nervous audition for Columbia, the dark original version of "Born In The USA," and a handful of obscure B-sides alone make Tracks quite rewarding. Upon closer examination however, the Boss comes up short by compromising too much, leaving the box too broad for the everyday listener and too confined for the Springsteen completist. Still, the work is hardly ignorable. At its base, the four CDs are a fascinating look at the development of one of rock and roll's most prolific and accomplished songwriters.
It opens with his audition in the office of legendary Columbia star-finder John Hammond, where the young Springsteen puts his madly pumping heart on the line. It is clear he is nervous. His guitar strums are jagged as his voice lets out the opening line to "Mary Queen Of Arkansas" with a crackling whimper.
As he gets into the meat of the tune and those that follow -- as he ascends into the ether of his own potential with a burning spirit and a haunted soul -- it is obvious this young performer has a future. Amid the dizzying and dumb lyrics of the first four songs, Springsteen tries to lay the big city landscape with a collage of broken sentences and confused visions. Yet every once in a while, he lets out a crystalline image in a world of constant motion.
"It's Hard To Be A Saint In The City" shows the odd output of an overly ambitious kid: "The devil appeared like Jesus in the steam in the street / Showing me a hand I knew even the cops couldn't beat / I felt his hot breath on my neck as I dove into the heat".
Perhaps the release's biggest revelation comes during the second (and most enjoyable) disc, featuring outtakes from 1979 to 1982. After the release of Darkness On The Edge Of Town in 1978, Springsteen found himself (once again) producing copious amounts of material.
He debated, this time deciding to put out the sprawling two-record set The River, a monumental album injured only by its grandeur and lack of focus. The newly unearthed "Restless Nights," "A Good Man Is Hard To Find" and "Loose Ends" are twice as strong as many of their previously released counterparts, suggesting Springsteen easily could have released a three-record set. But more significantly, the prolific artist could have instead chosen to release at least two separate, distinct albums with the quality, focus and power of Darkness.
Also on the second disc is the box set's finest effort, "Wages Of Sin," a song recorded in 1982 and left hidden beyond the reach of overzealous fans. By this point, the New Jersey native had more than refined his writing and begun to explore the possibilities of storytelling as an art form. On "Wages," he draws grim sketches of everyday desperation while working out his own personal demons on the recorder's celluloid with frightening purity.
The third disc includes songs left off Born In The USA and Tunnel Of Love, and highlights a few interesting decisions the singer made at the height of his fame. It appears "My Hometown" won the closing spot on Born In The USA over the enjoyable light rocker "Frankie," while "This Hard Land," truly a lyrical gem, was probably dropped in favor of the inferior "Darlington County."
The biggest disappointments on Tracks come at the end, where Springsteen puts on a shaky mixture of songs from the '90s, including electronic sap (a la "When The Lights Go Out"), a moronic B-side ("Part Man, Part Monkey") and a trite ditty called "Seven Angels."
Still, the last song on Tracks shows just how far Springsteen has come as a master storyteller. "Brothers Under The Bridges" is told from the perspective of a Vietnam veteran who has abandoned his family to live in the mountains, among other tortured souls and away from the harshness of a disenchanted home.
The singer is asked by his daughter to explain why he left her and her mother behind when she was just a small girl. Bruce lays out the answer like a delicate blanket of gray truth, conjuring up a far away land of fear and confusion. The last line is beautiful -- a haunting statement about a hard life in one of its most complex moments. "One minute you're right there..." he notes softly, "then something slips."
It's familiar territory for Springsteen -- there are three songs on Tracks alone about Vietnam veterans -- but he makes this story different with a brilliant subtlety beyond the means of most any songwriter.
Ironically, most fervent Springsteen lovers threw their hands in the air in disgust after the omission of great outtakes, such as "The Promise," "The Fever" and "Long Time Coming," each of which the singer has performed on more than one occasion. And clearly the box set shows this performer is capable of making a few bad choices when it comes to song selection.
But not many.
For every great song on Tracks, there are five others unworthy of the albums from which they were left off. Thus, the set really isn't exactly for the nostalgic fan either. Anyone rushing to grab all the would-be No. 1 singles left off Born In the USA is sure to be disappointed.
Tracks is a fair investment for loyal listeners interested in understanding how Springsteen painstakingly worked at creating his music. But it is a perfect purchase for storytellers curious about one master, his methods and the ends to which he went in order to spark the creative fire.
BEN FRENCH | Ben founded NATN in the winter of 1998-1999 with fellow IU alums Troy Carpenter and Jonathan Cohen. During the day time, he's working for Nielsen Business Media, publisher of Billboard. Ben's favorite acts include Bruce Springsteen, The Clash, Sonic Youth, Elvis Costello, Talking Heads, Rolling Stones, and the Beach Boys.