The Boss Recovery™ Dept. - Darkness, Darkness

Rock critics, the solemn souls, tend to revere Darkness On The Edge Of Town for its stripped-down "honesty". Gone is the Spectorian sweep of Born To Run, but gone too, long gone, is the romance dance of The Wild, The Innocent, And The E Street Shuffle. The title says it all - this was where Springsteen found himself, trapped between the lights of the city and the endless night, more born to hide than run. There are songs of fist-pumping defiance here, but in the context of a depressing piece of work made by a depressed man. No denying it's good, but good for what? Staring into an empty glass, maybe, alone at the end of the bar. Shit happens. Where Springsteen offered redemption in Born To Run, there's no salvation here, just a big helping of nowhere to go.

The cover [left - Ed.] showed, he said, that side of him, the guy in the songs. Implicitly, then, not him. It's a make-over - Bruce as pretty-boy punk, pimped-up and primed for that last ride; but with its artfully disarrayed coiffure and James Dean sulk it looks fake rather than posed,  fake real. Its slight variation on the back cover - shall we try it without the jacket? whaddya think? with? without? - shows a lack of confidence and imagination. Either could have been on the front, neither should. Frank Stefanko, a great photographer, took many better shots, and we must blame The Boss's signature lack of visual suss. Colleen Sheehy, curator of the exhibition Springsteen: Troubadour of the Highway, sez they "show a sublime convergence of singer and image at a critical point in Springsteen's career", so what do I know. I know I'd never refer to Springsteen as a *choke* troubadour of the highway, fercrissake. The same photoshoot was used for the shitpost fanart - sorry, sublime convergence - cover of The River. Our re-cover [above - Ed.] follows the literary approach of the others in the Boss Recovery™ program. There are very suitable Stefanko alternatives, but I wanted Bruce out of the picture, like a book jacket. Relax, girls - there'd be a fab pic - preferably a band shot - on the gatefold.

This album has slid down my ooh-want-to-hear-this list over the decades to the point where a recovery exercise wasn't as enjoyable as I hoped. It's a sullen thing, for the most part, and even the fist-pumping tracks tend to be compromised by a sense of obligation. Racing In The Street - incredibly - has the same story as the Beach Boys' ecstatic I Get Around but tells it as a funeral dirge, because this is how depression works. So my question is, why listen to this instead of that? It took Springsteen another couple of years to get happy, and while The River has risen (SWIDT?) in my appreciation and enjoyment, Darkness has fallen (SWIDT?). 

There are many, many, alternate and extended versions of this album out there, fan playlists and official releases, but this one is a little different, curated [you mean compiled, you jackass - Ed.] for playability, not archival completion. The few additions, I hope, let a little light into the darkness, and it's resequenced to avoid the original's side-long slides from defiance to defeat. The result is an album that doesn't depress quite so much shit out of the listener, which may not be according to your taste, but give it a spin on th' den Victrola anyways, why don'cha. Me, I'm heading back to the beach - surf's up!

That track list in full (click for biggenheimer):