Best Bruce Springsteen Album(s)?

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TheFly7

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Alright. After seeing him give a masterful induction speech at the RRHOF the other night, I have decided it is time to get to know the Boss' music a bit better. I know pretty much all his hits and have heard his best of collection, but I need to go deeper...

So, what are the albums I need to start off with?


Gracias
 
Man, that is tough. I guess the obvious choice is Born To Run, but Darkness On The Edge Of Town and The River are excellent as well.

Born In The U.S.A. was the mega-seller, and is probably your best choice for the 80's period.

Nebraska is his solo acoustic masterpiece.

And for something more recent, go with The Rising.

Quite a few choices...
 
get darkness on the edge of town!!

and nebraska and the rising. all three of them. right now. noooooooow!! what are you waiting for! gooooo!!!
 
its good to hear his beginnings to see how he progressed and know him for more than his born in the usa album, i would recommend

greetings from asbury park (never get tired of it, bob dylanish lyrics)
the wild the innocent and the e street shuffle (jazzy, fun record)
born to run (more structural songwriting, all good songs)
darkness in the edge of town (look at ^^)
nebraska (dark, acoustic)
ghost of tom joad (the 90s Nebraska, dark, acosutic and good)
the rising (return with the e street band, if you like u2's ATYCLB you might like this, good soulful rock songs with a sweet touch and a different approach to 9/11 without the patriotism or condemning the gov.)

edited to say his new cd comes out april 26 i believe, and is supposed to be in the lines of nebraska/ghost of tom joad.....cant wait
bruce_devils_dust.jpg
 
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Some of the best Bruce is live Bruce, so I want to recommend his live albums.
Live 1975-85 is a big boxset (3 CDs), but it's all worth it. It has his major songs up until Born In The U.S.A. plus many more. And his live renditions are way better than the studio recordings.

MTV Plugged is good too (if only for the versions of Atlantic City and Light Of Day). You can consider it a bit like a compilation of his Human Touch/Lucky Town albums.

Live In N.Y.C. is his most recent one, which saw him reunited with The E Street Band again. Some very good live songs, but an odd sequencing.

C ya!

Marty
 
kind of sad that no one's mentioned Tunnel of Love. Not as rocking as the other ones, but some GREAT songwriting on there. Valentine's Day is one of my favorite Bruce songs, and there's other great ones on there like Brilliant Disguise, Tougher Than The Rest, One Step Up, Ain't Got You, etc.

I don't really enjoy Born in the U.S.A. because it sounds really dated. The synth stuff on Dancing in the Dark is a little embarassing, and Glory Days just sounds '80s and cheesy. The title track has some great lyrics, but again, very dated.

Gonna have to go with The River because I'm a sucker for double albums. But Born to Run is maybe his most solid album. Short and sweet, and it has at least four genuine classics in Thunder Road, Born to Run, Jungleland, and Tenth Avenue Freeze Out.


laz
 
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I agree w/ the live recommendation-I love Live 75-85 and Plugged.

Try one of those and then, depending upon what songs you like from that, you can pick accordingly
 
:reject:

Edit: I do have nearly the whole Elvis Costello catalogue now.
And my telepathetic antenna's tell me Bruce seriously starts thinking about remastering his catalogue.



But the answer to your question is still: :reject:
 
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Popmartijn said:

And my telepathetic antenna's tell me Bruce seriously starts thinking about remastering his catalogue.
Click to expand...

Amen to that. Out of all the artists who have gone back and have their catalog remastered, my two favorites (U2 and Bruce) have yet to do so.

It's kind of frustrating when you can hear a previously unreleased song such as Loose Ends off of the Tracks box set and note how much better it sounds over a classic album cut like Incident On 57th Street or Racing In The Street.

And then you hear how great the songs that made it onto the Essential Bruce Springsteen sound, and it makes you clamor for it even more. :mad:
 
And oh, a BTW to my :reject: answer, Nebraska is higher on my list of non-remastered albums to get.
;)

(or should that be a double :reject: ?)
 
phanan said:
And then you hear how great the songs that made it onto the Essential Bruce Springsteen sound, and it makes you clamor for it even more. :mad:
Click to expand...

I agree. I'd love a nebraska remaster.

As for recommendations, like everyone has said so far, Nebraska and Darkness on The Edge Of Town, are two of my favourites.
 
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Born To Run
Darkness On The Edge Of Town
Born In The USA
The Rising

Any of those will be a good start really, they are all filled with great music. You can't go wrong with any of them, BITUSA is the only one that has a more pop 80's sound but still a lot of stuff that you'll like. Personally I think you should sart with Born To Run, I consider it to be his best. Remember on his induction spech for U2 he mentioned Born To Run on that list of the greatest classics ever! :D Let us know which album you will buy! :wave:
 
The four that TheBrazilianFly mentioned are definitely the most accessible, though I like Nebraska, Joad, and Greetings just as mcuh
 
I got into Bruce last year and my starting point was The Rising.

Also you will probably recognize several songs from Born in the USA as it is his biggest album.
 
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lazarus said:
kind of sad that no one's mentioned Tunnel of Love. Not as rocking as the other ones, but some GREAT songwriting on there. Valentine's Day is one of my favorite Bruce songs, and there's other great ones on there like Brilliant Disguise, Tougher Than The Rest, One Step Up, Ain't Got You, etc.
Click to expand...


good point about tunnel of love. unfortunatly my copy is on vinyl, so i only get to listen to it when i'm home. and my record player has recently grown legs and walked off to the living room, so that cuts down on what i'm able to listen to (family watching tv, studying, using my stereo for bad things).
 
phanan said:


It's kind of frustrating when you can hear a previously unreleased song such as Loose Ends off of the Tracks box set and note how much better it sounds over a classic album cut like Incident On 57th Street or Racing In The Street.
Click to expand...


rather irrelevant off-topic-ness:
loose ends has provided me with what is probably my favorite ever misheard lyric. for some reason, despite the fact that i know the line is, some part of my insists on singing "we poured some liquid tide around our necks" in the chorus everytime i listen to it.



edit: you mean "sounds better" in terms of audio quality rather than song preference, right? i was going to say something else, but that would be even more irrelavent than my comment on loose ends.
 
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IWasBored said:



rather irrelevant off-topic-ness:
loose ends has provided me with what is probably my favorite ever misheard lyric. for some reason, despite the fact that i know the line is, some part of my insists on singing "we poured some liquid tide around our necks" in the chorus everytime i listen to it.



edit: you mean "sounds better" in terms of audio quality rather than song preference, right? i was going to say something else, but that would be even more irrelavent than my comment on loose ends.
Click to expand...

I know it went a bit off-topic, but I was basically agreeing with Popmartijn that a remastering of the albums is desperately needed.

Yes, I was referring to sound quality when talking about Loose Ends.
 
phanan said:


I know it went a bit off-topic, but I was basically agreeing with Popmartijn that a remastering of the albums is desperately needed.

Yes, I was referring to sound quality when talking about Loose Ends.
Click to expand...

i wasn't accusing you of off-topic-ness, i was providing a disclaimer for my post.
 
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