The Reverend Will the Thrill Presents the Album of the Week!

I don't usually do this.  In fact in the nearly six years since I started doing these musical "sermons" on Facebook, there has only been one other time when I revisited an album I had written about in the past.  But I somehow feel this particular one is worth re-examining as well.  Weirdly enough, my initial submission of this album was also technically a re-examination, which is kind of a long story, but if you're so inclined, here's what I wrote on 6 April of last year.

My Aunt Gayle recently gave me a book she'd heard about, presumably on NPR (one of the joys of public broadcasting).  Tonight in Jungleland: The Making of Born To Run by Peter Ames Carlin is... well... about the making of what is arguably Bruce Springsteen's masterpiece album, clearly.  The book was published to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the release of the album.  Knowing I'm a fan of "The Boss," and (I presume) knowing that that album specifically is one of my Top 5 "Desert Island" albums, she thought I would appreciate it.  She was not wrong.

Being a Springsteen fan, who not only avidly listens to his music, but has also read quite a bit about it, I was already familiar with some of what went into this album as well as what was on the line for Bruce professionally.  His first two albums didn't sell well and he was on the verge of being dropped by his label, Columbia Records. (SPOILER ALERT:  They're still together today.)  And I was aware of how much work he put into it, particularly the Phil-Spector-Wall-of-Sound feel on the title track, which features more guitar tracks than band members and even a glockenspiel--because, let's be honest, the glockenspiel is an incredibly underutilized instrument in rock music.

Somehow, I was not aware of Bruce's perfectionism.  I mean, I knew about it, but I didn't know about what most of us would consider to be extreme lengths to achieve that perfection--Carlin talks about Bruce having Clarence Clemons record the sax solo on "Jungleland" many, many times over the course of many, many hours in an effort to have the music convey what he heard and envisioned in his head.  He would sit for hours staring at the wall and writing in his notebook, getting the lyrics just right (something I actually understand myself, although I don't have a group of musicians and studio engineers waiting on me to do it).

I was also not aware of what I think are extreme lengths that Columbia went to in order to NOT promote him while he was trying to make his new album.  Apparently, label representatives would pull copies of his previous album--1973's The Wild, the Innocent and the E Street Shuffle--from record stores in an effort to promote another up and coming artist on the label, Billy Joel, who's second album, Piano Man, had recently been released.  In the meantime, Bruce's manager, Mike Appel, was also going to extreme lengths in the other direction to get his only client's music heard and to get people to go to his live shows.  One of Appel's stunts involved sending cassettes of the title track to radio stations in major markets much to the surprise and dismay of Columbia execs, who had not yet released the single.

After reading the book, I listened to the album again--a couple of times.  Virtually every day for almost a week, I've awakened with some song from it rattling around my cranium.  I listened to it in my car the other day (the best place to listen to it--especially if your car has a stick shift).  Whenever I listen to it, I tend to really get into the music.  This time, I even managed to hurt my wrist while pounding out the Bo Diddley style drum beat on my steering wheel (and I do mean that I pounded that sucker) during "She's the One."  I now had an even better understanding of what went into the making of the album--the heart, the soul, the emotion, the desperation, the hunger--and it made me appreciate it even more.

So in honour of the album's 50th anniversary, I (re)submit what I think is one of--maybe even the--best rock album of the 1970s, and certainly one of the best of all time.  Please enjoy Bruce Springsteen with the epic Born To Run.

Until next week, stay safe, be good to your neighbours, and please remember that if at first you don't succeed, then skydiving definitely isn't for you.

Yours in peace, love, and rock 'n' roll!

The Reverend Will the Thrill