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Springsteen's 1970-1978 catalog, performances, and history is pure greatness.
...rock ballads, Dylanesque lyrics in the 1st half of the decade, mastery of rock and jazz rock, a unique sound and branding with his band that emanated from playing the small clubs of the Jersey shore, the hunger and rise to stardom fueled by radio broadcasts of his shows, revelations by DJ's in NY, Cleveland, and Philly, and Dave Marsh's writing in the iconic music magazines of that era, the marathon shows and the storytelling within it, the drive of writing hundreds of unreleased songs that fueled an underground following and intensity of bootlegging and collecting, the dual Time and Newsweek mag covers, and the conflicts he faced - fighting his former manager for the rights to the songs (which sidelined Bruce from publishing from 1976-fall 1978), and the living with the luck of not getting drafted to Vietnam in the 1960's when so many of his friends did.
By 1980 - my opinion - Bruce and his manager Jon Landau took a wrong but understandable turn with The River, a double album that was a mishmash of attempts to create superficial pop hits (which was not his strong suit given his eclectic talent), some great late 70's songs that were loved in concert but had not made it onto records (Point Blank, Ties That Bind, Sherry Darling), an overfocus on synth keys as other 70's supergroups had succeeded with, and in general the leap to building a worldwide audience, making big money, and then appealing to the MTV craze.
If in 1980 you saw the No Nukes movie with Bruce on the big screen playing Thunder Road, The River, and Quarter to Three - i personally wish Bruce would've put out a concert film instead of The River album, and taken his place in the pantheon of Midnight Movies like Song Remains the Same and Rocky Horror.
But we got the River, and the 80's, and while still incredible to go to his shows, it was a step down from the 70's quality with the weird Nebraska solo album (a precursor album to folk alt-country), Born in the USA (a song that was originally called Vietnam), the way too late mid-80's concert album with some lyrics that changed R-rated lines to PG,, and then the melancholy 1988 Tunnel of Love, where he was already pushing aside his band-mates, The 1990's were more a decline, where he took up a new band, and then dove more into folk alt-country. Of course there were still good songs coming out, but he seemed to be in a long identity crisis.
He did not right the ship until he brought the band back together for the Reunion Tour in 1999, and I consider all of his full band tours since 1999 to just be one-long 17 year Reunion Tour.
Back to the The River album, this song Drive All Night which Where Yat Brah posted the 1980 version on page 3 was surely a nice melodic slow ballad on its own, but earlier in 1978 shows it was a far more riveting attachment to Backstreets, a sequel called either Drive All Night or Sad Eyes about an attempt to re-unite with the partner in Backstreets, that failed. This is exhibit A in my belief that a concert movie would have been a better release in 1980. Thank God we do have 1978 arena-produced videos of shows in Phoenix, Houston, and Passaic - and radio broadcasts of shows in Cleveland, Atlanta, Passaic, and L.A. And the official The Promise box set of music, show video, and a Thom Zimny documentary, chronicling the anniversary of the Darkness on the Edge of Town anniversary box set phenomenal.
As for John no longer Cougar Mellancamp, I have no words to offer or compare. I heard his early 80's hits, dismissed him at the time as a Springsteen-copying poser, and never listened again.
You guys in this thread all tried, and in various ways, mostly failed , to make compelling arguments for BS…. but this guy , Jefe, did a good job……. I disagree with his take that JM basically has no merit, but i like his take on The Boss’ musical output, in general.