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We Say...
Bruce trades in the expansiveness of Born to Run for an almost frighteningly sustained intensity. Having folded all of his influences into a sound now unmistakably his own, he ups the ante, with one song hitting harder than another. "I wanna spit in the face of these badlands," he sings on the album’s opening track, summing up the strength and defiance of the renegades that people this record. There’s nothing here as sprawling as, say, Born to Run’s "Jungleland" — the longest track is a relatively brief seven minutes — but this is still a record that proclaims "Go big or go home." In this context, "Prove It All Night" is less a lover’s boast than an existentialist credo.
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They Say...
Coming three years, and one extended court battle, after the commercial breakthrough of Born to Run, Darkness on the Edge of Town was highly anticipated. Some attributed the album's embattled tone to Springsteen's legal troubles, but it carried on from Born to Run, in which Springsteen had first begun to view his colorful cast of characters as "losers." On Darkness, he began to see them as the working class. One song was called "Factory," and in another, "Badlands," "you" work "'neath the wheel / Till you get your facts learned." Those "facts" are that "Poor man wanna be rich / Rich man wanna be king / And a king ain't satisfied / Till he rules everything." But Springsteen's characters, some of whom he inhabited and sang for in the first person, had little and were in danger of losing even that. Their only hope for redemption lay in working harder -- "You gotta live it everyday," he sang in "Badlands," but you also, as another song noted, have to "Prove It All Night." And their only escape lay in driving. Springsteen presented these hard truths in hard rock settings, the tracks paced by powerful drumming and searing guitar solos. Though not as heavily produced as Born to Run, Darkness was given a full-bodied sound, with prominent keyboards and double-tracked vocals. Springsteen's stories were becoming less heroic, but his musical style remained grand. Yet the sound, and the conviction in his singing, added weight to songs like "Racing in the Street" and the title track, transforming the pathetic into the tragic. But despite the rock & roll fervor, Darkness was no easy listen, and it served notice that Springsteen was already willing to risk his popularity for his principles. Indeed, Darkness was not as big a seller as Born to Run. And it presaged even starker efforts, such as Nebraska and The Ghost of Tom Joad.
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| 01. |  |
Badlands |
4:01 |
|
| 02. | |
Adam Raised A Cain |
4:32 |
|
| 03. | |
Something In The Night |
5:11 |
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| 04. | |
Candy's Room |
2:51 |
|
| 05. | |
Racing In The Street |
6:53 |
|
| 06. | |
The Promised Land |
4:33 |
|
| 07. | |
Factory |
2:17 |
|
| 08. | |
Streets Of Fire |
4:09 |
|
| 09. | |
Prove It All Night |
3:56 |
|
| 10. | |
Darkness On The Edge Of Town |
4:28 |
|
10 Total Tracks, 42:51 Total Length
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Credits
- Bruce Springsteen - Bass // Bruce Springsteen - Bass // Bruce Springsteen - Bass // Bruce Springsteen - Guitar // Bruce Springsteen - Guitar // Bruce Springsteen - Guitar // Bruce Springsteen - Harmonica // Bruce Springsteen - Harmonica // Bruce Springsteen - Harmonica // Bruce Springsteen - Vocals // Bruce Springsteen - Vocals // Bruce Springsteen - Vocals // Bruce Springsteen - Producer // Bruce Springsteen - Producer // Bruce Springsteen - Producer // Bruce Springsteen - Main Performer // Bruce Springsteen - Main Performer // Bruce Springsteen - Main Performer // Clarence Clemons - Percussion // Clarence Clemons - Saxophone // Clarence Clemons - Vocals // Roy Bittan - Piano // Roy Bittan - Keyboards // Danny Federici - Organ // Danny Federici - Keyboards // Danny Federici - Vocals // Jimmy Iovine - Engineer // Jimmy Iovine - Mixing // Jon Landau - Producer // Thom Panunzio - Assistant Engineer // Chuck Plotkin - Mixing // Mike Reese - Mastering // Garry Tallent - Bass // Steven Van Zandt - Guitar // Steven Van Zandt - Vocals // Steven Van Zandt - Assistant Producer // Max Weinberg - Drums // Frank Stefanko - Photography // The E Street Band - Group // Steve VanZandt - Guitar // Steve VanZandt - Production Assistant
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