Another interesting thing about this disc is it's the first one in long time where Bruce actually sings instead of mumbling. The only drawback with him singing instead of mumbling is that many of his songs are better when one doesn't know just how inane the lyrics actually are. Nevertheless it's good to heard Bruce sing for a change.

Question: what happens when one compresses mumbles? Or rather, can mumble even be compressed?

On a related note, Bruce's Super Bowl halftime show was pretty good. Among the very best in that category, although Prince's rain soaked performance from a few years back still remains the all time best Super Bowl half time show.

I'm curious about this new Springsteen album... incidentally, saw SM's blog entry and he says his fave Springsteen LP is "Darkness on the Edge of Town."

What's yours? Mine is "Nebraska." By far.

Every time the question "What is your favorite album by (insert artist name here)?" is asked I noticed a pattern emerging in the responses. For the most part people respond with by citing the album by which they were first introduced to the given artist. For example, Buddha has responded with "Darkness on the Edge of Town" as his favorite Springsteen album and based on his comments I would venture a guess that it is also the album that introduced him to Bruce.

My favorite Springsteen album is a toss up between "Greetings From Asbury Park" and "The Wild, The Innocent & The E Street Shuffle" - the albums that first introduced me to Springsteen. I was lucky enough to pick up on Springsteen very early as a result of him playing (to a half full room) at the college I was attending. I didn't see the show but some friends did and they couldn't stop raving about Bruce and played his first album non-stop for weeks. I did finally get to see Springsteen in the summer of 1974 in NYC - first at the Bottom Line and then as the opening act for Helen Reddy in Central Park. The following summer was when "Born To Run" came out and there were block long lines for the handful of standing room tickets to his Bottom Line shows.

By the time "Darkness on the Edge of Town" came out Bruce was well on his way to becoming an "arena rock" star, in fact Bruce kind of perfected the whole concept of arena rock, and I wanted nothing to do with him, not that I had any hopes of avoiding his music but I tried. To say that I dislike going to see a concert in any venue larger than 3,000 seats would be putting it very mildly. For me football stadiums are for football games.

I've mellowed a little bit with age and I can now go back and listen to all of Springsteen's albums but I'll always prefer his first two "pre-arena rock" albums.

The first Springsteen record I heard was Born in the USA. My mom was a HUGE fan. I was only 7 or 8 years old, so I really don't know what I thought of the music. All I knew was that my mom liked it, so it wasn't for me.

I rediscovered Springsteen's music relatively recently, when in my mid-20s. The singer in our band handed me Nebraska, and I was blown away. This is Springsteen? I had no idea. I then went back and listened a bunch: Born to Run, Darkness, The Wild, the Innocent..., Asbury Park, and most recently, The River, all the while keeping up with his newest releases.

The River is really strange. It's got this weirdo doo-wop, bubble-gum pop thing about it. I need to listen some more.

I'm not familiar with the albums from Tunnel of Love through The Ghost of Tom Joad, though I do recall some very bad singles.

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The first Springsteen record I heard was Born in the USA. My mom was a HUGE fan. I was only 7 or 8 years old, so I really don't know what I thought of the music. All I knew was that my mom liked it, so it wasn't for me.

Boy are you lucky that you didn't have to suffer through the Springsteen craze of the late 1970's and early 1980's - it was completely out of control. I would go so far as to say that the BRRUUUUCE!!!! fans were at least as bad as the Deadheads in their blind devotion to all things Springsteen. Made me want to puke. Thank god I had David Murray, the George Adams/Don Pullen Quartet and other jazz to help keep me sane through all the Bruce insanity.

Just try to imagine a football stadium filled with thousands of former high school and college jocks yelling BRRUUUUCE!!!!, BRRUUUUCE!!!!, BRRUUUUCE!!!! at the top of their lungs. Absolutely revolting. Be very glad that you missed it.

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In an interview, Bruce once lamented the fact that concert crowds seemed to so grossly mispinterptret "Born in the USA."

Your 'stadium full of jocks' made me think that about 'Glory Days!'

Yeah, like Bruce did a whole heck of a lot to discourage that interpretation by strutting around the stage pumping in his fist to the words and music. If "Born In The USA" was supposed to be ironic or something, well just about everybody kind of missed that "interpretation". Bruce has some seriously bad marks on his record along with the many gold stars (and records).The "Born In The USA" misunderstanding is maybe a D but his roll in the rise of arena rock earns a nice big fat F.

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The first Springsteen record I heard was Born in the USA. My mom was a HUGE fan. I was only 7 or 8 years old, so I really don't know what I thought of the music. All I knew was that my mom liked it, so it wasn't for me.

Boy are you lucky that you didn't have to suffer through the Springsteen craze of the late 1970's and early 1980's - it was completely out of control. I would go so far as to say that the BRRUUUUCE!!!! fans were at least as bad as the Deadheads in their blind devotion to all things Springsteen. Made me want to puke. Thank god I had David Murray, the George Adams/Don Pullen Quartet and other jazz to help keep me sane through all the Bruce insanity.

Just try to imagine a football stadium filled with thousands of former high school and college jocks yelling BRRUUUUCE!!!!, BRRUUUUCE!!!!, BRRUUUUCE!!!! at the top of their lungs. Absolutely revolting. Be very glad that you missed it.

In an interview, Bruce once lamented the fact that concert crowds seemed to so grossly mispinterptret "Born in the USA."

Your 'stadium full of jocks' made me think that about 'Glory Days!'

I saw Bruce play at Giants Stadium once. It was a full E Street Band performance, but he opened with a solo acoustic version of "Born in the USA." It was so incredibly different from the album version that I didn't recognize it until he reached the refrain. It sounded much more like something off of Nebraska -- hushed and haunted.

I didn't at all mind the arena rock aspect of the show. It's what I expected, but I couldn't have imagined the power of his music. To hear 80,000 or however many people singing every word to every single song was completely awesome.

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Hola, Stephen.

I don't know if you've been at Stereophile long enough to remember a Cash Brothers' album called "How Was Tomorrow."

It was a "Record of the Month," and has a killer song about listening to the album Nebraska. (The song is titled 'Nebraska.') I really think you'd dig it. It has a GREAT line about love, too, maybe my wife's favorite, and she's astute!

It was in Vol.24 No.7 (I had been with Stereophile for less than a year), and wouldn't you know I'm missing that issue from my collection. I'll track it down and check it out.

Thanks!