The Beat Goes On ranks the 7 best Bruce Springsteen albums
Did your favorite Boss record made the cut?
Rate This Image
Rank 3 | Avg. 8.6
Top 5 Images In This Gallery
-
1 -
2 -
3 -
4 -
5
The Beat Goes On: The 7 best Bruce Springsteen albums
Bruce Springsteen’s 17th studio album, “Wrecking Ball,” comes out March 6 and The Beat Goes On is blatantly stealing a page from our colleague Kris Tapley’s “The Lists” concept. In anticipation of the new set, we’re ranking The Boss’s Top 7 albums. Take a look at our gallery and let the debate begin.
Read the full post here.
Photo Credit: AP Photo
Comments
Option 1
Comment instantly as a guest GuestOption 2
Option 3
Login or create a HitFix account Login Signup
March 1, 2012 at 9:54PM EST Reply to CommentI totally agree with Darkness at #1, but does anyone really think Magic is better than Nebraska? Or the strangely absent The River or Born in the USA? No way.
Justin
March 1, 2012 at 10:12PM EST Reply to CommentThe River and The Rising and take off Greetings and Magic
melinda
March 1, 2012 at 11:03PM EST Reply to CommentAngel and Justin-- I'm not a fan of "Born in the USA." I know that sounds crazy, but it doesn't hold up for me.. .
For me, and I chose the albums for their artistic merit AND if I had to pick seven albums of his off a shelf to play which ones would they be-- "Magic" gave me a jolt of joy and got me totally back into Springsteen after I had lost a little interest. If I had extended the list to 10, I would have included The Rising at No. 8 and possibly The River, but BITUSA would not have made my top 10. I LOVE your thoughts though
March 2, 2012 at 12:59PM ESTPaul b
March 1, 2012 at 11:04PM EST Reply to CommentReplace Tunnel and Magic with The wild The innocent... And born in the USA , I agree with the rest, always thought the River was overrated( except title track)
melinda Paul-- I don't know if I think the River was overrated, so much as its reach exceeded its grasp. There's a fine single album in there... I like your choices. i've found people either LOVE "Tunnel" to distraction, as I do, or have very little feeling about it at all.
March 2, 2012 at 12:38PM ESTvelocityknown
March 2, 2012 at 11:29AM EST Reply to CommentNebraska is easily my favorite, I do enjoy Born in the USA, but I don't know if you can say it's in his top 7 albums.
melinda Agreed... Although I great enjoy hearing "Working on the Highway" when he does it on concert...and the rare occasions he trots out "I'm On Fire." Never been a fan of "Dancing In the Dark."
March 2, 2012 at 12:40PM EST
March 2, 2012 at 1:08PM EST Reply to CommentI'm not sure if The River is overrated. I do understand that it had its failures, and that there is an awesome single album hidden away in there, but I kind of like when artists over-reach a little. Not every double album can be Blonde on Blonde or the White Album or Allman Bros at Fillmore East...
weed4504
March 2, 2012 at 1:38PM EST Reply to CommentObviously every list is subjective but there are a few picks I can't agree with.
I think "Greetings from Asbury Park, NJ" is still really raw and he hadn't quite figured out where he wanted to take his music yet. He nailed it down with the anthems in "The Wild, The Innocent, and the E Street Shuffle." It has his epics "Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)", "Fourth of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)", and "New York Serenade" on it. How can this be ignored?
And while I agree that "The River" may sometimes dance into excess, it's the album of his I find that I listen to the most. It's just pure energy. It's flawed ambition is what keeps me coming back to it. It's rough edges add to it's charm.
And while I love Magic, I think Wrecking Ball may be better. It's early to say that but that's what my instinct tells me after listening to the new album these past few days.
Also, no live album?
melinda Weed-- if you go to the first page of the gallery, there's a link to an essay that explains some of my thinking and why there's no live albums on there (plus the two essential live albums I think every Springsteen fan should have). I hear you on "Shuffle." The very reasons you mention on "Asbury Park" are why I love it-- it's inchoate Bruce and we are in on the development . I love your description of "The River." I love that Bruce has never hidden his ambition
March 2, 2012 at 6:14PM ESTjacob
March 6, 2012 at 11:53AM EST Reply to CommentThere is a good chance that nobody will ever make a record as perfect as either Nebraska or Darkness.
Each time I listen to those records I hear something new in the music that makes me appreciate it more and more with each listen.
Mark S.
March 6, 2012 at 12:53PM EST Reply to CommentBorn in the USA over Magic and Live/75-85 over Tracks. Springsteen still haven't released anything worth listening to since Tunnel of Love.
rudeboy
March 6, 2012 at 3:26PM EST Reply to CommentNever been a huge fan of The River either, but The Rising has to be in the top 5 somewhere, no? No problem w Darkness #1 and agree that Born in the USA can be left off as well, but would have left off Human Touch and Magic as well. From 1 to 7 for me: Darkness, Tracks, The Rising, Born to Run, The Wild, the innocent, Nebraska, and Greetings
melinda RUDEBOY... I love this... it's all so subjective and Springsteen's music all speaks to us in different ways. What I also love is that noone disputes "Darkness" at No. 1, even if you wouldn't put it there...Which means we're all really dedicated fans, because you know what the Springsteen dilettantes would put at No. 1... LOL. "Rising" is not in my top 5, though I have great appreciation and love the stuff he performs live from it. I don't have "Human Touch" on my list... I'm hard pressed to find anyone who would, although there are some great individual tracks on there. MARK S: Agree w/ you on Live/75-85's greatness, but I decided not to include any live albums. It's unwieldy how we did this, but if you go back to the top and click on "rest of the post" or something like that, it takes you to an essay that somewhat explains my methodology. Thanks
March 6, 2012 at 4:16PM ESTapiazza
June 18, 2012 at 8:41PM EST Reply to CommentHow do you rank the different chapters of the Bible? They are all classics! Much like Springsteen albums.
Paul Carroll
June 23, 2012 at 9:11AM EST Reply to CommentHi Melinda - am sure you won't mind an Englishman joining the party, the day after my 12th concert, this time in Manchester. Fantastic as always especially the audience participation and the moving tribute to Clarence. BTW has anyone noticed that he never ever plays anything from ToL? And nothing last night from Magic or WoaD (though the latter is hardly surprising). Anyway, to my top 7. BTR isn't just my favourite BS album, it's my favourite of all time - with Clarence's sax solo on JUngleland topping everything. That's the easy part...
1 Born to Run
2 The Wild, the Innocent and the E Street Shuffle
3 Greetings from Asbury Park
4 The Ghost of Tom Joad
5 Tunnel of Love (re-discovered recently)
6 Seeger Sessions (and produced possibly the most fun filled concert I've seen)
7 Born in the USA
So, a fan for over 30 years (starting with the River on Christmas Day 1981 who incidentally is gradually buying CDs of all the old LPs - only the River to go) who can't find a place for Darkness in his top 7 - it's just too dark for me. Also real fans are not supposed to like BitUSA due to its popularity but let's face it - it's a collection of brilliant songs. Both the River and the Rising suffer from more = less syndrome. Tracks is worth considering for 'Happy' alone Some other comments - WoaD proves that anger and sadness generally create better music; Queen of the Supermarket - wonderful tune, awful lyrics; Wrecking Ball will come to be regarded as a classic; easy to name the worst 3 - Human Touch, Lucky Town and WoaD - though each contains wonderful stuff; and I highly recommend Live at the Main Point 75 which is only just becoming available here - watch out for the early version of what was to become Thunder Road and a sublime 'Incident on 57th Street'.
And my wife still dreams that one day she'll be Dancing in the Dark on stage...
Michael
March 25, 2013 at 4:41PM EST Reply to Comment1. Born To Run
2. The Wild, the Innocent and the E Street Shuffle
3. Darkness on the Edge of Town
4. The River
5. Born in the USA
6. Tunnel of Love
7. The Promise
8. Tracks
9. Magic
10. Nebraska