Bruce Springsteen

Bruce Springsteen on Tour: 1968-2005
$39.95
This is simply put, a wonderful retrospective of Bruce's career as THE consummate live entertainer. Just saw him in Hartford yesterday for the second time on his WOAD tour and he and the band were nothing short of spectacular.

Highly recommended reading and best done in conjunction with the band's music complementing the chapters. Loved starting with his earlier stuff and reading the early chapters up through the present. A multi-sensory experience I can highly recommend.

Bruce Springsteen - Greatest Hits
$9.99
Springsteen's material is great on albums and great as individual songs; make an album out of assorted individual songs and the result is, well, stilted. I can't really complain about the song selection: this is a great set of songs, beginning with two off "Born to Run" (his first two records are ignored, since they were hitless) and running up to "Human Touch" and "Lucky Town" in '92, although it would be a stronger compilation if they'd replaced "My Hometown" with "I'm on Fire" and ditched "Better Days" altogether. The focus isn't on Springsteen's skills as a rocker and romantic so much as on his skills as a troubador; for the record, Springsteen the Troubador seems stodgy in comparison with Springsteen the Romantic Rocker. As for the oddities, you get the song from "Philadelphia," which is neither here nor there, the song from "Jerry Maguire," which every Springsteen fan in the world hates except for me, the song from the "Born in the U.S.A." sessions, which is almost a blast, and two songs that reunited Bruce with his E Street Band blood brothers at long last, with tired results. I'd say ditch it and go for the albums. Start with the one he did about America.

The River
$15.93
Maybe I'm all alone here, but the reason the River is such a good album is the way the vocal melodies seem to have REALLY improved for this one. Bruce Springsteen was never one to write catchy vocal melodies because his attention mainly focused on lyric writing, his emotional voice, and the millions of fans who can relate to said lyrics.

On the River however, we're treated to all the things that made Bruce Springsteen great on albums such as The Wild, the Innocent and the E. Street Shuffle, PLUS the addition of immediately enjoyable vocal melodies.

Perhaps this was due to the fact that the rock scene in the early 80's changed for many musicians and forced them to write simpler and catchier vocal melodies in order to make it big and make a splash on the commercial radio scene, or perhaps Bruce just felt like changing his songwriting around a little bit to diversify his talents. Who knows.

The River remains a classic album for those who appreciate great vocal melodies combined with the important lyrics of Bruce Springsteen from the past. This is one album Springsteen fans MUST own.

Working on a Dream (Deluxe Version with bonus DVD)
$18.94
This is Bruce Springsteens best,
for so many reasons because it shows the happy side of him,
most of his older songs are great too but there always depressing.
I think this is his best work yet keep up the good work bruce!