Before Bruce Springsteen officially went mainstream, his 1980 album, The River, was long considered one of his greatest works of all time. However, despite this, I'd never heard it myself. Today, I decided this would be rectified.
First impressions are everything, and mine revolved around the sheer length of it. Being a double album, I don't know that I was necessarily ready to strap in for an hour and twenty-four minutes of music. I mean, that's the length of a movie. Even if it turned out mediocre, that's a long time to be subjected to mediocrity.
The River comes out strong with The Ties That Bind, and admittedly, I like it enough to add it to my shuffle list. This continued into the second track, Sherry Darling. Okay, this bar is getting set awfully high, Mr. Bruce. I hope you can deliver.
Things mellowed out for a bit, and though the track was far from upbeat, I did take a liking to Independence Day. If I was listening to the LP version of The River, this would have wrapped up side 1A, and I have to say, it would be a spectacular finish. This is the type of stuff I'm talking about when I say that good artists really thought out how they wanted to craft their albums. Each side of a record was supposed to be its own chapter, so to speak, and Bruce Springsteen did this perfectly on this album.
Side two of the album fires up with Hungry Heart, and this is the song I ultimately purchased The River for. However, at this point, I was pleasantly pleased with all the additional tunes I was adding to my shuffle. The next song, Out On The Street, wasn't resonating with me at first, then it got to the chorus, and I said, "Hey, I know that song!" From there, I remembered how great it was, and was hooked.
Though the middle of side 2A didn't hit any high notes with me, the final two tracks, I Wanna Marry You and The River got added to my shuffle list. Much like the first side, side two flowed nicely, ending at just the right moment with just the right song. Again, this speaks to Springsteen's ability to craft a story within his work.
I was also happy to note that no fatigue had set in either. I was thoroughly enjoying listening to The River, and quite excited to dive into the second half. This is unfortunately where things took a turn in the opposite direction. Despite my desire to hear more, it became too much. So much so that I found myself tuning it out. By track three, I wanted to start skipping things that didn't appeal, but I forced myself to push through it.
Though I heard stuff that got added to my shuffle list, I would say the biggest reason I was glad I plowed through the remainder of side 1B was for the track, Fade Away, another song I had forgotten from Bruce Springsteen. This helped to reinvigorate me to take on the remaining back half, and for me, it was well worth it.
Overall, I can understand why The River has been considered one of Bruce Springsteen's greatest albums of all time. Despite it's length, it packs a lot of good stuff into. I personally walked away with an entire album's worth of new songs just based on what I pulled from it.
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