I'm re-reading Clinton Heylin's book and in this Chapter "Chasing Something in the Night" Heylin describes the promotion or specifically the lack of promotion on Springsteen's part for the upcoming Darkness album. He's relating that CBS and Bruce are relying on the critic's and the live shows to promote Darkness on the Edge of Town. One critic being Dave Marsh, who worked for Rolling Stone at the time.
Here is the excerpt I'm referring to:
By assigning the already indentured Dave Marsh to review Darkness, Rolling Stone were certainly doing their bit. On line two of his rave review, Marsh compared this record to "Are You Experienced?", Astral Weeks, Who's Next, The Band, and Like A Rolling Stone". If that wasn't enough to break any camel's back, he went on to suggest that 'in the area of production...(it) is nothing less than a breakthrough'. A breakthrough no one reprised or took further, not even Springsteen. But then, here was a man who was determined to hear echoes of Robbie Robertson's apocalyptic 1966 riffs and Yardbirds-era Jeff Beck in Bruce's guitar parts.
He was also prepared to be a voice in the wilderness, celebrating (not lamenting) the fact that ideas, characters, and phrases jump from song to song like threads in a tapestry'. Some other US reviewers who agreed with this part of Marsh's critique thought it showed a paucity of imagination.