October 1980 - Berkeley, California
Upon entering UC Berkeley as a transfer student in September 1980, I thought I was doing a noble thing by leaving my stereo and record collection at home. It took me about two weeks to realize what a bad decision that was, and when my parents and brothers visited in early October they brought the stereo as well as a couple of dozen records to tide me over until Winter Break. Even then, my entire collection would have been a little too big for the dorm room - Rob, Han Song and I were in a "triple," with a bunk bed, a regular bed, three desks, a couple of dressers of drawers, and a closet. Tight quarters, and if memory serves the stereo ended up in part of the closet.
At that time I was a Bruce fan, but had never seen him live. As fate would have it, he was scheduled to perform two shows in late October at the Oakland Coliseum Arena. As fate would further have it, Rob was a huge Springsteen fan, and along with some of his friends who drove up from Southern California, was planning to sleep overnight in the Arena parking lot in order to buy tickets. That's how it was done in those days, unless one was willing to shell out the big bucks to a scalper. And because Rob was a great and very cool guy (as an aside, he would go on to become an Assistant Deputy Secretary of State for Middle Eastern Affairs), he was happy to score two tickets for me without me actually having to stay up all night for them.
Over the years, I would end up seeing Bruce 10 times. It would be next to impossible for me to choose my favorite among those ten concerts. The Tunnel of Love tour show I saw in 1988 at Shoreline Ampitheatre is widely considered to be the best of that tour. The October 1999 Reunion Tour show at the [new and mostly improved] arena in Oakland was amazing, if for no other reason that it was far from certain whether we'd ever have the chance to see Bruce play with the E Street Band again. Seeing the final leg of that tour at Madison Square Garden the following June...Bruce at MSG?!? You've got to be kidding me. And taking my parents to see him at the late (and sometimes lamented) Arco Arena in Sacramento (the Magic tour) was also a highlight.
"The River"
My introduction to "The River" was not to hear the song, but to read about it - in Greil Marcus' review of No Nukes, the documentary about the 1979 concerts organized by MUSE (Musicians United for Safe Energy). Marcus, to put it mildly, did not care for the film: "As a film, it's second-rate. As music and politics, it's a study in puerility." Springsteen was a late addition to those shows, and it seems possible (if not likely) that he was invited to ensure that the shows would sell out.
So what did Greil think about Bruce's portion of the show? Not much:
"Which leaves, as far as No Nukes in concerned, one overriding question: what about Bruce? It's Springsteen's picture in the ads that's bringing the crowds into the theaters, and it's his performance - or his mere appearance - that has the fans cheering. Well, he's all right. He sings "The River," the title tune from his soon-to-come album; it's a well meant tale of working-class defeat, but "Up Shit Creek" might better describe both the fate of the song's characters and the song itself. He performs "Thunder Road" messily and closes with a spirited "Quarter to Three," which is sabotaged by atrocious sound. He was far more exciting tossing out a bit of "Rosalita" in last year's TV special Heroes of Rock 'n Roll - but that was a far more exciting film."
It's clearly an important song to Bruce - over the course of his career, he's played only 15 songs more often. Surprisingly (at least to me), played "The River" more often than "Jungleland," "Growin' Up," "Spirit in the Night," "Backstreets," "She's the One," "Cadillac Ranch," and "No Surrender." But is it a great song? On the plus side, the E Street Band sounds magnificent on it. And musically, it's beautiful. Unfortunately, and it took me a long time to get there, Marcus' opinion is more right than wrong. It's difficult to articulate, but forty years on, it comes across as "Springsteen-lite." There's little in the song to suggest the depth of emotions and the exploration of the human condition that jumps out of the grooves of later songs such as "Nebraska," "Mansion on the Hill," "Born in the USA," "The Ghost of Tom Joad," or even "The Rising."
So the most difficult question in this reimagining was answered: "The River" would not be a part of the "new" album.
"The Ties That Bind" - 1979 Version
As originally recounted in Dave Marsh's 1981 update of his first Springsteen biography and confirmed decades later when the original album was included as part of "The River" box set (which was called "The Ties That Bind"), Bruce had an album set for release in 1979, hot on the heels of his incendiary 1978 tour. To be titled "The Ties That Bind," the album would include five songs that would show up on "The River" - The Ties That Bind, Hungry Heart, The River, The Price You Pay, and I Wanna Marry You. The album would have included alternate versions of Stolen Car (a good, but not approaching the greatness of the version that ended up on The River), You Can Look (But You Better Not Touch) done up rockabilly style (tough call on which version is better), and three songs that would never appear on any album outside of compilations - Cindy (no great loss), Be True (great song, was the B-side of Fade Away), and Loose Ends (a real shame this version never ended up anywhere, but the mix is definitely superior to the version that ended up on "Tracks" in 1998).
As an aside, another song whose success has always mystified me is "Hungry Heart" - it just never worked for me, so it does not end up on my reimagined version. And because I wanted to stay as true to the original as possible, none of the alternate versions or "substitute songs" make it on either. Which brings us to...
"The Ties That Bind" - 2023 Version
Side One
The Ties That Bind 3:33
Out in the Street 4:17
You Can Look (But You Better Not Touch) 2:35
Jackson Cage 3:03
Stolen Car 3:52
Whatever you call the album you put it on, "The Ties That Bind" is the perfect opener. "Out in the Street" and "You Can Look" continue the generally upbeat vibe, until "Jackson Cage" and especially "Stolen Car" give us a hint that Bruce's thinking is taking a darker turn.
Side Two
Point Blank 6:06
I Wanna Marry You 3:26
Two Hearts 2:42
Cadillac Ranch 3:03
The Price You Pay 5:26
The second side begins with another song that is frankly somewhat terrifying; I can still remember being transfixed the first time I heard it (on a live radio broadcast of one of his legendary Winterland shows in December 1978). We begin to ascend from the darkness with "I Wanna Marry You" and "Two Hearts" (are better than one, after all), and bring the album to a close with one of Bruce's greatest rockers and what has always felt to me like a vastly under-appreciated gem.
There you have it, only four months after I began working on this. You might say I overthought it. But I'm also OK with where it ended up.
