The Albums of 1973: Bruce Springsteen: The Wild, the Innocent, & the E Street Shuffle

Release Date: November 5, 1973

Produced by Mike Appel and Jim Cretecos

Side One: The E Street Shuffle; 4th of July Ashbury Park (Sandy); Kitty's Back; Wild Billy's Circus Story

Side Two: Incident on 57th Street; Rosalita (Come Out Tonight); New York City Serenade

Bruce Springsteen's sophomore record The Wild, the Innocent, & the E Street Band built upon the homespun sound of his debut Greetings from Ashbury Park. 

"The E Street Shuffle" is lyrically similar to the New Jersey scenes on the first record, a celebratory opener full of consequence. "4th of July Ashbury Park" paints a portrait of a specific moment in time of the Jersey shore, cinematic in its scope with its heightened reality, even sounding archaic with references to "greasers" and "factory girls". The song is addressed to Sandy to whom the singer is confessing a heartbreak, and expressing a sense of time passing that will never return, at least for him. "Kitty's Back" is a bittersweet farewell to another legendary figure who enraptured the imagination of many in an ambitious composition moving from folk, R&B, and gospel. "Wild Billy's Circus Story" eulogizes a traveling circus in a curious hybrid of Dylan and Bradbury. 

Side two featured three 7+ minute epics critics often cite as Springsteen emerging as one of the great American songwriters. "Incident on 57th Street" tells a sprawling tragic love story of "Spanish Johnny" and "Puerto Rican Jane." The theatricality of the song would continues through Springsteen's work during the 1970s. "Rosalita (Come Out Tonight) is similar in sentiment, with Bruce switching to the first-person perspective. A standout from his early live shows, certain to send the audience out on a high note. "New York City Serenade" is the most abstract lyrically, more kaleidoscopic, and musically the most adventurous. 

While the record sold moderately, critical notices were strong, and it got a lot airplay in the Northeast. It's easy to view Wild & Innocent as mere prelude to Born to Run, but the album stands on its own with its sprawling romanticism and swashbuckling theatrics, one's left with no doubt Bruce and the band left it all on the record. 

The Albums of 1973: Bruce Springsteen: Greetings from Ashbury Park, N.J.

Release Date: January 5, 1973

Produced by Mike Appel, Jim Cretecos

Side One: Blinded by the Light; Growin' Up; Mary Queen of Arkansas; Does this Bus Stop at 82nd St?'; Lost in the Flood

Side Two: The Angel; For You; Spirit in the Night; It's Hard to Be a Saint in the City

Greetings from Ashbury Park marked the debut of one of the most vibrant and iconic voices in Rock - Bruce Springsteen. A working-class New Jersey kid, Springsteen, like millions was enraptured with the romance and promise of rock music, a step towards the promise of something revolutionary, even Utopian.

He played in many bands, shaping a sound and style with many musicians along the way in what would evolve into the E Street Band. In 1972, he was signed by Columbia and recorded the first album.

Springsteen's musical and autobiographical influences are all over Greetings From Ashbury Park, while also introducing themes and locales that would carry though his entire body of work. Verbose and romantic, Greetings made moderate sales but garnered glowing reviews from critics. 

Taking a cue from Dylan's 1965 LP Bringing it all Back Home, Greetings was initially intended to be divided between acoustic numbers and tracks recorded with the band, but only two acoustic songs made the final cut: "Mary Queen of Arkansas" and "The Angel." The former could be compared to Dylan's "Ramona", but also introduces the desperate star-crossed lovers on the run in so many of his songs. "The Angel" is a piano number, vaguely reminiscent of Randy Newman's mini epics, but also referencing Kerouac's road prose poetry, Bruce adds a touch of Gothic darkness and despair, a zone of pitiful desperation and dead ends. 

"Blinded by the Light", the bombastic opener written at the behest of Columbia who "did not hear a single," is one of the highlights of the record. Clearly Dylan inspired, while at the same time influenced by R&B and gospel, the surreal landscape of the song allows for playful wordplay:

And go-cart Mozart was checkin' out the weather chart to see if it was safe to go outside

And little Early-Pearly came in by her curly-wearly and asked me if I needed a ride

In the vein of Dylan's "Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again" minus the icy cynicism and more in line with Marc Bolan's jukebox anthems of dreamy imagery, the joyful call and response on the fadeout welcomes all to join in.

"Does This Bus Stop at 82nd Street?" is a poetical tapestry of New York Street scenes. "Lost in the Flood" revealed a cinematic lyrical style. Each of the three verses follows characters disillusioned with America in the wake of the Vietnam War, juxtaposed with violence and despair on city streets. "For You" is about a girl whose life was "one long emergency" in a frenetically paced vocal by Springsteen. 

"Spirit in the Night" eases the mood, a piano driven narrative held together by Clarence Carter's saxophone. Not interested in straight narrative, the song creates a youthful atmosphere, moments of release among wanderers of the night who will return in various incarnations on future songs. The closing track "It's Hard To Be A Saint in the City" begins with a jazzy piano and returns to street scenes with more adventure and temptation.

Other artists took notice of Ashbury Park, David Bowie was a fan and recorded versions of "For You" and "It's Hard To Be a Saint in the City." Fifty years later the sense of urgency still enraptures the listener and gives the album a distinct power. For anyone seeking new voices in 1973, one would've found it here.