Customer Reviews

The River

5 star:		(56)
4 star:		(18)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Magnificent.

THE RIVER alternates between rockers like "Cadillac Ranch," "I'm A Rocker," and "Out In The Street," songs that sing of carefree summer teen years that sound like they're blasting from the windows of somebody's Camero along the boardwalk, and a big set of tunes that address the real world problems that tug at your heals behind those idyllic scenes.

The real heart of THE RIVER are Springsteen's characters struggles with love and relationships. They're all searching for somebody, finding somebody...but then what? So many of them run into brick walls, finding out all too quickly that the happy ever after ends before it starts. Haunting tunes like "Stolen Car" are hard to get past:

"She asked if I remembered the letters I wrote when our love was young and bold. She said last night she read those letters, and they made her feel one hundred years old."

But for all the hard times these characters come up against--losing love, driving girlfriends and their mothers to the unemployment office, struggling to keep a job--the final moment of THE RIVER is one of hope. After consoling a dying man at the scene of a horrific car crash, Springsteen sings of climbing in bed and watching his girl as she sleeps:

"I just lay there awake in the middle of the night, thinking about the wreck on the highway."

The road, which had been a vehicle of hope and escape on all of Springsteen's previous records, has been transformed into a black line between life and death; it is his love and home and security that suddenly seem comforting, instead of smothering.

But the next Springsteen LP, NEBRASKA, wouldn't stay at home...it follows those characters who chose to cross that black line and follow the road.

The day this album came out I was scheduled to go to a Yes concert with a bunch of my friends. It was my day off from my job, and at about 3:30 in the afternoon my boss called and begged me to come in. So not only was my day off blown, but I missed the concert and since my friends couldn't find a replacement, had to eat the 20 bucks I spent on the ticket. But while I was working, I found out that Bruce Springsteen's new album had just come out, so I called my mom and begged her to go buy it. That night when I came home, it was waiting for me, already on the stereo, and my mom (who had already listened to it) said "It's great" Well, mom was right. That was a long time ago, but I have never for one moment forgotten that day, or regretted the fact that I missed the Yes concert. To me The River came out of no-where. Two albums of great music. From full-blown dramas (Point Blank, Stolen Car) rock and roll rave ups (I'm a Rocker, Ramrod, Crush on You) and heartfelt ballads (Little Girl I Wanna Marry You, Fade Away) In fact, The River has two of Bruce's most personal and beloved songs, Independence Day and the title track. Two songs that his fans connect with almost as strongly as the singer himself. Now, every double album has it's share of filler. Even classics like The White Album, Songs in the Key of Life, The Wall and London Calling have one or two songs that could or should have been left in the vaults. I'm sure the River has it's share. (My vote would be Jackson Cage, the third song in what is an otherwise fantastic blast of rock and roll that kicks this album off ---The Ties That Bind, Sherry Darling and Two Hearts) but one song out of 20 ain't bad odds. This album changed Springsteen's career. With Hungry Heart it broke him into the mainstream, and with two albums worth of full blown rockers to choose from, it meant he no longer needed to depend upon up-tempo cover songs to flesh out his four hour, myth-making live shows. With the release of TRACKS, Springsteen revealed how much work and thought went into each and every album he released. There was a story he was trying to tell, and each album was another chapter in this musical novel. From Darkness to Born in the USA, Bruce was writing tons of songs, and recording them over and over. A song that didn't make it on Darkness was probably considered for The River or re-recorded for Nebraska and finally released on the B-Side of a Born In The USA hit. Springsteen has always been an artist that can create a mood in one instant, and blow it away in the next. In concert, he conveys a series of emotions, an air of gloom or sadness can fill the stage as he sings of lost souls and hoplessness, and then, in a moment, he can shine a light, like a preacher, lifting the entire audience to it's feet in a joyous rebirth. The River is the closest Springsteen has gotten to capturing that moment on tape. Darkness may have the sound of a Springsteen concert, and Born in The USA may have the thrill, but The River has the mood, the emotion, the range. For me, Bruce is like the Beatles or Dylan or The Stones or a handful other artist; it's almost impossible to say which album is his best. My choice would be Tunnel of Love, but if I had to choose one album that defined the man, that summed up to everything he stood for, that captured all of his hopes and beliefs, this would be the one. Springsteen is a great storyteller, and The River could be his most powerful tale.

The automobile has always held a special place in Bruce Springtseen's songs. To Mr. Springsteen, a car is not just a mode of transportation, but is a metaphor for life. He has always used car themes in his songs, but they come to the forefront on this sprawling two record set. The car takes on many shapes, in "Stolen Car" it's used as a cry for help, in "Drive All Night" it symbolizes devotion to his woman, in "Wreck On The Highway" it exposes life's fragility. In "Sherry Darling", the car is a source of aggrevation as he has to use to cart his mother-in-law around instead of hanging with his boys. Even though the car is a theme that runs throughout the album, Bruce explores other areas. The album contains probably his most personal song "Independence Day", which details his troubled relationship with his father. The album is both dark with troubled songs like the title track, "Point Blank" & "Fade Away" and upbeat with rockers like "Out In The Street", "Two Hearts", "Cadillac Ranch" and his first top ten song, "Hungry Heart" with peaked at number five. The River was his most accessible album to date and was his first number one album. The album solidified his presence as an artist who mattered and as a force on the charts.

The River is a very interesting album, because it seems to draw from everything that bruce had recorded before it, and the two albums he was to record next. This one isn't my favorite springsteen album, because i don't think it hits as hard as its two predeccessors. It shows signs of his next album, Nebraska, and even of the commercial success that was to come in 84, Born in the USA. It has some brilliant, amazing songs. "The River" is one of his best ever, "Sherry Darling" is reminicent of his first two albums, and "Point Blank" is a well written, driven song. This is a double album, so you get plenty. I'm more of a fan of the early springsteen. This isn't my favorite, because it's kind of a bridge to his later stuff, which is by no means bad, but which I don't think is as powerful. Definitely worth getting though. A fantastic album.

This is one strong album, probably the best and most versatile record Springsteen has ever delivered. A strong case can be made for "Darkness On The Edge Of Town" as well, and "Born In The USA", of course, but this is my favorite of the lot.
Some people like to hate it because it's too commercial and some of the lyrics aren't all that "deep". I suspect they would have been right up there with the hecklers, shouting "Judas" at Bob Dylan in the mid-60s when he went electric.

Me, I love this album. Great for a long ride in the car...just be careful when you change discs!
It spans the entire emotional spectrum, from the joyously defiant "Sherry Darling" to the hopelessness of the title track.
And while songs like the lightweight "Crush On You" and the monotonous "I'm A Rocker" aren't among Springsteen's most interesting, "The River" actually boasts some of his finest lyrics and some of his best melodies as well. The driving "Sherry Darling" and the top-5 single "Hungry Heart" are two of the greatest rockers he has ever recorded, and Bruce Springsteen cut one of his best and most mature songs at the age of thirty with "Independence Day".
The thundering "Cadillac Ranch" is also here, as are "Two Hearts", "Out In The Street", the ballad "Fade Away", and the angry "You Can Look (But You Better Not Touch)", and almost all of the lesser-known songs are excellent as well. "Jackson Cage" is a stomping, melodic rocker, "The Price You Pay", "Point Blank" and "Wreck On The Highway" are three very somber slow numbers, and if "I Wanna Marry You" is slightly too cute, it is also exquisitely melodic and impossible to resist.

There are more up-tempo numbers here than on "Darkness On The Edge Of Town", and more hooks as well, perhaps, but "The River" is not yet as straight-ahead pop-radio friendly as "Born In The USA"; it is grittier and spans more moods. To me, it is Bruce Springsteen's finest hour, one of the finest rock records of the 80s.

The River made Springsteen a superstar just as his political alter ego, Ronald Reagan, closed the deal with a disturbingly large percentage of the American electorate. The Boss and Gipper were both charmingly retrogressive, unequaled in their ability to make the old and forgotten seem new and essential. Reagan reached back to Calvin Coolidge and the Gilded Age; Springsteen, to the Drifters, Phil Spector, the Searchers and Eddie Cochran. But while Reagan hawked false optimism, Springsteen finally embraced punk pessimism, imagining characters who dreaded rather than dreamed of the future. From the deceptively cheery "Sherry Darling" to the bleak "Point Blank," failure and futility dammed The River's flow. The story begun with Born to Run and continued with Darkness on the Edge of Town ended here in doubt and the faded light of unhappy memories. So why the triple platinum success? Because Springsteen and the E Street Band conjured a rich and glistening sound that reminded me, as nothing had in years, of why kids loved rock 'n' roll in the first place. A record of its time, steeped in the past and capable of holding up long into the future.

If Bruce Springsteen had kept only the meaningful songs and left off the less-inspiring ones, "The River" could have been a masterpiece; it probably would have been whittled down to a single disc, but that disc would contain some of his best work, and the best only.
The problem with "The River" is the amount of bland, effortless 'rockers' that appear in inconvenient places. For example, 'Ramrod' appears right after the wonderfully haunting 'Stolen Car.' 'Cadillac Ranch' (one of the better upbeat tunes) and the predictable 'I'm A Rocker' don't seem to follow the dark and desperate 'Point Blank.' Somehow, the boring "rockin' songs" don't fit the longing and despair of the display of paper wedding dolls on the back cover, or the wonderful photograph of the actual Cadillac Ranch in Amarillo, Texas on the lyric foldout (that is, an awe-inspiring scene of rows of cars buried half way in the ground).
The true greatness of "The River" comes from honest and world-weary songs like 'Independence Day,' 'I Wanna Marry You,' and the title song, one that proves fairy tales often never come to be. Meanwhile Springsteen's classic view on the struggles of ordinary folk appear on 'The Price You Pay' and the unique perspective of 'Wreck on the Highway.'
Released between two of Springsteen's masterpieces, 1978's classic "Darkness on the Edge of Town" and 1982's genius "Nebraska", this album appears to be a mixed blessing, though its hit single ('Hungry Heart') confirmed his superstar standing. All told, when one ignores the disappointing rockers on this album and concentrates on the true gems, "The River" is one The Boss's most honest creations.

This is a very poigniant album and one of the best albums by any artist. Springsteen is very expansive on this album, touching on many different facets of life with a minimum of pretention.

My favorite songs are "Point Blank" and "Stolen Car." Anyone who's lived through a failed relationship should be touched by these songs.

Parts of the album continue the ode to blue collar life begun in "Darkness on the Edge of Town" including rockers like "You Can Look but you Better Not Touch," "Sherry Darling," and "Out in the Streets." Then there is the heartfelt blue collar ballad, "The River," as well as the other great ballads "Fade Away" and "Independence Day."

Then you have a bunch of his best good-time, flat out fun, rocking numbers like "Ramrod," "Cadillac Ranch," "I'm a Rocker," and "Crush on You." And don't forget the top ten "Hungry Heart." Despite a variety of styles the album is a very unified whole.

This is Bruce at his best, which is to say, rock at its best. An essential CD.

This is a monumental album for Bruce Springsteen. It's his White Album, his Exile on Main Street. Sure, there are those who say it could have used a bit of editing, but I'm glad he went over the top for this one.

One caveat though: This CD is in desperate need of remastering. Hello? Anyone out there? REMASTER THE RIVER and earn your fifth star!

This is the album which comes closest to capturing Bruce Springsteen's vision of what a vast, desolate yet hopeful country America had become as it entered the last quarter of the last century. It best captures the contradictory nature of human relations, and also gives us an unflinching glimpse of what can go wrong when we choose to sever those relations.

The greatest contribution that Springsteen has made to rock - besides the wonderful wonderful garage band-fervor of his life shows - has been the psychological depth of his lyrics. On songs like "Stolen Car," anf "Point Blank," he shows us hidden truths about ourselves that no one before him had ever been brave - or talented - enough to address.

The rockers here are just as insightful: Who would have thought a rockabilly rave-up like "Cadillac Ranch" would include lines like "So Buddy When I die/Throw My Body In The Back"? Some of the lesser songs here ("Crush On You," "I'm A Rocker") seem to be mere stalling tactics to avoid self-destruction.

The E Street Band reached an incredible peak of performing with this album. I encourage anyone interested in getting to know what al the buzz was about way back when to listen to this album FIRST.