Greetings From Asbury Park, NJ - Springsteen, Bruce (Cassette 1984)

Bruce Springsteen had become a club legend on the East Coast when he landed an early record contract. The result was this first album, "Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J.", a harbinger of the future. Dense, complicated lyrics combined with muddy engineering and occasionally thin production made this a disc that looked a bit to the future but was an amazing work for somebody in his early 20's. The album can rock, but the things wouldn't blaze up until Springsteen had a solid band and better production.

Despite its flaws, "Greetings" has a few tunes that would become Springsteen concert and rock classics--"Spirits in the Night", one of the great show-stoppers, "Growing Up", and two that were also covered by Manfred Mann, "For You" and "Blinded By the Light". For my money, the best song on the album is the frightening "Lost in the Flood", which closes out side one and becomes more eerie as it progresses.

Springsteen was early compared to Bob Dylan and it's easy to see why; indeed, it's hard to see how he could exist without the path forged by Dylan, who was able to put on vinyl subject matter and expressions never before permitted. Springsteen took great advantage of that path--the album opens with the almost incomprehensible "Blinded by the Light", a tune I have heard hundreds of times and still don't know what it's about. Next follows the short teen rocker, "Growin Up". The three songs mentioned above are the remaining highlights, the other tunes a little less important. All of the songs would sound much better in their concert versions.

"Greetings" is worth listening to as much as a piece of history as for its musical merits. To really get an idea of the early Springsteen, pick up a copy of "Tracks", the recently released retrospective. The first disk contains a couple of solo cuts from "Greetings" that Springsteen played for his contract audition, and the first CD contains some great early Springsteen rockers, still young and a little immature, but clearly the road was open for this guy.