The River

Posted at 3:01 PM on October 29, 2007 by Mac Wilson

During this year's Minnesota State Fair, I wrote up the Clash's Sandinista! one "side" at a time. In honor of the October Member Drive, and because Bruce Springsteen will be playing at Xcel on Friday night, I decided to do a write-up of Bruce's 1980 double album, The River.

When I told fellow Current DJ Bill DeVille I had chosen The River, his immediate reaction was, "Not my favorite of [Springsteen's]" I had a number of reasons for picking The River, and one of them ties directly into Bill's point. I wanted to profile something from Springsteen's "classic" period from 1975-1984; this is nothing against The Wild, the Innocent, and the E Street Shuffle, Tunnel of Love, or The Rising, I just wanted something from his peak period of popularity. I feel like the Borns have been analyzed plenty in their own right, and Darkness on the Edge of Town and Nebraska have a rabid fan base that I didn't want to infuriate. The River, on the other half, is squarely in the middle of this string of classic albums, and it's arguably the true launching point for his gargantuan, Born in the U.S.A.-era level of fame. It also naturally serves as a historical, conceptual, and thematical counterpart to Sandinista! (if Wikipedia is to be believed, it was the announcement of The River as a double album that prompted the Clash to extend Sandinista! to a third record). The River is also a sentimental favorite of mine; it was actually the first Springsteen album I ever heard. I purchased a vinyl copy in pristine condition from a thrift store in the summer of 2001, and I listened to it again and again in July and August of that year. Finally, I chose this album because of its famous sequencing, a tactic that Bruce has revisited on his newest album, Magic.

I hope to touch upon these points and others over the course of the week. I'll be covering one side of the original double vinyl record each day for the next four days. Check back every afternoon, as we wade into The River and get even more fired up for the big show on Friday night!

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