Top 25 Springsteen Songs: The River
Five of my favorite Springsteen songs from the sessions that brought us the hit 1980 double album.
Moving along with my countdown of my Top 25 favorite Springsteen songs with this next group of five coming from The River sessions (some songs ended up on that album, while others were released later).
“Loose Ends”
The first of two songs from The River recording sessions that didn’t end up on the album itself yet made their way onto my list. “Loose Ends” is an interesting mix of The River and Darkness on the Edge of Town. You get some of the polish and precision present on The River tracks, but the scenario played out in the song has some of the desperation one sees on Darkness.
We met out on open streets when we had no place to go
I remember how my heart beat when you said "I love you so"
Then little by little, we choked out all the life that our love could hold
Using this imagery of choking and a noose, it’s very morbid and seems more at home alongside “Racing in the Street” rather than, say, “Sherry Darling.”
It’s a fascinating juxtaposition as it wonders “how could something so bad […] come from something that was so good?” That salvation and redemption found in romance, which is present in so many of The River songs, turns into something destructive.
"Where The Bands Are"
This is pure The River, specifically the joyous moments on songs like “Ramrod” or “I’m A Rocker.” Earlier incarnations of this newsletter used this song as a title. It’s a perfect testament to the salvation (there I go, using that word again) Springsteen finds in music.
I want something that'll break my chains
Something to break my heart, something to shake my brains
Calling to mind the small, raucous, noisy clubs where he got started, Springsteen is singing about the liberating, life-changing effect music can have. It feels of a piece with “No Surrender” and “learn[ing] more from a three-minute record … than we ever learned in school.”
It’s a little surprising this song didn’t end up on the album itself, as I think it’s lyrically more interesting than some of those other up-tempo party songs and feels like a mission statement for Springsteen and co.
“The Price You Pay”
This is one that grew on me over repeated listens. If I’d made this list even a few years ago, it might not have cracked the top 25 but now it’s definitely there.
The lyrics are what jumped out to me about this song, as it features a fascinating use of the story of Moses and Pharaoh:
Do you remember the story of the promised land?
How he crossed the desert sands and could not enter the chosen land
While what ended up on The River is great, my preferred version of the song was the one released as part of The Ties That Bind—the single album that ultimately grew into the double album form of The River.
It features a slightly different verse which I really enjoy and elevates the song to make me want to put it on this list:
Some say forget the past, and some say don't look back
But for every breath you take, you'll leave a track
“The River"
A real heavy-hitter of a song and an instant rebuke for those who think Springsteen is just some kind of simplistic, one note figure. A song, based on the real life example of Springsteen’s sister and her unexpected pregnancy, is a poignant tale of what can happen to people at the margins. I think about this verse:
Then I got Mary pregnant
And, man, that was all she wrote
And for my nineteenth birthday
I got a union card and a wedding coat
We went down to the courthouse
And the judge put it all to rest
No wedding day smiles, no walk down the aisle
No flowers, no wedding dress
Again, it’s not that romance, it’s just the cold hard facts and the choices one has to make in the face of them, especially when they are not in a position socioeconomically to do anything about those facts.
Also, a line like “Is a dream a lie if it don’t come true, or is it something worse?” is something so cutting and hard-hitting, particularly when you think about Springsteen as someone engaging with ideas of the American Dream. What happens when it turns out the dreams we’re sold and told are hollow? Is it just a lie or something more insidious?
If you think Springsteen is just simple songs about cars… you only need listen to “The River” to be disabused of that notion.
While the album version is great, the live version of it collected for the Live/1975-1985 boxed set has always stayed with me in part because of the powerful story Springsteen tells before moving into the song.
It’s hard for me to hear that story and not be moved to tears because of it.
“Two Hearts”
If I was doing this in a power-ranking arrangement, this might be a song just outside the Top 10. It’s a fun, up-tempo number but it’s also one that has a kind of message to it, or is not just the fun party rock of some of the other up-tempo tracks.
Looking at the second verse of the song, you see what Springsteen is trying to say.
Once I spent my time playing tough-guy scenes
But I was living in a world of childish dreams
Someday these childish dreams must end
To become a man and grow up to dream again
It’s a rebuke of a cynical, isolated, detached life. One needs to be engaged in the world, engaged with other people in a meaningful way, in order to be fulfilled. It’s articulating a key idea that’s at the heart of so much of Springsteen’s work. Namely, that need we all have for authentic human connection—communion, love—and that though we might try to fight it or think we’re tough enough to not need it that’s not the case.
This is also the song that often leads to the famous setup of Bruce and Steven Van Zandt singing into the same microphone, a Springsteen concert staple. Here’s the Boss and the E Street Band playing it as part of the reunion tour at Madison Square Garden in New York City.
Did I miss any tracks off The River here (don’t worry, there might be more coming later on in the countdown…)? Anything off of the Tracks/Ties That Bind archival releases that I need to have on here? Let me know! And we’ll continue moving through this countdown and heading on down the road…
Hearing "The River" for the first time convinced me that Bruce is a poet in musical form, not unlike Leonard Cohen.