![]() The lyrics set the scene, which is marvelously descriptive. The title, as with "Sandy", is appropriately cinematic - just setting the scene for the action within. I don't think there is any direct relationship between these songs in terms of the characters in them, but there is no denying that they all work together to produce an epic, widescreen portrait that is even greater than their individual charms (which are considerable). Incident on 57th Street - Thus begins the Side 2 "trilogy" of loosely linked urban nighttime scenarios. There'd be three other stops to come first. It also lies: Nebraska wasn't the next stop. It's a small scene and is filled with detail, a hallmark of Bruce's better future lyric writing, but is probably too verbose to leave lingering images in the mind of the listener. This is pretty clearly the weakest cut on the LP, and though it does have its charms, the story it tells doesn't really go anywhere significant. Wild Billy's Circus Story - This is the one song that could have appeared on his first album, as it has a bit of that folk feel, albeit warped by the presence of the tuba and Bruce's own warbly lead vocal. This is one of the absolute musical highlights of Springsteen's career. The instrumental section in the middle is where this track really cooks - the horns, the drums, the guitar, and especially David Sancious' organ. It was almost like Bruce-scat, which worked in the context of the music (and, let's face it, the lyrics on this track aren't among his most meaningful anyway) but was a far cry from the folkies' emphasis on clearly annunciated words. Kitty's Back - This is my personal favorite cut on the LP, although the lack of a lyric sheet (I think the only Springsteen album without one) made it impossible for me to figure out just what the hell he was singing in the opening lines. Stay or go? Thankfully for Springsteen fans, he went. This is a defining moment in a young life - it's decision time. The work of the band here is marvelously empathetic. Yes, the lyrical imagery is a bit overwrought and his vocal is perhaps too dramatic, but it all goes to serve the drama of the storyline and the music is suitably cinematic. He had bigger ambitions and needed to find a way out of a dead end circumstance. This is Springsteen surveying the late teenage/early 20s summertime Jersey Shore scene of the early 1970s and declaring "this boardwalk life is through". A perfectly realized slice-of-life tale that fits its title on the nose. ![]() I hear a bit of Little Feat here.Ĥth of July, Asbury Park (Sandy) - This is the artistic high-point of the album, at least lyrically. Bruce's vocal is poor (a problem that creeps in periodically through this album he sings it with that annoying marbles-in-his-mouth slurring that he would thankfully retire after this early period of his career), but this is as funky as the E Street Band ever got. It's a nothing song lyrically, but the band carries it. The E Street Shuffle - I didn't like this track for the longest time, but it has grown on me over the past 20 years or so. At the time, he probably didn't realize where his strengths were - he just wanted to make some sort of an impact. As such, it's a bit of a case of Bruce wearing another man's clothes here, but the songs are so great and the band so perfectly suited to play this type of music that it ends up hardly mattering that the album doesn't really play to Springsteen's strengths. It shows little folk influence and sees him appropriating a sound that he didn't seem to have the greatest affinity for - the Jersey Shore bar band mix of white soul/R&B and rock. I would argue that it is probably the least representative of all of his albums, or the least-Springsteenian. In many ways, it's the odd (or wild) child in Springsteen's catalog. WIESS is a quantum leap forward creatively. However, this is where most of the comparisons to Bruce's debut end. It also didn't sell much at all upon its initial release (although it did garner Springsteen a following in Philadelphia) and didn't achieve real commercial success until after the BIUSA boom over a decade later. As with Greetings From Asbury Park N.J., I didn't hear The Wild, The Innocent And The E Street Shuffle until probably the mid-1980s.
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