Massive Music List

For more than 35 years, Bruce Springsteen has set a standard of consistent excellence that few other rock and roll artists could ever hope to match. He has written so many great songs, as both a solo artist and with the E Street Band, that it would seem almost impossible to try and rank those classics one against another. And yet one fan was daring enough, or maybe foolhardy enough, to try. Following up our Beatles and Stones countdowns, JamsBio presents “No Retreat, No Surrender,” a worst-to-first countdown of every album cut in Springsteen history, plus a few choice outtakes, live classics, and soundtrack songs – that’s 200 tunes ranked and defended. Check out JamsBio.com each day as the countdown is gradually revealed, and prepare to hit the message boards to defend your favorites.

The complete list to date.

The Last Five:

80. “Tunnel of Love” (from Tunnel of Love)

79. “Across the Border” (from The Ghost of Tom Joad)

78. “Growin’ Up” (from Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J.)

77. “I’m On Fire” (from Born In The U.S.A.)

76. “Tougher Than the Rest” (from Tunnel of Love)

75. “Adam Raised a Cain”

From Darkness On the Edge of Town

LISTEN HERE

While punk rock was bubbling up like some sort of primordial beast on both sides of the pond, Bruce Springsteen fired right back in 1978 on this track from Darkness On The Edge Of Town with some of the fiercest music he’d ever recorded. He plays the guitar as if he’s trying to choke the life from his strings, and he sings with the primal howl once used by John Lennon for his landmark Plastic Ono Band album.

The demons Springsteen is trying to exorcise here are the familial kind. In a small town, the possibility of escape is directly related to your father’s lot in life, Springsteen argues. No matter the differences between father and son, their life’s path often runs to the same dead ends. “You inherit the sins, you inherit the flames.” By tying this phenomenon to Biblical characters, the protagonist is trying to insinuate that nothing really changes, but the anguished screams he uses to articulate this point makes it clear that this knowledge provides little consolation.

The music dismisses the grandeur of the Born To Run days, but sacrifices none of the power. The band shouts maniacally in response to Springsteen’s refrain, as if they can all relate. The music here cannot transcend the situation as on past songs; it can only express the pain. A missive written from “the dark heart of a dream,” “Adam Raised A Cain” is incendiary, thunderous, and still, for the characters trapped within, a heartbreaking exercise in futility.

74. “Terry’s Song”

From Magic

LISTEN HERE

If any one of you out there have attempted to eulogize someone, you know what a difficult task it is. As someone who’s done it twice now, I feel like my efforts were woefully inadequate in proportion to the impact of the loved ones I was attempting to salute. It’s hard to do it without resorting to clichés, and it’s even harder to sum up a lifetime’s worth of feelings with a few concise thoughts.

On June 23, 2007, Springsteen’s longtime personal assistant Terry Magovern passed away, and Bruce, ever loyal, wedged this touching tribute onto his already finished album, Magic. In doing so, he provided a primer for every eulogist to come, a poetic yet accessible set of lyrics that, since they keep clear of specific attributes, can be used to honor just about any individual considered whose loss is deeply felt.

Bruce’s main trick is contrasting the indestructibility of some of man’s most lasting monuments to the fragility of one human soul, and then insisting that those monuments don’t stand a chance in terms of their impact on the world. As the soul leaves for that “dark ether,” those it leaves behind are irrevocably altered for the better by the time they were graced by its presence. “Terry’s Song” manages to uplift even while it’s breaking your heart, and Terry Magovern must be getting a kick out of the fact that he’s being indirectly honored every time some eulogist, at a loss for words, uses this song as a cheat sheet.

73. “The Wish”

From Tracks

LISTEN HERE

Bruce Springsteen wrote so many songs about his troubled relationship with his father that you could probably put together a Greatest Hits album just with those songs alone. But he didn’t write much about his Mom, Adele, mainly because, by all accounts that I’ve read, they got along just fine. Songs about loving your mother don’t really make great rock and roll, I suppose, but Bruce took the time during the Tunnel Of Love sessions to toss off this loving ode to Adele that combines detailed memories, a genial sense of humor, and true emotion to comprise a truly moving portrait of their relationship.

The music is a bit generic, just some simple acoustic guitars and synths with a vaguely Motown feel to the proceedings. There isn’t really a chorus to speak of, just verses, and you get the feeling that Bruce never intended it as an album contender. It’s simply a gift, and don’t we all wish we could salute Mom as tenderly.

After retelling some childhood memories, including how he received his first guitar for Christmas, Bruce yields a glimpse into what Adele did for him: “If Pa’s eyes were windows into a world so deadly and true/You couldn’t stop me from looking but you kept me from crawlin’ through.” In other words, she saved Bruce from living the life of his father, giving him the freedom he needed to allow his God-given talent to shine through.

In repayment, he offers to take his mom out for a dance and to sing her favorite song, as long as it’s of an upbeat nature. After hearing “The Wish,” you’ll wonder why every groom doesn’t choose it for the dance with his mom at the wedding reception, thereby banishing “Wind Beneath My Wings” to the special hell it deserves. Specifics of the situation aside, it gets right to the heart of the universal bond between mother and son. As a Mama’s boy myself, well, let’s just say that it’ll be on the playlist at my wedding as well.

72. “From Small Things (Big Things One Day Come)”

From The Essential Bruce Springsteen

LISTEN HERE

Take two parts Chuck Berry and one part Pulp Fiction and you’ve got this beloved outtake recorded in 1979. What could have been a too-silly tale is grounded by Springsteen’s winning details, from the girl working in an all-night hamburger stand to the local place names.

The track is a rip-snorter, all snapping drums and bouncing 60’s organ. The retro-boogie style made it a good fit when roots-rocker Dave Edmunds did a cover version in 1982.
Bruce’s own version would remain unreleased until it found its way to the bonus disc of The Essential Bruce Springsteen, which contains several long-lost classics.

The irony of the title is inescapable; the big things that come from this girl are the abandonment of her kids, the cuckolding of her husband, and the murder of her new lover. Springsteen also slyly acknowledges his obsession with the automobile, as the murderess kills her lover because of his poor driving skills. There isn’t really a moral to be taken away from this one, but you can easily picture the movie poster.

71. “Outlaw Pete”

From Working On a Dream

LISTEN HERE

I’ve gone back and forth many times with this beast of a song, the opening track off Working On a Dream. I still have some problems with it, but the bottom line is that I never get tired of hearing it; it brings a rush every time.

Is Bruce biting off more than he can chew when he claims the song was inspired by the Bush administration and his belief that they refused to heed the mistakes of the past or expect consequences for the actions they committed? I think so. The song works better the less depth you try to lay on it. Best just to enjoy the Bunyanesque tale for what it is: A larger-than-life Western, almost supernatural in places, that casts a wary eye on the evil that men do.

Springsteen’s fascination with Westerns is well-documented; the music he chooses to accompany his saga is a perfect fit. It’s a little like a Ennio Morricone score mixed in with one of Jeff Lynne’s more elaborate ELO productions. The four-note main motif is movingly elegiac, even if some of the guitar fillwork unwittingly recall the melody of Kiss’ “I Was Made For Loving You.” (Trust me, you’ll hear it.)

The tale makes it clear that redemption is impossible; Pete’s ruthless past catches up with him eventually in the form of the sneering bounty hunter who tracks him down. Even before then, this bad man can sense the ghosts surrounding him in his sleep, hence his futile flight from home and hearth.

It all leads up to the final startling image, as Pete sits high on a snowy mountaintop and prepares to take a header with his steed over the ledge as his only means of true escape. It’s as if John Ford started to direct the picture and then David Lynch took over. It’s a bit of an uneasy mix, but it’s still endlessly fascinating.

The complete list to date.

Comments (7)