6. The River (1980)

Here we go. From this point on in the countdown, it’s one unimpeachable classic after another. Everyone has their loyalties, and this will likely be a more contentious section than the stuff dealing with the newer records. Honestly, it’s a lineup of albums where, if I was reading someone else’s list, I could easily see their argument for any of these taking the No. 1 slot. Even if I might raise my eyebrows, I’d get it. So as much as I’d like to just start doing two- or three-way ties, here’s how I rank the albums that populate Springsteen’s classic years.

In a lot of ways, The River is Springsteen’s most unbridled rock record, the result of a few different influences converging. Released in 1980, The River took inspiration from the punk movement (as elements of Darkness On The Edge Of Town had as well) and features a lot of Springsteen’s most straightforward rock songs. Long gone are the operatic embellishments of Born To Run, and there’s a different energy from the often dour Darkness. The rawness here is primarily jubilant. Springsteen gave guitarist Steven Van Zandt a larger producer role, and Van Zandt sought the looseness of old-school garage rock. Moving away from doing lots of overdubs, the record was primarily recorded by having the band play through the songs live over and over (apparently, Springsteen often selected one of the first few cuts anyway). The technique was effective, lending The River a raucousness and spontaneity that approximated the E Street Band’s ecstatic live show.

As buoyant and rollicking as much of the music on The River was, its themes are not celebratory. Springsteen viewed it as a direct continuation of the ideas and stories he explored on Darkness On The Edge Of Town, detailing the lives of characters who had fallen on hard times — this, after all, was 1980, during the other recession Springsteen drew inspiration from. He originally turned it in as a single album called The Ties That Bind (a name taken from a song that would remain as the opening track for The River), but wound up retracting it, and expanding it to the double album that would eventually be released, feeling that this expansiveness was necessary to get in all the ideas and stories he wanted to convey.

Back in the Tunnel Of Love entry, I talked about how different Springsteen’s discussion of relationships were at that point in his career. There was a shift here, too, the dynamics of family intertwined with the economic struggles these songs’ protagonists experience. It’s there in the album’s title track, a tale of an accidental pregnancy and its ramifications, a song Springsteen wrote for his brother-in-law and his sister, who got pregnant when she was 18. It’s there in the original title of The Ties That Bind.

There’s a dissonance, then, between the brightness of the music and the heaviness of a lot of the lyrics. To be fair, there are of course a lot of more solemn songs — fan favorites “Drive All Night” and “Wreck On The Highway,” the excellent “Stolen Car,” the famous title track. Though I’ve always liked Springsteen’s solemn side, for some reason my favorite parts of The River have always been the pop songs. “Out On The Street,” “The Ties That Bind,” “Two Hearts,” “Hungry Heart” (then controversial because of how overtly radio-friendly it was), even the silly moments like “Crush On You” and “I’m A Rocker” — these songs feature some of Springsteen’s most infectious melodies and rhythms. Like all the stuff from Tracks, they highlight how unstoppable a songwriter Springsteen was during this time period.

More specifically to The River, though, they highlight the paradoxes and complexities of life and relationships that Springsteen was becoming more adroit at recognizing and describing. The return to older rock structures here was intentional: Springsteen described the idea that rock music was celebratory and cathartic, but also had an inevitable sense of confrontation. The dissonance of The River deepens the songs. After all, “The River” is symbolic of the crushed hopes of the characters who go down there even though they know it’s dry. But it can also be a place of healing, where you go to wash everything away.