Customer Reviews

Greetings From Asbury Park Nj

5 star:		(50)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I am a brand new, 19-year-old Bruce fan. I have just finished reading the rest of the reviews and I am confused. A good friend of mine gave me two of Bruce's cd's to start off with: "Greetings..." and "The Wild..." I'd never heard Bruce before, and I was completely astonished when I heard it. Bruce Springsteen is absolutely incredible. I listened to it nonstop for a month, and easily picked out what I considered to be the best. On "Greetings", two of my favorites were "Mary, Queen of Arkansas" and "The Angel", second only to "Lost in the Flood." I don't understand why all the reviews seem to cast those as the weakest points of the album. What struck me about Bruce was his compassion, intensity, and the forcefulness of his poetic, melancholic yet youthful sincerity. I find those qualities most in the songs that everyone else finds lacking. I am now at the complete mercy of Bruce's romantic, expressive genius and I will faithfully stick by that side of him. I hope I'm not the only one who appreciates these masterpieces.

This CD presents a young and interesting Bruce Springsteen, performing songs with an early version of the E Street Band. Despite the fact that The Wild, The Innocent...would be released later that year, this album is very different than that album. This album has more Dylan-esque tendencies than that release, revealed on songs like "Does This Bus Stop At 82nd Street?," "Mary, Queen of Arkansas," and "Growin' Up." These songs, more acoustic in nature than later Springsteen (except Nebraska and Tom Joad), are a welcome change of pace from later, rock oriented Springsteen. Along with those two tunes, this album also includes the fabulous(to say the least) rocker "For You" and the moody "Spirit In The Night," a radio favorite. Although many casual fans consider "Spirit In The Night" to be the pinnacle of early Springsteen, it is not even the best song on the album, as it is easily rivaled by "It's Hard To Be A Saint In the City," "Lost In The Flood," and "For You." "Blinded By The Light," the opening number, has a great funky feel to it, with some interesting, stream-of-conciousness-lyrics. Even the oft-forgotten "Mary..." has some great, sensitive lyrics. While not as good as his next release, this album is a definite buy for any Springsteen fan or even a Dylan fan looking for some new tunes.

We all know Born to Run and The River and these are great albums. But if you love Bruce, this is the one you must have! It was his first studio album and the best he ever put out. The lyrics in these songs brings you through his painful, drug fenzied, lonely, and sexy moments from his early life. For You is probaly his best and most underrated tune. It will give you goosebumps when he screams out "and who am I to ask you to lick my sores..." Spirit in the Night and Blinded by the Light are the best known hits from this record. Growing Up is the rebel's anthem and The Flood will rip your heart out. So if you are a Bruce fan you must add this to your collection. But understand, this is not Born in the USA or Tunnel of LoveIt is wild, young, and raw!

Bruce Springsteen was often called the new Bob Dylan during his early career, and Greetings From Asbury Park, NJ is the prime reason why. Those who called him the new Dylan pointed to Springsteen's imagery and stream-of-consciousness lyrics, which resembled Highway 61 Revisited-era tunes.

But Greetings is a whole different beast entirely. It certainly owes a debt to Dylan lyrically, but musically it's more expansive. It sure ain't Born to Run, but you can feel the fire growing, and there are some definite classics here: "Blinded by the Light," (later covered poorly by Manfred Mann) "Growin' Up," (my personal favorite) "Lost in the Flood," and "Spirit in the Night" are all great, great songs from a hungry young talent. And the rest is awfully good, too. Springsteen is a bit more optimistic here; even when he gets downbeat, there is an overall excitement to the album that keeps it from being overly depressing.

Considering where Springsteen was headed, this is rather surprising. In fact, one could hardly guess that in less than a decade, he would release the barebones (but brilliant) Nebraska. It's an exciting, exhilirating album that could easily be ranked among the best debuts ever (including Led Zeppelin, Please Please Me, Crosby, Stills, and Nash, and whatever else you have to throw at it). There's no doubt that Bruce would improve on the elements that make Greetings an undeniable success. Indeed, The Wild, the Innocent, and the E Street Shuffle, released the following year, shows impressive lyrical and musical expansion. But there's something so youthful and breathtaking about this album that it remains a wholly unique gem in Springsteen's catalog, and as good an album as any to start listening to him.

True, the music production on this album is not great. It's not as horrible as some of the reviews make it out to be, but it is still nothing to write home about. That being said, the writing is excellent. Yes, it is rambling and wordy, but the songs on this album (as well as The Wild, the Innocent, and the E Street Shuffle) are the most poetic songs Bruce has ever written. There's a mixture of folk, jazz, rock, solo piano numbers, and solo acoustic numbers. It may be too eclectic for some, but for me personally, it showcases the range of Bruce's talent.

If nothing else, purchase the album for the exhilirating poetry that seeps through every song. True, he would release better-sounding music, but his songs would never be as poetic as this again.

Greetings From Asbury Park served notice that there was a new musical force on the scene. On his debut, Bruce showed he was the best songwriter to come along since Bob Dylan. The album kicks off with the musical tounge twister "Blinded By The Light" that showed Bruce wasn't a typical singer-songwriter. The song has a funky riff and is replete with horns. "Spirit In The Night" introduced the E Street sound and is a precursor to the character oriented songs that would appear later on Born To Run & Wild. "Does This Bus Stop at 82nd St?" is fun and "For You" is a rare rock song about suicide. "Growin' Up" & It's So Hard To Be A Saint In The City" show early signs of Bruce's "Tramp" persona. "Lost In The Flood" is the great forgotten Bruce song and is as good a song as he has ever recorded. While Greetings is uneven at points ("Mary, Queen of Arkansas' & "The Angel"), it shows an artist who had a very original sound and huge potential. It is great to throw it in the cd player and hear a young, raw and hungry Bruce Springsteen and listen to where it all started.

I bought "Greetings..." because I was obsessed with "Spirit in the Night", and because I'd only ever heard Manfred Mann's version of "Blinded by the Light." What I got was a shocking, raw look inside Bruce as a young man, full of life and ideas and new feelings. This is the album I turn to when I am sad, angry, mad, anything- it is a range of feelings, starting out with the madly twisting "Blinded...", which always makes me laugh. Then comes "Growing Up," the rebel song, in which Bruce says, "When they said sit down, I stood up." "Mary, Queen of Arkansas" contains a favorite line of mine: "But I was not born to live to die, and you were not born for queening." Next is another slightly silly, yet also deep, song, "Does This Bus Stop At 82nd Street?"- "Rex said that lady left him limp/Love's like that- sure it is." Track 5 is "Lost in the Flood," which seems to detail a day in the life of a guy walking through the city. Track 6 is "The Angel," a solemn tribute to a biker and his girl; followed by the upbeat tempo and seemingly suicide-wrought lyrics of "For You." 8 is "Spirit in the Night," probably the best known tune on the album, and everything closes with "It's Hard to Be A Saint in the City," a true rock song with great visuals. In fact, the whole album is filled with imagery, from the problems of the "Blinded..." characters to the "prince of the paupers" and the "pimp's main prophet" in "...Saint in the City." An absolute must. Even the non-Bruce fans I know were blown away by it, most often by "For You."

I enjoy listening to this CD. I am impressed with eloquence of the lyrics. Bruce Springsteen has been compared favourably to Bob Dylan and Woodie Guthrie, and I endorse that comparison. The problem I have with writing about this album is that, regarding the lyrics, while it may not be the best that Springsteen will become, it is so far ahead of anything I've heard elsewhere, it is in a league of its own. Most of what I hear from others are lyrics; this man writes poetry. First of all, there are enough words here to fill up at least two albums. ;D Second, Sprinsteen is aware of diction, ennunciation and metre. For example, please consider this verse from FOR YOU:

And your strength is devastating

in the face of all these odds.

Remember how I kept you waiting

when it was my turn to be the god?

There is more here than what is said. Further, the metre is clear enough that I can sense the beat of the song it will be a part of. Bruce can RAP with the best. Penetrating, perpetual punctuating prose is his speciality. Dodge this sharp jab if you can, from BLINDED BY THE LIGHT:

Some silicone sister

with her manager mister

told me I got what it takes.

Indeed he does. The sentence starts out fast and ends slowly. Alittle alliteration goes a long way, on the tongue of this poet. The phrases "silicon sister" and "manager mister" are sardonic to the point of presenting the statement "I got what it takes" as dubious or insincere. At the very least, I sense some manipulation going on. So, while I agree that Mr Sprinsteen would go on to write even better songs, and yes, there are songs that seem to fall short on this album, it is still extremely worthwhile for its lyrical content. If you are interested in poetry in rock 'n roll music, or music with a great beat that says something meaningful, this CD will interest you.

1972 was the year a young kid from New Jersey was discovered by John Hammond sr. Springsteen had been in various bands by then. He did some recordings for his first the Castilles and Steel Mill, none of which got any serious circulation or is available today. At the time of his discovery Springsteen had retreated in the coffee house circuit to focus on his songwriting. Being a scruffy looking kid with an acoustic guitar, Hammond mistook him for the new Bob Dylan. Springsteen himself wasn't so sure which direction his career should take. It wasn't halfway till through the sessions that Hammond discovered Springsteen was a mean electric guitarist as well and an early E-Street band was hastily assembled. The haste and uncertainty shows on the record. The end result is an elective affair of rock, soul, jazz and folk, a mixed blessing.

At the time Springsteen wasn't yet the troubadour of the working class he'd become a few years down the line. Asbury's dense lyrics dealt with growing up in Asbury, dreams of making it in music and city life. The colorful characters Springsteen portraits he'd meet on the Jersey Shore and were often highly romanticized.

On Asbury Springsteen offers us an opportunity to grow up with him. "I stood stone-like at midnight suspended in my masquerade, I combed my hair till it was just right and commanded the night brigade" he sings as he gets ready to hit the Jersey night. "I came for you, for you, I came for you, but you did not need my urgency, I came for you, for you, I came for you, but your life was one long emergency" he moans at young and unrequited love. "By the time we made it up to Greasy Lake I had my head out the window and Janey's fingers were in the cake, I think I really dug her 'cause I was too loose to fake, I said, "I'm hurt." She said, "Honey let me heal it"." Springsteen sings only moments later when he does get to enjoy the magic of adolescent sex. This clearly another Springsteen than we would encounter a few years later, this punk is headstrong, determent to make it yet still discovering himself and the world around him, not yet ready to leave his surroundings.

Only the soldier in Vietnam asking "Have you thrown your senses to the war or did you lose them in the flood?"" betrays the Springsteen to come. But that is another story altogether. Although Asbury got rave reviews is was a commercial dud. It would only pick up sales later when Springsteen broke into the big league.

When people first heard Bruce Springsteen's 1973 "Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J.," they said that he was the next Bob Dylan. But, with all due respect to Bob, that would be too simple. I can see what they were trying to say, though. Each song was a saga bursting with words. Springsteen, on this record, has always been guilty of trying to fit too many words into each bar of music. (Check out these lines from his opening song, and one of the more well known tunes from Springsteen's early days, "Blinded By The Light":

"Go-cart Mozart was checking out the weather chart to see if it was safe to go outside/
Little Early-Pearly came by in her curly-wurly and asked me if I needed a ride/
Oh, some hazard from Harvard was skunked on beer playing backyard bombardier."

His redemption is that the stories he told needed every single one of the words he chose for his sagas. One word less, and they would be choking for breath.

Early and first-time listeners of this record didn't really know that two years later, they wouldn't be hearing this folk-rock Springsteen sound again till about 20 years later. If they had known, they would have paid more attention. "Greetings" was a commercial failure, despite a relatively above-average critical response. It's a difficult record to get into - much easier if you were already a Springsteen fan weaned on Born To Run (1975) and Born In The USA (1984), although the fact that only Garry Tallent and Clarence Clemmons from the now permanent E Street Band play here may be somewhat of a damper, too (what, no Little Steven? No Mighty Max?). It's difficult for the reasons stated earlier - when you have what's amounted to a song poem of Chaucer proportions set against minute musical maneuvers, where does your attention go? It's just too much for a good time rock tune. Without patience, this record may be lost on the most saintly of rock fans.

While the faster tunes - "Does This Bus Stop At 82nd Street" & "For You" and the aforementioned"Blinded By The Light" - are jammy numbers with a tight sound grounded, but not inhibited by, garage band roots, Springsteen's soul in the early 1970s are better manifested through the ballads ("Mary Queen Of Arkansas", "The Angel", and "Lost In The Flood"). Bruce has never sounded so poignant, so lost - yet you get the feeling that he's found his emotion through this music. From "Mary Queen Of Arkansas":

"I'm just a lonely acrobat, the live wire is my trade/
I've been a shine boy for your acid brat and a wharf rat of your state."

The singing and the wail of the harmonica are as tormented as the words. Although Springsteen would later produce more stories of defeat and gloom ("Thunder Road", "The River"), these early ones aren't protected by a surer, steadier hand at the production panel and a more mature musicianship.

Which leads me to feel that this record was Springsteen's Purgatory. To play a heavenly blues guitar, you need to first cleanse your soul, by selling it to the devil. To launch into that type of rock & roll that makes you walk on air, you need to come to terms with the angst. Bear it, share it, and let the force of it propel you into musical proportions you've never known before. In later works, you feel like you're sitting next to Springsteen in the front of a pick-up as he takes you along on his rock & roll road trip. On "Greetings", - you're in the next car peering in at the car rolling slowly down the dirt road, the driver's hand gripping the steering wheel tight, tears at the corners of his eyes. When the record closes with "It's Hard To Be A Saint In The City," you already know that in Springsteen's world, it's hard to be a saint anywhere.

"The devil appeared like Jesus through the steam in the street/
Showin' me a hand I knew even the cops couldn't beat/
I felt his hot breath on my neck as I dove into the heat/
It's so hard to be a saint when you're just a boy out on the street."

In so many ways, the picture of a skinny Springsteen grinning like a monkey on the back of the record is really apt. Not yet beefed up like the Boss days of the 1980s, no emotional trauma from divorce, Springsteen is almost like a happy-go-lucky troubadour who got caught in troubled waters ever so often - the music is sparingly simple when compared to the Wall of Sound effects on Born To Run. At the time of this record's release, Bruce Springsteen had not yet met Jon Landau, and Landau had not yet heard or seen Springsteen play. Thus, the "future of rock & roll" would not yet be discovered, although his legacy would have already begun.