The Wild, The Innocent & The E Street Shuffle - Springsteen, Bruce (CD 1986)

With his debut album, Greetings From Asbury Park, Bruce Springsteen showed the type of talent and raw potential that only comes along once very so often in the world of rock and roll. There was a hopeful thread that ran through the album, even with the dark imagery and tones that permeated most of the songs. Hell, most critics dubbed him a sort of "new Dylan," although to paint Springsteen into the folk corner is unfair to him. And his sophomore effort, The Wild, The Innocent & The E Street Shuffle, is merely the first brick in a veritable wall of great albums put out by Springsteen in his now 30+ year career.

There are some who would argue that Greetings was and is a great album, but this reviewer disagrees. It's certainly very good, but it is with this album that Springsteen took the potential shown on Greetings and maxed it out to its full potential.

The diversity of styles here is quite striking, and on first listen, can be quite difficult for someone who might be looking for the Springsteen of the mid 80s (i.e. Born in the USA and all the pop hits it generated). The album opens with a slinky dance-rock number called The E Street Shuffle. And there is plenty here to get you up and moving. Between the wah-wah guitar and the smooth saxophone of Clarence Clemons, you will probably find it pretty hard not to do some sort of groove to this song. The song is also the first of many showcases for drummer Vini Lopez, who would leave the band after this album, is extremely reminiscent of Keith Moon on this track, with busy rolls and fills at just about every turn.

From the busy, upbeat dance-rock of E Street, we move into Bruce the Balladeer on 4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy), or as most fans know it, as just Sandy. This whole song has a sort of whimsical attitude to it, as Sprinsteen pleads that Sandy "leave the Boardwalk life behind." This is probably one of Bruce's best ballads.

Kitty's Back opens with some blistering bluesy guitar from Bruce himself, before it moves into a more jazzy type of number. The song has a great little jam session in the middle, with some nice sax and keyboard fills, as well as another bit of blistering guitar work from Springsteen. This is quite the opposite of the next song on the disc, Wild Billy's Circus Story, which returns Bruce to his more basic song structures and plaintive narrative style of lyric writing (this is not to say the other songs don't tell stories, just that this one recalls his debut album more than than anything else on this record).

In its original incarnation, the second side of the disc was only 3 songs long. It doesn't matter. That side is considered one of the most perfect sides of a record ever put to wax.

The side begins with Incident on 57th Street, kind of a West Side Story about 'Spanish Johnny' and 'Puerto Rican Jane' that reflects love and passion in a way that so few lyricists are able to do today. Springsteen sounds positively impassioned throughout this song and it just keeps building and building and building until the ending guitar solo which is quite frankly, a perfect example of a guitar singing in place of a human voice.

We then hit Rosalita (Come Out Tonight), undoubtedly one of Springsteen's best upbeat rock songs. It seems every member of the band gets to shine here, including Clemons again on saxophone and Lopez on drums, as he plays like a madman possessed. This song may be the absolute holy grail of all Springsteen songs, appealing to absolutely everyone who hears it it seems.

The album closer, New York City Serenade, could not be any different from the rocking stylings of Rosalita if it tried. It begins with a dark piano melody from David Sancious (who would leave the band before the Born to Run tour) before moving into a more straight ahead arrangement of piano and guitar. It's a stark album closer but it's also a gorgeous, and near-perfect, song.

I don't know if this qualifies as my favorite Springsteen record, but it is definitely up there. With only seven tracks, you may think this disc is easy to overlook, but the quality of the music here is of the highest regard. Each track is a classic, and the second half alone is worthy of your purchase price. If you call yourself a Springsteen fan and you don't own this record, then I can't imagine you're much of a Springsteen fan.

More on Bruce Springsteen:
Greetings From Asbury Park, NJ

The Rising