386 Hello Bruce Springsteen - Hungry Heart

Chart  entered : 22  November  1980

Chart  peak : 44 ( 28  on  reissue  in  1995 )

Number  of  hits : 23

This  isn't  one  I  was  looking  forward  to  I  must  admit , as  Bruce  isn't  my  Boss  by  any  stretch  of  the  imagination. I  don't  detest  him. I  acknowledge  he's  an  excellent  songwriter  and  his  marathon  sets  are  very  laudable. In  his  quieter  moments  such  as  the  song  "The  River"  he  can  be  very  good  indeed. But  he  can't , in  any  technical  sense  of  the  word, sing  and  I  don't  really  like  the  "wall  of  sound"  approach  he  favours , from  anyone. When  he's  bawling  himself  hoarse  and  the  band  are  going  full  tilt  - "Born  In  the  USA"  or  that  awful  version  of  "Santa  Claus  Is  Coming  To Town"  for  instance - I  find  him  unbearable. Then  there's  his  fans  including   two  good  friends  of  mine. It  seems  like  you  can't  just  like  Bruce , you  have  to  worship  him. His  chief  cheerleader  in  the  UK  David  Hepworth  is  a  good  example  of  this. I  remember  his  Q  putting  the  phenomenal  success  of  Bryan  Adams'  Everything  I Do   down  to  people  waiting  for  the  next  Springsteen  album. I  just  don't  get  it  -what  is  it  about  him  that  attracts  such  fawning ?

Bruce  Springsteen  was  born  in  New  Jersey  in  1949. His  father  had  Dutch  and  Irish  roots  and  was  frequently  unemployed  with  Bruce's  Italian  mother  the  main  breadwinner  as  a  legal  secretary.  He  was  brought  up  a  Catholic. Although  originally  an  Elvis  fan  he  too  was  galvanised  by  the  Beatles  on  Ed  Sullivan  and started  busking  at  trailer  parks  with  a  guitar  his  mother  bought  for  him. He  avoided  the  Vietnam  draft  being  declared  unfit  ; how  far  this  was  a  deliberate act   is  open  to  conjecture. He  had  spells  in  local  bands  called  The  Castiles, Earth  and  Steel  Mill, none  of  whom  recorded  anything  then  began  to  form  his  own  band.

In  1971  he  came  to  the  attention  of  producer  Mike  Appel  who  signed  a  production  contract  with  him  the  following  year. He  in  turn  alerted  John  Hammond  of  CBS   who  signed  him  up  to  the  label.

His  first  album  "Greetings  from  Asbury  Park ,N.J." was  released  at  the  beginning  of  1973 . Commencing  as  it  does  with  the  raw  original  of  "Blinded  By  The  Light " , I  expected  it  to  be  a  hard  slog  but  apart  from  the  wheezing  Dylan-isms  of  "Mary  Queen  of  Arkansas"   it's  a  palatable  set  of  folk  rock  songs  owing  equally  to  Dylan  and  Van  Morrison. Bruce  introduces  many  of  his  signature  themes - cars  ( "The  Angel"), teenage  sex  and  friendship  ( "Spirit  in  the  Night" ) , Vietnam  ( "Lost  in  the  Flood" )   and  Catholic  guilt  ( "It's  Hard  To  Be  A  Saint  In  The  City " ).  It  got  a  mixed  reception  from  the  critics  and  sold  sluggishly  peaking  at  number  60. Neither  of  the  singles  "Blinded  By  The  Light "  and  "Spirits  in  the  Night"  were  hits  until  of  course  covered  by  Manfred  Mann's  Earth  Band.

His  second  album  "The  Wild, The  Innocent  and  the  E  Street  Shuffle"  followed  on  nine  months  later  and  is  much  more  of  a  band  album  with  Bruce  pictured  with  his  five  cohorts  on  the  back  cover.  The  album  comprises  seven  lengthy  songs , all  of  them  with  densely  packed  lyrics  while  the  music  incorporates  country, jazz, Latin  and  classical  influences. None  of  it  was  singles  material  and  like  its  predecessor  it  was  not  commercially  successful.

Still  Bruce's  reputation  among  the  critics  grew  and  in  May  1974  The  Real  Paper's   music  critic  John  Landau  made  his  infamous  declaration  "I  saw  rock n  roll's  future  and  its  name  is Bruce  Springsteen". Nevertheless  Bruce  was  under  pressure  from  the  record  company  to  deliver  something  more  commercial  and  knew  that  the  large  advance  he  received  to  record  his  next  album  would  be  his  last  if  it  didn't  sell. This  helped  make  the  recording  sessions  for  "Born  To  Run"  long  and  tortuous.

"Born  To  Run"  released  in  August  1975  is  the  quintessential  Springsteen  album. Cutting  out    most  of  the  Jersey  references  to  make  the  songs  more  universal  and  throwing  in  some  recognisable  choruses , Bruce  delivered  an  LP  of  songs  about  cars  and  girls  as  avenues  of  escape  from  blue  collar  drudgery  including  one  of  rock's  greatest  anthems  in  the  title  track.  Each  number  has  an  epic  production , the  wall  of  sound  Bruce  demanded  from  his  band  and  producers. The  major  weakness  of  the  album  for  me  is  his  voice, veering  between  an  unintelligible  murmur  which  sometimes gets  overwhelmed  by  the  music  and  just  ugly  shouting  as  on  the  chorus  of  "Backstreets". My  over-riding  feeling  is  that  Meat  Loaf  and  Jim  Steinman  do  this  sort  of  thing  with  more  humour  , panache  and  obviously  better  vocals  although  without  the  political  edge. Despite  this  the  album  did  sell  reaching  number  3  in  the  US  charts . The  single  "Born  To  Run"  reached  number  23  and  its  follow-up  the  R & B  pastiche  "10th  Avenue  Freeze  Out"  got  to  83.

The  record  company's  promotional  machine worked  to  the  extent  of  getting  him  on  the  cover  of  Time  and  Newsweek .  The  latter's  article  though  was  quite  sceptical  and  made  the  hype  around  him  the  story. Bruce  got  a  bit  spooked  by this  and  tried  to  play  it  down  when  he  played  the UK  for  the  first  time  in  December. Despite  much  press  interest  both  singles  flopped  in  the  UK.

Bruce  replaced  Appel  with  Landau  as  his  manager  and  producer  upon  which  the  former  sued.  Bruce  took  the  band  on  an  extensive  US  tour  until   the  matter  was  settled  meaning  that  the  next  album  wasn't  released  until  the  summer  of  1978. In  what  was  to  become  a  pattern  in  his  c.v.,  "Darkness  On  The  Edge  Of  Town"  was  a  more  sombre,  quieter  record  than  its  predecessor. There  are  less  routes  of  escape  for  the  characters  in  these  songs  , the  nocturnal  riding  ends  in  disaster  in  "Something  On  The  Night"  and  the  girl  won  over  by  the  boy  racer  in  "Racing  On  The  Streets"  ends  up  a  hopelessly  disillusioned  adult. The  music  is  a  bit  less  nostalgic  with  "Adam  Raised  a  Cain"  being  unadorned  hard  rock  while  Lou  Reed  and  punk  inform  the  best  track  "Candy's  Room".  For  the  singles  the  tracks  closest  to  the  "Born  To  Run"  sound  were  chosen;  the  mid-tempo  ballad  "Prove  It  All  Night"  reached  number  33 in  the  US  charts , "Badlands "  which  Bruce  admitted  was  based  on  the  Animals '  Please  Don't  Me  Be  Misunderstood  (  I  can't  hear  it  myself  )  reached  42  while  the  country-flecked  pessimistic  "The  Promised  Land  missed  out  altogether. None  of  them  did  anything  in  the  UK. Bruce's  US  tour  to  promote  the  album  was  where  he  began  to  acquire  the  reputation  for  playing  marathon  sets.

"Hungry  Heart"  was  the  trailer  single for  his  next  LP  "The  River" . It  was  originally  written  as  a  favour  to  Joey Ramone  but  Landau  persuaded  him  that  he  was  giving  away  too  many  commercially  viable  songs  to  other  artists  (e.g. Fire, Because  The  Night )  and  should  try  for  a  big  hit  single  himself.  Bruce's  vocal  was  slightly  sped  up  to  make  him  sound  less  lugubrious  and  Flo  and  Eddie  dropped  by  to  add  backing  vocals.  "Hungry  Heart"  seems  on  the  surface  to  be  a  bright  upbeat  Spector- pop  tune  but  the  lyric  begins  with  the  singer  announcing  the  desertion  of  his  family  and  goes  on  to  court  prostitutes  instead  "Lay  down  your  money  and  you  play  your  part " . "Everybody's  got  a  hungry  heart  " seems  to  be  a  justification  for  philandering. Quite  why  Bruce  thought  it  a  suitable  vehicle  for  Ramone  ( who , unlike  Bruce, had  a  genuine  right  to  complain  about  his  physical  appearance )  is  the  most  interesting  thing  about  it.

The  single  reached  number  5  in  the  States  vindicating  Landau's  judgement  and  was  positively  endorsed  by  John  Lennon  in  his  last  interview.