Bruce Springsteen - "Darkness On The Edge Of Town (2009)"
Sunday, October 10, 2010 at 3:29PM ;)
By Seth Mitchell
Bruce Springsteen's first three records, culminating with Born To Run, showcased the songs of an idealistic, romantic young man. The songs were lyrically complex - Springsteen was a scruffy street poet, singing songs of friendship and dreams. The arrangements were as ambitious as the stories the songs told - first dense and jazzy, and later epic with massive crescendos and Phil Spector-inspired production. Springsteen and his E Street Band rode a huge wave of hype after the release of Born To Run an album that introduced his music to a much wider audience outside of the I-95 corridor, but with it brought expectations and pressure. And then there was the lawsuit that kept Springsteen out of the studio, and also cast a shadow of doubt over his future recording career. Rather than make concessions over the rights to his songs, Springsteen dug in for battle - a process than changed his outlook on life, and forever changed the way he approached music.
The roughly 3 years between the release of Born To Run and Darkness On The Edge Of Town saw Springsteen turn away from the hopeful and outward-looking songs of Born To Run, and instead turned the focus towards darker, more mature themes - loneliness, uncertainty and responsibility. During that time Springsteen also started listening to punk and country music, which undoubtedly influenced his writing and vision for the album. All of this contributed as much to the sound of Darkness, as much as the lyrics.
The new documentary "The Promise: The Making of Darkness On The Edge Of Town" leads viewers through the rigorous and trying process of recording the album. Archival footage shows Springsteen and the band in the studio, sessions that were long, exhausting and trying. Springsteen talks at length about the sound he was looking for - stark, stripped-down, raw - and the trouble he had actually getting that sound on tape. A sterile, "dead"-sounding studio. Weeks spent getting the snare sound right. The inability, until Chuck Plotkin became involved, to get a mix that wasn't muddy.
In the years since Darkness On The Edge Of Town was released, Springsteen has been quoted as saying that he wasn't happy with the way the record sounded. If he has any regrets, it isn't for lack of work and determination. In putting together the upcoming "Promise" box set Springsteen got the band together for another shot at recording the record. After 30+ years of playing and living with these songs, the band played the entire album, in order, to an empty theater and filmed it. Without a live audience to play to, the band could focus on the performance and the sound - this was their chance to finally correct the flaws they hear in the original. While the DVD of the full performance will not be available until the box set is released November 16, listen to a rip of Darkness On The Edge Of Town from the documentary - the passion and intensity with which the song is performed is incredible:
Bruce Springsteen - Darkness On The Edge Of Town (2009) (fixed)
Reader Comments (3)
I dont think you post the right one ....I do believe this Darkness version is not on the incoming Darkness Box ! surely ....The 1978 Darkness Tour shows are much hangry...er that this mp3.....
greetings from Italy
The box set also includes a DVD of a full performance of the album from the Paramount Theater in Asbury Park from 2009 - this recording is from the 2009 Asbury Park DVD (not the Houston 1978 DVD)
yeah I realize ....., I was so anxious to hear it ...I didn't read carefully the full article..... sorry, my mistake