Darkness on the Edge of Town - Springsteen, Bruce (CD 1990)

Bruce Springsteen represents many things to many people. To many people, he's an embodiment of the escape that rock and roll always promised. To some, he literally is the spirit of rock. And to a few (specifically former actors who think they're qualified to run for president), he's some patriotic American ho sings about how great life in America is. But no matter how you look at him, it's impossible to not listen to one of his songs or albums and not identify with it in some regard.

Now regarding my position on Mr. Springsteen and his work, I would call myself something of a casual fan. I own a few of his albums and I listen to them often. But the one I listen to the most is his 1978 masterpiece, Darkness On The Edge Of Town.

Springsteen released Darkness on June 9 1978 (One day after I was born. Around the same time Elvis Costello put out This Year's Model. So much good music. It makes up for the fact that the number one song on my birthday was "Too much, Too little, Too late" by Johnny Mathis and Deniece Williams). The album was a hit. But some people claimed that it was too...dark. However, those who complain about that haven't really listened to the album.

Yes, Darkness does focus on some dark intense subject matter. In one sense, it's about a young man who's just been tossed into the hard cold reality of adulthood and finds himself wondering if he can make it. He ultimately realizes (after taking something of a beating), that yes he can. So in the end, he emerges from the experience somewhat stronger and with his sense of purpose still intact. Pete Townshend summed it up accurately when he stated, "On that album, Bruce Springsteen is not singing about fun, he's singing about fu**ing TRIUMPH!

When I bought this album in late 1998, I had just gone through a year of darkness myself. I had witnessed a love one nearly get killed by cancer, only to later suffer a stroke. I was witnessing the lives of several close friends fall apart. I had started college and the load was starting to bear down on me. All of that was hard and pushed me towards maturity, at a perhaps faster rate than I intended to go. So when I happened into a local Barnes and Noble outlet, I hazed over at where they were having a sale on Springsteen CDs in honor of the box set he was releasing at the time. I bought a copy of Darkness and took it home. As I put it in the stereo, the opening pounding drumbeat and searing guitar solo on "Badlands" struck me like a bucket of cold ice water. It was almost like Bruce was telling me to wake up and not back down. And he delivered that point on these lines

Talk about a dream
Try and make it real
You wake up in the night
With a fear so real
You spend your life waiting for a moment that just won't come
Well don't waste your time waiting!

If there was ever any moment I needed to hear those words, it was then! I turned up the volume loud and proceeded to listen to the rest of the album.

"Adam Raised A Cain" is a hard-driving rocker that features blistering guitar on the title track. The lyrics detail a father and son in conflict. Bruce utilizes some biblical metaphors in the lyrics (Cain and Abel, Adam). My father and I generally get along pretty well. But there are moments where ones temper gets the better of them. During those moments I can identify with the lines:

We were standing in the door
I was standing in the rain
With the same hot blood burning in our veins
Adam raised a Cain

"Something In The Night" is a slower song. It begins with a slow piano riff, which features some drumming in the background. Then as Bruce sings generally wordless vocals the song begins. Bruce sings, "Well I turned the radio up loud/So I don't have to think". The song is an ode to many young people who find themselves despairing and wondering what they will get out of life (if anything). Bruce drives the point home with the lyrics "Well you can ride this road till dawn/With not another human being in site/Just kids wasted on/Something in the night".

"Candy's Room" starts out slow, before the tempo picks up. Bruce sings about trying to make it with a young woman, who is uncertain about the future.

"Racing In The Street" is another ballad. Bruce sings about street racing as a means of making some extra money and about the woman he loves. This section is especially poignant, as he details how: "I met her on the strip 3 years ago/In a Camaro with this dude from LA/I blew that Camaro off my back and drove that girl away/But now there's wrinkles around my baby's eyes...For all the shotgun strangers and hot rod angels/Rumbling through this promised land/Tonight my baby and me we're gonna ride to the sea/And wash these sins off our hands/Tonight tonight the highway's bright/Out of my way mister you best keep". Another example of the dark yet life-affirming spirit that makes this album so good.

"Promised Land" is an upbeat harmonica driven rock song. Bruce sings about "just killing time", "Working all day in my daddy's garage" and wanting to make something out of his life. Sometimes he just "Feels so weak I wanna explode and tear this town apart".

"Factory" is a slower song that details the life of factory workingmen. The song describes the working condition in many of those places and shows why sometimes people of that type just snap.

"Streets Of Fire" is a tense rocker about betrayal.

"Prove It All Night" was one of the singles from Darkness and it's a winner. Bruce sings about "working real hard" and trying to prove himself to a woman he loves. The E Street Band is in fine form here (as they are on all the other tracks).
Closing out Darkness is the title track. Here is where it comes all full circle. The character has been shut off from street racing and his work and relationship are either gone or in serious jeopardy. He s taken a beating and feels like giving up. But in the last few lines he delivers a final statement of rugged determination:

Tonight I ll be on that hill
Because I can t stop
I ll be on that hill with everything I ve got
When lives are on the line
Where dreams are found and lost
I ll be there on time and I ll pay the cost
For wanting things that can only be found
In the darkness on the edge of town

So that s what I mean when I say that Darkness On The Edge Of Town is both dark AND life affirming. Like the best rock music, it showcases both extremes and makes you feel both sides. If you haven t heard this album yet, I d suggest you go get a copy now.