By now, you probably know that I got some results out of my recent “open letter” to Bruce Springsteen. Kind of.
I was pulling for full album performances of Born To Run in St. Louis, and Darkness On The Edge of Town in Cleveland.
Announcements were made on Monday morning that both Cleveland and St. Louis will get Born to Run. So, yours truly will get to see Born to Run twice.
It’s a tough life, but someone has to live it!
Today’s Cage Match veers away from the traditional song vs. song format, and today we’re looking at two classic Springsteen albums – Born to Run and Darkness on the Edge of Town.
What’s your favorite album of the two: Born to Run or Darkness?
Sure, Born to Run has this one….
….but Darkness has THIS one!
What’s your favorite…..and why?
You'll have to read my contribution to The Light in Darkness for my full treatise on the subject, but I pick Darkness, for a bunch of reasons: It's gritty take on the human condition, the sheer power of its arrangements, the way it pulls hope kicking and screaming out of hopelessness. It's also the first true E Street Band album — I loved the meticulously placed strings and glockenspiels of BTR, but each member gets to shine individually, in all their raw glory, on Darkness. The coda of “Racing” would probably be enough to push Darkness past BTR in the final stretch.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0084707/
Not only “Prove It All Night”, but “Candy's Room”. Darkness all the way!
man this is a tough one….I love them both but my fav. by far is wild the innocent..If they ever did that whole album , i would have to go wherever that was performed…
I would say Born to run with the 2 punch to your face of meeting across the river and jungleland..
This is somewhat like asking a parent which child they prefer, but put me down for Darkness. It has a little to do, even after all these years, with my ability to suss out the fine points of an LP at age 18 vs 21, is further formed by the fact that I was working as a migrant laborer at the time of its release, and songs like Factory meant more to me, a non-driver, than the love affair with all things automobile that characterized much of BTR. I still think Adam Raised A Cain, both from the guitar standpoint and in its totality is nothing short of brilliant (not to mention pretty poignant for someone who had not spoken to their parents for 5+ years.
If I were to pick which one I'd listen to right now, it would be Darkness because I love the album and don't hear it enough, while one hears the songs from Born to Run more often (on the radio, in concert, various versions of the songs on my iPod, etc.). So Darkness seems a bit neglected and underrated. But which album is my favorite? Easy. It's Born to Run. It would be my favorite album against any other album by any artist. From the opening notes of Thunder Road the album starts to make its case for the greatest, with Born to Run sealing the deal. And that's not even mentioning Jungleland, Backstreets, etc.
(I love the guitar solo in the video you posted for Prove it All Night!)
I saw Springsteen a couple of weeks ago at Giants Stadium and I had the pleasure of seeing the “Born to Run” album in it's entirety. I have to go with “Born to Run” for the win because I absolutely love “She's the One”, and “Thunder Road” ain't too bad either. To be honest though, my fav Bruce album is probably “Nebraska”.
Let's make it a 4-song tag team match. Thunder Road, Backstreets, Born To Run, and Jungleland VS. Badlands, Racing In The Street, The Promised Land, and Darkness On The Edge Of Town. Born To Run wins after outside interference by “The Wrestler”…
Great question very difficult answer, however over the years I have gone back and forth on this question. This past week in Philly Bruce performed BTR on Tuesday and Darkness on Wednesday. Both albums were performed with typical Bruce energy and passion, after witnessing both albums I have to say that Darkness edges out BTR just barely. Both are classic with vignettes that the fans love like Born to Run vs. Badlands, or Racing vs Jungleland, Candy's Room vs. She's the one. But I believe Promise Land puts Darkness on top.
Great questioned difficult answer. Over the years I have gone back and forth on this subject. Having had the opportunity to see both albums performed in their entirely this past week in Philly, and seeing Bruce perform them with his all out passion and energy, I have to give the nod to Darkness. Both albums have there share vignettes to compete against each other like BTR vs Badlands, Jungle Land vs Racing, or Candy's Room vs She's the one, but Promise Land gives Darkness the edge, but not by much.
Dean,
I'm jealous – would love to see Darkness and Born to Run back to back!
I'll agree with you…and I always love hearing The Promised Land, by the way.
i think there both excellent albums (in my mind every springsteen album is), but i'd have to go with darkness as being the better album, though my favorite album is no doubt “the wild, the inniocent…”. but when i went to giants stadium on Oct 2nd and saw “Born in the USA” even though its his sterotypical and most widily reconigzed album, it was still the best live preformance i've ever seen. i hope the talks about Bruce retiring are just rumors.
I can appreciate what you're saying about BITUSA – I would have liked
to see that one. I saw BTR in St. Louis, and BITUSA was the next night
in KC. It was very tempting to go, but as you probably know, the show
was cancelled.
Born to run. and it's not close. The Stories are better. the whole album was/is more relatable to me. As good as “Racing in the streets” is(and it's so good it's makes me choke up) It's not as good as “Metting across the river” into “Jungleland”. BTR opens with Thunder Road, and NEVER LETS UP. all killer no filler. BTR was My 1st Bruce album, my 1st concert, (my mom took me to see them @ the Music hall in Boston 1975, I was 8). It's Born to Run.
Born to run. and it's not close. The Stories are better. the whole album was/is more relatable to me. As good as “Racing in the streets” is(and it's so good it's makes me choke up) It's not as good as “Metting across the river” into “Jungleland”. BTR opens with Thunder Road, and NEVER LETS UP. all killer no filler. BTR was My 1st Bruce album, my 1st concert, (my mom took me to see them @ the Music hall in Boston 1975, I was 8). It's Born to Run.