Music The River
Books and Publications Average Rating:

Rating: - Superb
As I'm a fan of The Boss I Have one désire that He will come once in Switzerland. And its available for all the CD or DVD with bruce Sprinsteen I have or will purchased.

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Rating: - Drive All Night
The Boss at his peak. Surely, 'The River' has endured the test of time...I like it more now than I did when it was first released so many years ago. Like the work of artists he's always wanted to be like at least spiritually, Dylan and Van Morrison, 'The River' has never been easily digestible. All great work generally falls into that category...it takes repeated listening and sometimes years to grasp what the artist is presenting. And to risk the wrath of Bruce fans everywhere, I have to say that I think "Drive All Night" is the greatest song he's ever done. make yourself a Bruce mix tape or CDR and end it with "Born To Run", "Racing In The Street" and "Drive All Night". It does NOT get any better...

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Rating: - Point of no return
With Darkness on the Edge of Town (1978)Bruce Springsteen reached a turning point. It was a very succesful album and his live appearances had proved he had all the ins and outs of an allround modern rocker. So why should he be tied down with those long, complex, bombastic pieces that dominated his previous albums?
Springsteen took the easy road, and it started with the River. No more intriguing musical structures, no frills. Just three chords and go. No more moving, almost journalistic stories as in Meeting Across the River or Jungleland; just plain, ordinary stuff about walking the streets like John Travolta did in the opening scene of Saturday Night Fever, or blatant statements about being a rocker. Yeah baby, I'm a rocker(repeat ad infinitum).
It worked, of course. Millions throughout the world loved The River and almost all the other mediocre albums that would follow.
The River is one of my favorite saturday morning albums. Nice background music with a cup of coffee and the morning papers. When the sun goes down and the tension begins to fill the air, I can always put on Born to Run. That at least is a relief.

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Rating: - The River
Bruce Springsteen-The River *** 1/2


Okay, I personaly am a person that almost always loves all double albums. The ones that people think are bad I usually love, however there are a couple that I can not stand. The White album by the Beatles should have been better, Srg. Pepper by the Beatles is the most self indulgent thing I have ever heard, I hate the Beach Boys and I will say anyday that Pet Sounds blows Pepper away, besides as much as I like the Beatles, I can't stand McCartney. And lastly, The Wall by Pink Floyd has to be the most overrated album of all time, give me a break. The River falls inbetween those albums and Exile On Main Street, Blonde On Blonde, and London Calling, which are all double albums that I love to death.

This could have been a good double album if it weren't for a select few songs which I just won't name, or this could have been a GREAT single album had it not been for a couple more songs, which I still won't mention...I will just mention the high points. 'The Ties That Bind' starts the album off perfectly, still has that 'Badlands' feel left over from Darkness. 'Sherry Darling' was nice but should have been better. 'Jackson Cage' really depends on the day. 'Two Hearts' is a nice sappy number which Springsteen would soon be knwon for in the years to come as he would turn his back on his roots for a while. 'Independence Day' is fantastic, much like his previous work, but I still feel he could have done more with it. 'Hungry Heart' is a classic. 'Crush On You' is fun and one of my personal favorites from the album. Much along the lines of 'Pink Cadillac' and 'Darlington County' which he would do later. As you can see this album was essentialy a turning point in the career for Springsteen and The E. Street band, as he would soon faze them out and pursue more commercialy accesable music, not that it was a bad thing....all the time anyway. 'You Can Look' is great. 'The River' closes the first disc of the album and should have closed the album as it is depending on the day you ask me, I concider it to be Springsteen's finest hour and today just happens to be one of those days. It is the story of getting a girl pregnant and having to work really hard to make, you know the classic Springsteen tale.

The second disc starts off with the second best song on the entire album, 'Point Blank.' A little pretentious and over the top but still a great little song that would have been perfectly at home on Springsteens next album, Nebraska. 'Cadillac Ranch' and 'Im A Rocker' are simular and placed right next to each other it is sometimes hard to distinguish the two, but spperate, the are pretty decent songs. 'Fade Away' and 'Stolen Car' are once again more Nebraska then The River but still nice songs. 'Ramrod' fails to deliver where it should, the 'Drive All Night' and 'Wreck On The Highway' close this long album so they should be the most memorable and for some reason are the most forgetable, even the songs I don't enjoy stand out more then these tracks.

Now I bet your saying well you listed so many songs that were good and only didn't mention a few so how is this not a great album. Well even the best of the songs are forgetable and it is even hard to describe them. Too much material for this album, the songs had the potential to be one of Springsteens best and most acclaimed album, but even with how stripped the production is, compared to his previous works and the amount filler this just seems to decadent for someone who is supposedly trying to be a working mans hero.