The River - Springsteen, Bruce (CD 1987)

Do you feel it? That soft, summer breeze and that warm sun glowing over you as you plunge into the salty water of the Atlantic ocean and swim like a fish, then getting out of the water to sit on the beach and admire the scantily clad females (silently, of course, for you re not a sexist pig)?

You don t?

Well, that s probably because you don t live in S.Miguel and I do!

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Ahem.

Anyway, I guess you ve gotten the message by now- Summer is here. And for me, nothing spells Summer like Sherry Darling , track two of Bruce Springsteen s legendary The River . Backed by beach party style clapping and frequent whoooooos , E Street Band saxophonist Clarence Clemons (who s great on this whole album) lets loose some great sax wailing while The Boss sings lines like I got some beer/and the highway s free/and I got you baby/and you got me/hey hey hey/ whaddya say/Sherry darling? , lyrics that despite being completely cheesy make you want to sing along and feel happy you re alive. Add a narrative that disses Bruce s fictional mother in law, and you just know that there s a little Ernie K Doe in Springsteen.

Of course, Ernie is far from being the only person channelled by Bruce Springsteen- there s also a Gene Pitney, a Hank Williams, a Woodie Guthrie, a Bob Dylan, a Roy Orbison, a Chrissie Hynde, a Gary US Bonds, a Chuck Berry, a Joey Ramone, an Elvis Presley, a James Brown and a Tom Waits, not to mention a Jack Kerouac, a Budweiser commercial, a Kevin Williamson, a David Lynch and a John Steinbeck. Bruce Springsteen is universal, because Bruce Springsteen is the American Dream, and the American Dream (oh what a surprise) is schizophrenic.

That s what makes The River such a riveting experience- it is as great as it is breath taking and confusing, stuck between a frat boy fighting for his right to paaaaaaaaaaarty and a poet expressing the woes of the common people. To unite these two figures and still have a hit takes a very special man, and believe you me, Bruce Springsteen is special- perhaps the only figure in Rock music who has managed to appease his intellectual fans without ever betraying his main target audience, i.e. the common folks.

Of course, what also shouldn t be forgotten is the strength of his backing band, the fabulous E Street Band that gives punch and gusto to even the worst moments of these two CDs, be it Max Weinberg s larger than life drumming or Danny Frederici s subtle organ.

But enough of that, let s get to the songs! These can, again, be separated into two main categories- energetic Classic Rock that (while sometimes a bit too redneckish) can be as fun as any music, and deeper, darker introspective singer/songwriter material that never looses sight of what the guys from Day One call the #1 songwriter rule- you don t just sing about what s up in your life, you sing about what s happening around you, too.

As far as the first category goes, it is very much a matter of taste- many folks will just think they re too sophisticated to enjoy it, straying awfully near to the Cock-Rock of acts like Bachmann-Turner Overdrive as it does....me, I love it, although there are times when even I feel a bit irked ( Ramrod being the main offender here). Nevertheless, the quality of some of these tracks cannot be disputed- The Ties That Bind and Two Hearts float in jingle-jangle Searchers bliss, while Out In The Street delivers a (admittedly a bit polished) Garage Rock punch that makes the Easybeats reference completely justified. Even better is Hungry Heart , a song oft maligned (especially by Springsteen nuts) for it s super polished production and Sha Na Na like backing vocals (by the all mighty Flo & Eddie). True, you almost don t recognise Bruce s voice and it does conjure up unfortunate flashbacks of Happy Days due to it s sock hop sound, but what shouldn t be forgotten here is that it includes one of Springsteen s all-time greatest story songs:

Got a wife and kids in Baltimore, Jack/I went up for a ride/and I never went back/like a river that don t know where it s flowing/I took the wrong turn and I just kept going

It s the matter-of-factly way in which he sings these lyrics, as if leaving your wife and kids without even a warning were something entirely mundane, that gives the song it s strength- and you can t really be angry at the basta rd because, at the end of the song, you just end up feeling sorry for him.

But even those who cannot appreciate the Rawk of tunes like I m A Rocker or the Chuck Berry-ish You Can Look (But You Better Not Touch) will find plenty to love here. The first sign that there s more to Springsteen comes on track three, Jackson Cage , in which he details the struggle of a woman fighting to be released from the mundane yet terrifying grasp of the heartless machine that seems to control her life ( machine is meant as a metaphor, of course- I m not talkin about sci-fi here), and the increasing hopelessness of that fight, until she becomes the hand that drives the key/down in the Jackson cage .

This song might be spine chilling, but it is not even half so as the dramas about to unfold- Point Blank , for instance, the most stirring moment on the whole double album. Danny Frederici s organ and Steven Van Zandt s guitar provide an almost spooky background for Springsteen s tale of love and loss. The narrator re-tells a dream he had of him and his childhood sweetheart dancing wildly in a bar, and then contrasts it with his ex-lover s current situation, blank starred waiting on welfare checks. It is not entirely clear what made the girl s situation so dire (some lines hint at prostitution), but it almost seems irrelevant- what matters is how hard the fall from grace can be as teenage optimism faces the hard facts of reality. Now the woman doesn t even answer Bruce when he calls out her name- she doesn t even know what she s dying from, but one thing s fer sure- Point blank- bang, bang, baby you re dead .

Just as terrifying- and just as great- is the title track, which starts off by telling the listener that the protagonist comes from down the valley/where mister, when you re young/they bring you up to do/like your daddy done . It then goes on to talk about a teen romance in which a young couple drive down to the river every night to make love, until (them being dumb high school kids in love) the narrator gets the girl pregnant. A short wedding ceremony ensues- no flowers, no wedding dress - and already the stage is set for a disillusioning life, as the couple lose ground both emotionally and financially ( lately there ain t been much work/on account of the economy Bruce screams, showing that hell no, he doesn t like Reagan, no matter how much that guy may suck up to him) until I just act like I don t remember/Mary acts like she don t care

But it s not that easy- but I remember us riding in my brother s car/her body tanned and wet/down at the reservoir/at nights on them banks I d lie awake/and pull her close just to feel each breath she d take/now those memories come back to haunt me/they haunt me like a curse/is a dream a lie if it don t come true, or is it something worse?

That was the sound of 80 s Regan America, completely alienated from itself and soon to be in the throes of the biggest economical depression in ages- fitting, then, that just like Hank Williams (who experienced the first Great Depression), Bruce drives down to the river, though he knows the river is dry.

The wedding figures on the back cover of The River are by no means a gag or kitsch- much on the contrary, it s this use of good ol momma s apple pie America imagery that makes Springsteen s darker songs on The River gain the poignancy of David Lynch s Blue Velvet . However, The River is also a great Classic Rock album that knocks you off your feet and makes you wanna shout along to it. There s a darkness on the edge of town, but it s also a land of hope and dreams.

The perfect double album, then- light and shade.