Darkness on the Edge of Town
An attempt to convey the brilliance of a masterpiece in just 500 words!
The start of a planned series of #Miniatures.
Inspiration arrives from a variety of sources. One of my heroes is Bruce Springsteen, many of whose lyrics take the form of extended narrative. Darkness on the Edge of Town was the first of Bruce’s LPs I bought, a couple of years after its 1978 release. More than forty years later, this remains my favourite album. The evocative lyrics bring a direct sense of the characters Bruce writes about, portraying lives in which struggle is combined with optimism. Extensive cross-referencing of key words across the 10 songs gives the album a great unity. This is reinforced by the instrumental backing, which sounds similar throughout the record.
The LP opens with “Badlands”, a song destined to become one of Bruce’s concert anthems, with the enigmatic suggestion that “it ain’t no sin to be glad you’re alive”. The first side closes with “Racing in the Street”, as Bruce hops into a 69 Chevy with a 396, to ride with his partner Sonny, and then an un-named girl. The instrumental passage at the end of the song is a moment of warmth – which has been powerfully extended in live performances. The second half opens with “The Promised Land”, a stirring tale of optimism and dignity, which echoes “Badlands”. The record closes with “Darkness on the Edge of Town”, the title track and defining moment, the tale of a man who seems to be fighting a losing battle in his life, but resolves to keep searching for something.
The album was re-packaged in 2010, as The Promise: The Darkness on the Edge of Town Story, a stunning set, in which three CDs plus three DVDs are housed within an extensive book – itself placed within a box. Bruce’s 43 minute masterpiece has been expanded into discs that stretch to eight and a half hours of music and film. Bruce delved into the archives, to unveil a mass of material, providing fascinating insights into his creative process. Preparation included Bruce re-recording parts of the material, where he was not satisfied with original takes from the 1970s. The Promise set featured the first release of a studio recording by Bruce of “Because the Night”, a song passed to Patti Smith, who re-wrote the lyrics, and had a hit single in 1978.
Bruce omitted “The Promise”, an amazing track, from the original Darkness record, as he thought it was too personal. There were suggestions the song echoed Bruce’s legal struggle with Mike Appel, his former manager. “The Promise” can be seen as a wider rumination upon the way in which Bruce’s innocent pursuit of rock’n’roll stardom was betrayed, with the hype surrounding his 1975 Born to Run album, and the painful break from Appel. Sometimes an artist’s motivations are sub-conscious, and the words “all my life, I fought this fight, the fight that no man can ever win” may reflect Bruce battling with his Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.
andrewgodsell 