Realism found its way into Springsteen’s songs with “Darkness…” and made Springsteen the chronicler of the working class with its dreams and agonies – here representative in “The Promised Land” and “Racing In The Street”.
When Bruce Springsteen was young, he had nothing but rock ‘n’ roll. When we were young we had nothing but Bruce Springsteen. But the bootlegs from the ’70s concerts were too expensive, so we were left with the stupid ’80s music videos.
Springsteen was not allowed to release an album after Born To Run while the court battle with his former manager Mike Appel continued. The dispute began in 1975 and ended in 1977 with Springsteen’s liberation. In between he wrote some of the best songs of his life.
He later kept the promise that Springsteen made with “Born To Run”. “Darkness” is about the suburbs and what it’s like to become a man, to be exposed to everyday struggles – and still to live every day .
Greil Marcus heard “Triumph” in “Badlands”. But the album is also deeply fatalistic: In “Adam Raised A Cain” the son cannot escape his origins, in “Racing In The Street” all dreams fail, in “Factory” destroys the father, which at the same time allows him to live, ” Streets Of Fire’ and ‘Something In The Night’ are filled with uncertainty and terror, and finally in ‘Darkness On The Edge Of Town’ the man stands on that hill.
The River (1980) continues the story in Independence Day, The Price You Pay and Wreck On The Highway. It’s Springsteen’s own story.