Bruce Springsteen - Tracks (4CD)

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Music reviews of Tracks (4CD)

Music Review: The Missing Piece in the Springsteen Puzzle
Rating: 4 Stars

Naturally there are times when Springsteen's music is just the fuel for a party, a melody to hum or a rhythm to get a hand taping in a traffic jam. But for the initiated Springsteen's gifts go way beyond providing a soundtrack to, or even shaping the mood of, a moment in time. His clear, poetic vision and rich soul can change the way that people understand, experience and sculpt their time. Springsteen's stories of everyday life are infused with a clarity, compassion and vitality that brings real wisdom down to the everyday world of work, family, friendship and cutting loose.

Springsteen's twenty five years as a recording artist have resulted in 11 studio albums, 2 live collections, a greatest hits package and numerous side projects. And, of course, an intense and remarkably durable mystique.

After years of composing on an old piano rotting away in the back of a beauty salon and battling to find venues that would give space to original music Springsteen finally released his first album, the primarily acoustic Greetings From Asbury Park NJ, in 1973. Despite being evicted from his flat and having to bum space in a garage he was able to bring out his second album, The Wild, The Innocent and the E-Street Shuffle within a year of the first. The seeds of his genius were gloriously clear in his first two albums and the strength of songs like Blinded By The Light, It's Hard to be a Saint in the City and Rosalita took Springsteen and his band from the backstreet bars of New Jersey to a small but passionately enthusiastic international cognoscenti. He wasn't the only person building on the legacy of musicians like Leadbelly and Woody Guthrie but there was something special about his stories of growing up, battling to get decent work, time slipping away, family, cars, girls, bosses, friends, judges and the search for some kind of redemption in the midst of the Vietnam war, race riots and economic depression.

When Born to Run hit the streets in' 75 Springsteen's picture went straight to the covers of Time and Newsweek and he was, famously, hailed as the future of rock by leading journalist Jon Landau. The stories of faith, hope and daily struggle on the equally superb Darkness on the Edge of Town cemented his status as a musician and chronicler of working class American life. And when a journalist asked him what rock'n'roll was he answered "It's me and my band going out to the audience tonight and growing older with that audience." An unusual answer from an unusually perceptive rock star.

Then came the sublime and widely celebrated The River which was followed by the the folky but dark Nebraska which Springsteen recorded in his bedroom on a 4 track tape machine. And in 1984, Born in the USA was unleashed and Springsteen's life changed forever. At the time he had doubts about certain tracks and he says that he still feels ambivalent about the album. But 18 million people rushed to get a copy and from LA to Istanbul Springsteen was `The Boss'. The themes - trouble with the law, breaking loose, life not working out as planned, doing time in dead end jobs, Vietnam and so on were familiar but some of the fans didn't like the American flag on the cover, the lesser role given to the sax and keyboards and the shorter, less ornate presentation of the songs. Q Magazine even went so far as to say that it was "as calculated a product as anything by Stock Aitken and Waterman." Time has shown this judgment to be a clear over reaction but it is true that the title track, Born in the USA, was totally misinterpreted. The song is a penetrating critique of American society but when the Republican Party, who stand for everything that Springsteen has spent a life rejecting, used it in their election campaign it was clear that something had gone very wrong.

Springsteen explains that: "In order to understand the song's intent, you need to invest a certain amount of time and effort to absorb both the music and the words. But that's not the way a lot of people use pop music. For most music is primarily an emotional language; whatever you've written lyrically almost always comes in second to what the listener is feeling. Should form follow content? I had two experiences that illustrate how this works in the real world. The fist guy I played the finished version of Born in the USA for was Bobby Muller, president of the Vietnam Veterans of America. He sat there listening to the first couple verses and then a big smile crossed his face. But then, for years after the release of the album, at Halloween, I had little kids at my door with their trick or treat bags singing `I was born in the USA'. They were not particularly well versed in the `Had a brother at Khe San lyric...'. But they all had plenty of lung power when the chorus rolled around. I guess the same fate awaited Woody Guthrie's This Land is Your Land around the campfire. But that's never made me feel any better." These days he only performs a stripped down blues version of the song to make sure that its meaning can't be misconstrued.

His next release was the critically acclaimed 3 CD (5 LP) 40 song collection Live 1975-1985. It was an essential part of every rock collection and seemed to please the old fans as well as those who'd come to Springsteen though the Born in the USA album. The pressure to follow up Born in the USA with more of the same was huge but with The Tunnel of Love Springsteen followed his heart and went back to home recording. He explains that "For twenty years I'd written about the man on the road. On Tunnel of Love that changed, and my music turned to the hopes and fears of the man in the house." The album's quieter and more reflective tone pleased the old fans and scored some hits with songs like Tougher Than The Rest and Brilliant Disguise. Although it was a little too slow and nuanced for some of the newer fans Springsteen was still The Boss.

But then he left his wife, his band and his working class New Jersey community for a new life in a $14 million dollar mansion in the Hollywood Hills. His fans, some of whom had even hoped that Springsteen would eventually chant down Tinsel Town, were not impressed. They felt betrayed and although the two albums which he bought out in 1992, Human Touch and Lucky Town, were both commercially successful and had the insight and wisdom of his earlier work it was true that the grittyness was gone.

He explained that Human Touch is essentially about how "people search to find some emotional contact, some modest contact, some modest communion, some physical and sexual connection. But to receive what love delivers, they have to surrender themselves to each other and accept fate." Lucky Town , he said, is "about everything from second chances to trying to do the best for one's family and live up to one's beliefs when you're living in a racially segregated society." No one was listening though and from New York down to Rio and across to Jo'burg , Sydney and Tokyo journalists, sometimes gleefully and sometimes sadly, told their readers that `The Boss' was now just another old school rocker getting burnt by the grunge explosion.

But Springsteen was aware of the ironies of his position and on Lucky Town he sang that "It's a sad funny ending to find yourself pretending/ A rich man in a poor man's shirt." On Human Touch the old theme of trouble with the law was still there but this time the song's character was in front of a judge for disturbing the peace of the Hollywood Hills by putting a bullet in his TV because he had a satellite dish on the roof, 57 channels on the remote and nothing on. But the social sensitivity and awareness of ambiguity was just as much in evidence as always. On a track off Lucky Town called Souls of the Departed he sang about a seven year old killed in the crossfire of a down town gang war and how:

Tonight as I tuck my own son in bed
All I can think of is what if it would've been him instead
I want to build me a wall so high nothing can burn it down
Right here on my own piece of dirty ground.

The release, in 1993 of the decidedly pedestrian In Concert MTV -Plugged made it seem like Springsteen was now just going though the motions. The 1995 Greatest Hits compilation was a huge seller but, despite the inclusion of a couple of very good new tracks written for other projects, people wondered if this wasn't just nostalgia.

Then in 1995 Springsteen stunned the musical world with the release of the stripped down acoustic album The Ghost of Tom Joad. Inspired by Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath each of its deeply moving 12 tracks is about people battling against the odds to make some kind of life for themselves and their families. And this time, to make sure that no one could misunderstand the stories he was telling, Springsteen took the radical step of dispensing with both melody and chorus. Instead he laid his half spoken half sung lyrics over evocative soundscapes and the result was an album which is impossible to misconstrue. It's a beautifully poetic album that simultaneously mourns social injustice and affirms all the resilience of the human spirit. And it's greatness is evident in the fact that its absence of sing along choruses doesn't stop it form being as engaging as the most seductive pop record

Looking back Springsteen explains that "In California there was a sense of a new country being formed on the edge of the old. But the old stories of race and exclusion continued to be played out. I tried to catch a small piece of this on the songs I wrote. I knew that The Ghost of Tom Joad wouldn't attract my largest audience. But I was sure the songs on it added up to a reaffirmation of the best of what I could do. The record was something new, but it was a reference point to the things that I tried to stand for and be about as a songwriter." It was too good for most radio but critics and serious fans loved it. Again Springsteen was being hailed as everything from America's conscience to the saviour of rock's integrity and the man carrying the torch lit by Walt Whitman and fueled by the likes of Robert Johnson, Leadbelly, Woody Guthrie, John Steinbeck, Jack Kerouac and Bob Dylan.

That brings us to Tracks, the beautifully packaged collection released early in December `98. Because Springsteen's albums have had strong themes many good songs haven't been able to slot into a particular album. As he explains on the first page of the 56 page book that accompanies the beautifully packaged 4 CD box set: "This collection contains everything from the first notes I sang in a Columbia recording studio, my early and later work with the E Street Band, through my music in the 90's. It's the alternate route to some of the destinations I traveled on my records, an invitation into the studio on the many nights we spent making music in search of the records we presented to the you. I'm glad to finally be able to share this music; these are the ones that got away."

People have learnt to be wary of the overhyped Christmas time release of albums made of B-sides or previously unreleased material. These sorts of projects have too often been a poor excuse to make a few final bucks out of a dying career. But although 56 of the 66 songs in the collection have never before been released in any form faith in Springsteen is such that people didn't wait for airplay or reviews to buy the boxset. On the day of release a large number of American stores had to stay open till midnight to cope with the demand.

The songs were recorded between March 1972 and August 1998, but because Springsteen has always put meaning before fashion, each one has the timeless feel that sets great music apart from mere product. From the brilliantly executed, stripped down bluesy folk of his first ever demo through to his mid-career jazzy rock and the more martial sounds of the early '80s, to his recent return to the raw roots rock, every song in the collection is as least as good as any previously released work.

The musicianship is equally superb, the vocals are as deeply evocative as ever, and the melodies have warmth and power. From mournful meditations to euphoric celebrations, the lyrics are honest without being self-indulgent, intelligent and deeply poetic without being pretentious, progressive without being sanctimonious, fun and uplifting without being vacuous, vital without being contrived or macho, funny without being crass and, most of all, beautiful without ever being trite.

Why were these songs released only in 1999? Springsteen's not saying much more than, "My albums became a series of choices - what to include, what to leave out? I based my decisions on my creative point of view at the time - the subject I was working on, something musical or emotional I was trying to express ... [so] a lot of my favourite things remained unreleased."

Like his other work the songs here are honest without being self indulgent, intelligent and deeply poetic without being pretentious, progressive without being sanctimonious, fun and uplifting without being vacuous, vital without being contrived or too macho, funny without being crass and beautiful without ever being trite or cheesy. But the songs here differ from his previous work in that many of them are lighter and happier.

Taken individually, each song could have comfortably been slotted into other Springsteen albums. Taken as a whole, this collection is quite different. Although there are gripping versions of darker classics like "Stolen Car" and "Born in the USA", as well as plenty of newly released songs about things such as ending up on the wrong side of a knife, seeing an emptiness in your child's eyes and drifting in search of work, most of the previously unreleased songs are a lot more exuberant, celebratory and happy than the work he has previously made available.

Perhaps the most dramatic contrast is the difference between "Jackson Cage" from The River and "Where the Bands Are" from Tracks. Some of the words and parts of the melody of the two songs are exactly the same, and while both songs are set in the same working-class context and share an underlying theme of struggle, the first is a dark critique of poverty, alienation and hopelessness while the second is a spirited celebration of music, community and love.

The lines "You can try with all your might/ But you're reminded every night/ That you've been judged and handed life/ Down in the Jackson cage" could not be more different from "Tonight I wanna feel the beat of the crowd/ And when I love you/ I wanna have to shout it out loud/ Shout it out loud".

Springsteen has said that he was uncomfortable with "No Surrender" from Born in the USA because, "You don't hold out and triumph all the time in life. You compromise, you suffer defeat; you slip into life's grey areas."

Listening to Tracks, it seems that Springsteen has consciously kept back songs which don't raise an obvious finger to the myth of the "American dream". Although it is politically just as important to affirm as it is to accuse and reject, his caution does make sense in the light of the Republican Party's inability to understand "Born in the USA".

But it's meant that there is a crucial part of the human condition which, until now, Springsteen has not explored in public in his usual depth. After all, without acceptance, excitement, love and happiness, there's no energy for getting up in the morning, let alone for political struggle.

Tracks not only shows that Springsteen produces quality at an astoundingly prolific rate, but that the emotional range of his work is wider than was previously evident. It also feels like the missing piece of the Springsteen puzzle.

Description of Tracks (4CD)

Classic Rock CDs

• Music > Styles
• Folk
• Pop
• Rock