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Bruce Springsteen – The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle ReviewWhere The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle is not an immediate hit, it did well to bolster the profile of Bruce Springsteen. With the benefit of hindsight, it is clearer still to look at this second album and think there was something special not just in the instrumental performance, but in the attitude and writing. An establisher album. A set of songs which made their way into being fan favourites well after its release. Returning to The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle a few years after first listening unlocks new avenues. Whether it is a frontal lobe now in place that sneaks in new layers to this groove-laden Springsteen piece or a chance to listen properly, noise-cancelling headphones intact, is up for debate. Whatever the change, this is a classy Springsteen piece with plenty of charm.

You would not think Springsteen was up against it while listening to The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle. That poor excuse for facial hair slapped on his front cover profile does not give away the joyous, chirpy groove of The E Street Shuffle, an opener which gives us not just the instrumental impression of the band but a Springsteen vocal lead which features bold howls and bar room chatter. It is the sort of pub impression few have replicated successfully. What could have been a stumbling block for Springsteen here is the greasers and high school hijinks of 4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy). But the chase of factory girls in a summer which must have felt so free is an essential, early piece from Springsteen. Unrequited love which, just ten years later, would be absent from his politically charged writing.

This is not to say The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle is not a mature piece of work. It is. Tremendously so, and a stretch better than debut album Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J. regarding those love-led tones. Instrumentally, this is as bold as you would want a band to be. They are introduced with the furious competency and creativity any frontman would dream of. Springsteen is free to hand over to them for some inspired, borderline yacht rock fun on Kitty’s Back while they provide an incredible backbone for tender topics to follow on Incident on 57th Street. Its continuation into Rosalita (Come Out Tonight) should be far stronger than it is, but the defining song of The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle is far from its best. Nowhere close to bad, but lacking the punch to bolster those lyrical flourishes, something Springsteen would grow into on his next album, Born to Run.

New York Serenade makes up for it. A powerful closer which can rest as a feather in the cap of Springsteen at this point. Two exceptional albums were put out by The Boss in 1973 and this just about clinches the slot of consistency. An almost ten-minute closer which calls time on an album almost collapsing under the weight of its ambition. But The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle is held together by an exceptional group of instrumentalists who, because of this energy and like-mindedness, are still serving these songs today. We are all the better for the likes of Stevie Van Zandt, the ballast they provide the out-there writings of Springsteen and how they reel it all back in, taking those blue-collar blowouts to new heights, and in, turn making them explosive songs for the everyman.

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The SPL Rocks!







Pulled up to my house today
Came and took my little girl away!
Giants Stadium 8/28/03



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