Bruce Springsteen – The River

My 1980 Dutch pressing mastered by Ken Perry. The music is kinda dated but the nail in the coffin in my first playing for several years is the sound. Extremely thin and weak. No bass to speak of. Poor separation of instruments and little power in the vocals. It sounds like the stereo system is in another room, which is the opposite of the cliche' "it sounds like they are playing in the room with me"

Amazing sounding pressing. This is the one to get! OG!

Did anybody notice where Jon Bon Jovi got his influences - listen to the song "Point Blank" and you will see!

Springsteen had been moving in this direction for some time now, most fans caught glimpses of it … it was as if Bruce purposely was trying to out run himself, to take a step beyond providing the usual Springsteen magic. So I ask you, “What better way is there to shed your skin?” With the answer of course being, “To overload the senses with a double album of twenty songs that can’t be tied together, that will never create a sonic whole, nor will those songs ever create a romanticized cinematic vision of living on the edge, with just enough money in one’s pocket to get them through the night and into the next day.

There are those who will imply that The River is a contemporary version of “The Grapes of Wrath” played out with guitars along the Jersey shore. Others are going to infer that The River is part of a trilogy, where Born to Run fuses with Darkness on the Edge of Town, where they in turn fuse with this outing, but methinks, as much as I love Bruce, that concept is a pretty big leap, one that’s more biblical than factual. That being said, Bruce was in possession of fifty songs that were tucked away from his Darkness sessions, and who knows how many were set aside from Born to Run. All of that material could certainly have lead to this double disc set, and if that’s the case, we really don’t have a new album to hold, as a new album suggests a step beyond the last album, and not the assemblage of once considered material that’s been revamped … just something for you to ponder. But then it really doesn’t matter, revitalizing that old material is just fine, it gave Bruce a chance to expand and evolve his thoughts and attitudes.

, titling this album The River (which he anticipated calling The Ties that Bind) is highly suggestive, where one could easily see Bruce setting sail across the smooth waters, gliding with the current, yet under those waters, hidden within those drifting currents are undercurrents that can lead one onto rocks, where a lounging day in the sun finds you head over heals, striving just to stay alive.

I think the biggest issue fans had with The River, is that none of it really seemed natural, where as good as many of the songs were, there was a sincere self-consciousness that Bruce couldn’t out distance, as if he’d painted himself into a corner and the record, no matter how hard he tried, would never unfold or blossom as Born to Run had, because The River wasn’t a singular conceptual thought. Nor would The River tie up everything into an earth shattering crescendo that would take listener’s breath away, leaving them staggering, limp and weary with delight. Not withstanding, Bruce has been moving toward a more gritty feel, away from the polished emancipations of before, where whether he though this relayed a more honest deliverance or not, the results did not go unnoticed. At this point I could go into Bruce’s fascination with punk, but Bruce wasn’t a punk, he was far to great a musician and songwriter to ever be punk, yet there was something about punk that captured the hearts of so many, even if it was something they could never be. But I’ll leave that for another time.

To my way of thinking, The River would have been far better as The Ties that Bind, the single album originally visioned, woven of considered concerted dynamic romantic numbers, instead of going in far too many directions at once, giving Bruce ample room to roam around, to be sentimental, hopeful, lost and even goofy at times, all leaving The River to be rather paradoxical. The tenor of the record also changes with every few songs, leading one to see this album as a series of snapshots rather than a conceptual whole; which is pretty much how we live our lives, a series of snapshots strung together that don’t make a whole ‘till one is old enough to look back on them with the benefit of age and hindsight. In other words, the prevailing ideology of life comes down to binaries … heroes and villains, victories and losses, highs and lows, sins and redemptions, where to that end, The River is a resounding success.

Certainly The River can be seen as a comprehensive journey, yet for as good as it is, when push comes to shove, it all sounds as if it’s being forced into existence. All of this leads me to suggest that there’s an underlying question presented on The River, that question is never spoken aloud nor even inferred, yet it’s there nonetheless, and that’s the question of “What comes next?”

Review by Jenell Kesler

I add spanish cassette issue https://discogs.librosgratis.biz/es/Bruce-Springsteen-The-River/release/8316579
I don't know year issue

Hm, I can see where Mac Demarco drew inspiration for his "2" album art now.

The very first pressing of the US pressing had the cover that lists HOLD UP WITHOUT A GUN, but the track was not included actually. The track was issued as b side of the hungry heart single. I i had a copy of this, bought right when it came out (it was listed at the end of side C or B ) I am sure of this but sold the album years ago so can not put the scans but I am absolutely sure of this. Anyone have a copy of this pressing?

In the last years I came across 3 different hype stickers attachted to the shrink of the original PC2 36854 US version:
- Blue rectangular sticker mentioning "Hungry Heart", "Cadillac Ranch" and "Fade Away"
- Blue round sticker mentioning "Hungry Heart"
- White round sticker mentioning "Hungry Heart" (probably bleached out?)

Is there anyone who knows which one came first or do they just differ from the various pressing plants the records have been manufactured at?