Devils & Dust [DUAL DISC]

Bruce Springsteen

Product Details

• Audio CD (April 26, 2005)
• Original Release Date: April 26, 2005
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Dual Disc
• Label: Sony
• ASIN: B0007WF1WS
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Vinyl
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (264 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #4,855 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
The last time Bruce Springsteen ventured West for inspiration, the result was the desolate Nebraska and its tales of serial killers and used cars. On his first record in three years, Springsteen navigates barren deserts and Old West war fields for a dozen forlorn songs that co-star the artist and his acoustic guitar. Though he's always had a knack for carving out the hooks and melodies that make each journey memorable, this time around Springsteen relies on the lyrics to carry the tune-desperate tales of tragedy, heartbreak, and lust with a Latino twist, like the boxer coming home ("The Hitter"), a distressing border-crossing incident ("Matamoros Banks"), and the Nevada hooker with good intentions ("Reno," which led to the warning sticker Adult Imagery). With no E Street Band in the mix, the album is decorated with horns and strings and Springsteen’s novel falsetto on two his best efforts: "Maria’s Bed," where the narrator comes home to his woman after 40 nights on the road, and the fast-picking "All I’m Thinkin’ About," where he has more than Carolina on his mind. A decade from now this will be an underrated record in the Springsteen chronicles. --Scott Holter

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The Best of Bruce
by guest editor Steve Perry
Steve is editor-in-chief of City Pages newspaper in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

The Wild, the Innocent, and the E Street Shuffle (1973)
After a folk-rockish debut album that bubbled with ideas and dense lyrical play, this is where Springsteen began to find his voice as a rocker and as a songwriter. The prisoner-of-love romanticism of "Rosalita" and "Incident on 57th Street" hinted at what was coming, and this early version of the E Street Band--jazzier and more spare than later versions, thanks largely to David Sancious's piano--sounds great, if a little ragged, these many years later.

Born to Run (1975) and Darkness on the Edge of Town (1978)
These two records, which belong on any compilation of the top 100 rock albums of all time, sketched the themes that he would spend his whole career chasing, and defined the expectations fans would bring to his records ever after. The first chords of "Born to Run" sounded like freedom itself the first time I heard them on the radio, and the album lived up to them. "Thunder Road" is still the greatest rock & roll love song anyone's ever written. The record sounded so big and impassioned and propulsive it was easy to miss the dread running underneath it. Darkness... put the dread front and center. There are more of his best songs here than anywhere else, even if the sound is muddy and leaden at times.

Nebraska (1982)
After The River (the best record that didn't make this list) and the ensuing tour answered his rock & roll prayers--he was a big star now, not just a perennial critics' favorite--Springsteen holed up in a rented house on the Jersey shore, where he wrote these songs and sang them into a four-track recorder in his living room. The tape was supposed to be a demo for the band, but after several false tries he concluded that the tape he'd been carrying around in his pocket was the record. Quiet and bleak, Nebraska nonetheless grabbed you by the collar and made you listen as surely as his rock & roll records ever had.

Tunnel of Love (1987)
The glare and hubbub surrounding the Born in the USA tour (the tour was great--the record itself overrated) made him pull back again, this time to write a cycle of songs about love and fear and self-doubt. After this, Springsteen's first marriage broke up, and he started a family with Patti Scialfa, disappearing for the better part of 10 years, notwithstanding the pair of not bad, just disappointing albums he released in 1992, Human Touch and Lucky Town.

The Ghost of Tom Joad (1995)
Some call it Nebraska II, but his second acoustic album was not a repeat of his first--the characters and settings had changed, and their circumstances were more expressly desperate, and social--though it did share the same interest in what happens to people whose isolation or marginal status renders them invisible.

The Rising (2002)
Everybody--including Springsteen himself--seemed to think it was a record about 9/11, but the subject was broader: death and loss as seen from more than halfway down life's road. Dave Marsh nailed it: "A middle-aged man confronts death and chooses life." Brendan O'Brien's production sounds great.

Product Description
CD AUDIO SIDE: Entire Album

DVD SIDE: * Entire album in 5.1 channel surround sound and in 2 channel stereo. * Special Devils & Dust film by noted photographer and film maker Danny Clinch, including rare, never-before-seen acoustic performances of "Devils & Dust," "Long Time Comin'," "Reno," All I'm Thinkin' About" and "Matamoras Banks" plus Bruce's personal introductions to the tracks.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

160 of 204 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars THE BOSS SINGS OF LIVES OLDER THAN WE KNOW IT AND YET FRESH!, April 26, 2005

By	Matthew G. Sherwin (last seen screaming at Amazon customer service) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)

Bruce Springsteen gives to us with his newest CD an outstanding collection of songs about REAL life. There are songs about the agony and bitterness of life not going as planned; confessions from people Bruce sings of that are painful yet very well done; and even a happy song about new life coming into this world. People are not always in peril! SMILE The overall effect of this CD is enhanced by Bruce's decision to create the songs with a distinct acoustic flavor and the album shines brightly for all seasons! This will go down as one of his more artistic CDs. Devils and Dust is also a "dual disc" CD; it has 12 CD tracks on one side and DVD features on the other side-awesome!

The album starts off strong with the title track, "Devils & Dust." This song is somewhat political (although the album as a whole is not). Bruce sings of a war in which both sides bitterly fight each other to the death-all supposedly in God's name. The album's producer, Brenden O'Brien, added some good extras to the musical arrangement for this song. You hear great piano playing and the electronic beats are perfectly timed! The next track, "All The Way Home," is equally well done. Bruce's intonation and voice are in fine shape here. Another song to look out for on this CD is entitled "Reno." Here Bruce sings about very graphic sexual relationships involving cheating and more. The song "Long Time Comin'" sports a fiddle and an awesome steel guitar! This song is a bit complicated. It has an element that is something practically anyone can relate to: Bruce sings of a person who is promising never to make a mess of things in life again. (Note: Bruce uses a strong word in this song; parents may want to make a note of this.) Nevertheless, "Long Time Comin'" is also a song about a happy event in life: the expected birth of a newborn child. AND, how's about these lines: as he and his woman lie together in bed, Bruce sings "I reach `neath your shirt, lay my hands across your belly; And feel another one kicking inside."

A particularly powerful song that has people wide awake-already-is entitled "The Hitter." Here Bruce sings of a professional boxer who gets paid to beat men up for sport. The boxer tries to explain to his mother his upsetting, secluded way of life. On the surface this is exactly what the song is about; but on another level Bruce is really singing about how rough life is and how particularly brutal and cruel people are to each other in this world. The ending lyric simply states that this horror is just the plain old fact of life: "Understand, in the end, Ma, every man plays the game/ If you know one different, then speak out his name." I especially liked the song entitled "Jesus Was an Only Son." This emotional, frank song reveals a mother's thoughts about the only child she ever had. Very well done! "All I'm Thinkin' About," with Bruce singing falsetto to add to the emotional impact of the song, is a stunning love ballad that you will be fond of right away! The CD ends with the incredible emotional song "Matamoros Banks." "Matamoros Banks" is essentially an appeal for remembrance by an illegal immigrant who attempts to cross the Rio Grande but fails tragically resulting in death. I can't help but feel sympathy for people abused in other countries who so desperately want to come to live in America when I hear this song. Bruce does this so well; you really feel a true, deep pity and sorrow for the immigrant.

As I noted before, this is a "dual disc" CD. There are TWO sides that play-the first side has 12 CD tracks; the reverse has DVD features. There are five DVD tracks which were recorded live. The DVD side of the disc highlights Bruce's between-song commentary. This offers the listener/viewer an excellent sense of Bruce's perspective. Which side you choose first is up to you; both offer great value. However, if you listen to the CD side first and then the DVD side however you may want to then go back to the CD side to listen again to the songs Bruce talks about so you can get even more out of these songs.

All in all, Bruce Springsteen puts out here an excellent artistic collection of songs that is also, in its uniquely beautiful way, positively electric! And NOPE, with this beautiful album I didn't need the E Street band for Bruce to reach me!

I would highly recommend this CD to ANY Bruce Springsteen fan as well as fans of great songs with fantastic musical arrangements that deal with life-the way it really is. Great job, Bruce!

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars DualDisc: will not play on many CD players, May 1, 2005

By	John Faughnan "John G Faughnan (www.faughnan.... (St. Paul, MN USA) - See all my reviews

I put this album on my cart, but I pulled it off when I read some comments on DualDisc. That led me to Apple's discussion groups. Some of the newer machines can read DualDisc, but older machines cannot. Some car CDs won't play them.

Experiences vary from machine to machine. I suspect it won't play in some older stereo CD players.

Approach this CD, and all DualDisc CDs with caution. I'd recommend testing with a friend's DualDisc to see if your machine can handle them.

I'ver removed this CD from my cart until I can test it further.

30 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars For fans of Bruce Springsteen, not The Boss., April 27, 2005

By	Jonathan M. Calhoun "Spike" (USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Essentially there are two kinds of Springsteen fans. There are fans of "The Boss", who love Born to Run and Born in the U.S.A. and care more about the fist-pumping power of the E Street Band and massive hooks than Bruce as a songwriter. Then, there are Bruce Springsteen fans who love the "The Boss" characteristics as much as anyone but also come for the songwriting and lyrical depth. This album will be loved by fans of Bruce Springsteen, but those who want The Boss should steer clear.
First, this album is not exactly analagous to Tom Joad and Nebraska sonically. Though it doesn't sound a thing like Tunnel of Love it is similar in that the arrangements are sparse but electric guitars and big drums show up from time to time. There are a couple of outright rockers.
Many of the stories are an extension of Tom Joad and take place in the American Southwest, but there is enough variety to keep it from being a sequel. Virtually every song features people dealing with difficult circumstances, and there is little along triumph and celebration along the way. From the main character in "All the Way Home" looking for romantic redemption to the man in "Reno" seeking comfort in the embrace of a prostitute after true love failed him ("Somehow all you ever need's, never really quite enough you know/You and I, Maria, we learned it's so"), Devils and Dust is filled with people dealing with disillusionment and broken dreams. You may not retreat, you may not surrender, but that doesn't guarantee you'll win, either.
Fans of Springsteen's underrated guitar playing will be treated to his best acoustic rhythm playing to date. There may not be any screaming Esquire leads or flashy licks, but Devils and Dust is filled with melodic finger picking and other rhythm parts that could carry the songs by themselves.
To make a film analogy, this album has something in common with Sin City. For those who love grim and gritty film noir Sin City is a masterpiece, but anyone without a strong stomach would be automatically turned off by it's very nature. That, in essence, is the story of Devils and Dust. If you love Springsteen the songwriter and see the beauty and power of examining the dark side of life, Devils and Dust is a can't-miss prospect. If you want Dancing in the Dark or Hungry Heart, this isn't for you. It doesn't dimish the album in any way, it simply makes it what it is.