The Best Song From Every Bruce Springsteen Album__Bruce Springsteen Explains…..

Charting Bruce Springsteen’s career from scrappy Dylanesque folksinger to “rock ‘n’ roll[‘s] future” to one of the biggest artists on the planet means sifting through a catalog of records that evolved almost every step of the way while still united by common lyrical and musical themes.

It was there from the start, on his 1973 debut album, Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J., and it was there as he began to build his legend two years later on the epochal Born to Run. It remained there through various ups (Born in the U.S.A.) and downs (Human Touch) and more ups (The Rising), as you’ll see in our list of the Best Song From Every Bruce Springsteen Album.

The music sometimes changed – the twisted wordiness found on the debut gave way to more concise storytelling on albums like The River and Nebraska, and the early acoustic songs became full-fledged E Street Band rave-ups later on. So did his outlook. The restless characters who wanted nothing more than to escape their dead-end towns and jobs settled into more responsible adults on The River, even when those grown-up commitments stung (Springsteen’s troubled marriage is all over 1987’s Tunnel of Love).

He also grew into a more political songwriter over the years, as the idealistic young man of the ’70s found a voice for his working-class heroes on albums like Born in the U.S.A., The Ghost of Tom Joad and Wrecking Ball. Most remarkably, through it all he remained one of rock’s most essential and relevant artists, as you’ll see in the below list of the Best Song From Every Bruce Springsteen Album.

‘Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J.’ (1973): “Lost in the Flood”
The second-longest song, and Side One closer, on Springsteen’s debut is one of his first character-driven epics and a sign of things to come. ‘Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J.’ is kind of a ragged introduction, mixing Dylanesque flights of surrealist folk with more earnest attempts at contemporary songwriting. “Lost in the Flood” contains a little of both. There’s no guitar on the song, and the lyrics may or may not be about a fractured Vietnam veteran, but Springsteen sings it with such conviction and sense of desolation that it hardly matters.

‘The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle’ (1973): “Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)”
Springsteen was still searching for a voice when his second album came out 10 months after his debut. Unlike that first record, which was mostly filled with acoustic folk songs influenced by Bob Dylan, ‘The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle’ is ass-shaking rock ‘n’ roll that shines a brighter spotlight on the evolving E Street Band. “Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)” is the sweaty highlight, seven restless minutes of horny wordplay, blaring saxophones and ringing guitars. It quickly became a cornerstone of the band’s live shows.

‘Born to Run’ (1975): “Born to Run”

‘Darkness on the Edge of Town’ (1978): “Badlands”
After his breakthrough with 1975’s ‘Born to Run,’ Springsteen took three long years (an eternity back in the ’70s) to get another record in shops. Part of this had to do with a lawsuit involving his former manager. During the downtime, Springsteen recorded dozens of songs for his fourth album, which he eventually whittled down to the 10 found on ‘Darkness on the Edge of Town.’ The LP kicks off with “Badlands,” all rolling drums and sense of purpose that introduced a leaner and tougher Springsteen. The album’s themes link the chain between the idealistic ‘Born to Run’ and the grown-up ‘The River.’ ‘Badlands’ is the perfect intro – lyrically, musically and thematically – to what may be Springsteen’s most consistent album.

‘The River’ (1980): “The River”

‘Born in the U.S.A.’ (1984): “Born in the U.S.A.”

The album that knocked Springsteen into another stratosphere starts with the electrifying title track, a scarred appraisal of the Vietnam War on returning soldiers. The song was famously misappropriated as fist-waving patriotism by politicians, but its cultural significance goes deeper than that. ‘Born in the U.S.A.’ was one of the ’80s’ biggest albums, and it became so with songs about wounded vets, out-of-work factory workers and old towns losing their lifeblood. “Born in the U.S.A.” opens this haunted and haunting book with thundering drums, anguished howls and smart political commentary.

‘Tunnel of Love’ (1987): “Brilliant Disguise”

‘Born in the U.S.A.’ made Springsteen a star in 1984, and for the next few years he lived like one, releasing an extravagant box set of live material and marrying a Hollywood actress. But it didn’t suit him, so for his big LP’s follow-up he wrote a bunch of somber songs about how his marriage was sinking and recorded them with a stripped-down version of the E Street Band. ‘Tunnel of Love’ is his most personal and revealing album … and one of his best. “Brilliant Disguise” was the lead single and a fitting summation of the doubt and turmoil that marked this rocky period.

‘Human Touch’ (1992): “Human Touch”

‘Human Touch,’ which Springsteen made without the E Street Band and released on the same day as the slightly better ‘Lucky Town,’ is often dismissed as one of his worst albums. No argument here. It’s too slick and too content, and it goes on way too long. But it starts off promisingly with the title track, one of the few songs from the two-year sessions that didn’t sound immediately dated. There’s a sorta good song buried somewhere in “Human Touch”; you just wouldn’t know it within the context of the album, which coats even the best intentions in Hollywood gloss.

‘Lucky Town’ (1992): “If I Should Fall Behind”

Springsteen’s OTHER 1992 album is considerably better than ‘Human Touch.’ It’s looser, it features members of the E Street Band in bigger roles and it doesn’t go on forever. It’s also a more rock-oriented album, even though its best song, “If I Should Fall Behind,” is one of the more ruminative and low-key tracks. When Springsteen got his old band back together at the end of the decade, “If I Should Fall Behind” was played on every date of their reunion tour and has remained in his sets over the years. A quiet, delicate number from a difficult era.

‘The Ghost of Tom Joad’ (1995): “The Ghost of Tom Joad”

Thirteen years after ‘Nebraska,’ Springsteen released his second acoustic album (though he had some help this time). Following the mostly disastrous turns of the ‘Human Touch’ and ‘Lucky Town’ albums, ‘The Ghost of Tom Joad’ sounded like a return to the tough songwriting that had made Springsteen a star during the preceding two decades. The album’s title track sets up the record’s main conceptual arc, referencing John Steinbeck’s ‘The Grapes of Wrath’ and evoking Woody Guthrie’s everyman folk songs from half a century earlier.

‘The Rising’ (2002): “The Rising”

It’s no coincidence that Springsteen’s first album with the E Street Band in 18 years is one of his most muscular works. Following a seven-year break from record-making, ‘The Rising’ sounds brimmed with purpose – no small amount of this due to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks a year earlier. That day informs the record, but more than that it gave Springsteen a renewed and relevant voice. ‘The Rising”s title track is the centerpiece, an anthem-sized rocker that found determination in tragedy and helped give Springsteen his first No. 1 LP since 1987’s ‘Tunnel of Love.’

‘Devils & Dust’ (2005): “Devils & Dust”

Springsteen’s third acoustic folk album isn’t as good as ‘Nebraska’ or ‘The Ghost of Tom Joad,’ but it did manage to hit No. 1, which neither of its predecessors did. The best song is the title cut, opening track and lead single, and like other Springsteen works from the era, it’s political – a meditative piece on the Iraq War centered on a soldier who reaches a moral dilemma during a battle. The rest of the album too often toils in familiar territory; “Devils & Dust,” the song, reaches for something new.

‘We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions’ (2006): “O Mary Don’t You Weep”

Springsteen’s tribute to folksinger Pete Seeger includes more than a dozen songs – many of them traditional and in the public domain – dating back to the 19th century. Like many of his albums, and maybe more so than any of them, ‘We Shall Overcome’ works best as a single piece, where the protest songs, spirituals and folk ballads fall into a conceptual whole. That said, the jubilant “O Mary Don’t You Weep,” the longest track on the album, takes a pre-Civil War slave song and finds new relevance in its words and music. It was a highlight of Springsteen’s 2006 shows, where it usually arrived early in the set and helped set the concerts’ mood. That sense of uplift comes through on record too.

‘Magic’ (2007): “Radio Nowhere”

‘Magic’ was the first album recorded with the E Street Band in five years, so there’s a renewed commitment to the guitar-based rock songs that propelled Springsteen to fame more than three decades earlier. Still, there’s no escaping the wistful nostalgia and downcast themes found on later-period Springsteen records. It’s there on the album’s best songs, and it’s there on the LP’s opening track and first single, “Radio Nowhere,” a self-referencing lament for old-school radio … the same old-school radio that mostly stayed away from the song.

‘Working on a Dream’ (2009): “The Wrestler”

Technically, “The Wrestler” isn’t part of Springsteen’s 16th album. Instead, it’s listed as a bonus track, which sorta makes sense since it came out a month earlier as a single from the movie of the same name. Plus, it doesn’t really sound like anything else on ‘Working on a Dream.’ Still, it’s the best song to emerge from the sessions Springsteen and the E Street Band were pulling together during the final months of Bush’s presidency. The album is one of hope; the downcast “Wrestler” takes the opposite approach: “My only faith’s in the broken bones and bruises I display,” he sings.

‘Wrecking Ball ‘ (2012): “Wrecking Ball”

In a way, ‘Wrecking Ball’ is one of Springsteen’s most musically diverse albums, with electronic loops and hip-hop rhythms mingling with his usual guitar-centered rock ‘n’ roll. Longtime saxophonist Clarence Clemons died the previous year, and his ghost haunts some of the tracks. His playing shows up on a couple – the album’s best: a studio version of 1999’s ‘Land of Hope and Dreams” and “Wrecking Ball,” a tribute to New Jersey’s Giants Stadium, which was torn down in 2010. But the title song’s shadow stretches further than that. Like most of the ‘Wrecking Ball’ LP, the track serves as a metaphor for escalating economic woes and political unrest.

‘High Hopes’ (2014): “Hunter of Invisible Game”

Like many of the songs on Springsteen’s 18th album, “Hunter of Invisible Game” dates back a few years, most likely from sometime in the mid ’00s. Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello adds new guitar overdubs to the song. (He also shows up throughout the LP, including a vocal turn on the pointless band remake of “The Ghost of Tom Joad.”) “Hunter” is a moody rumination on humanity and spirituality that stands out on the otherwise underwhelming album. Springsteen also made his directorial debut with the song’s 10-minute video.