With multiple parts and a storyline for the ages, Springsteen spits out the song’s lyrics with ferocious energy and palpable excitement. It had taken him two albums to do it, but Springsteen had finally found his voice on ‘Rosalita’. There’s no time to rest once the final twinkling piano notes of ‘Incident on 57th Street’ end because the listener gets immediately thrust into one of Springsteen’s greatest songs, ‘Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)’. The blend of Shakespeare and West Side Story is pure Springsteen, even if he would get less obvious in his inspiration on future tracks. ‘Incident on 57th Street’ lays the foundation for what Springsteen would explore on songs like ‘Jungleland’ and ‘Darkness on the Edge of Town’: street life, with all the excitement and drama of a classic Hollywood film. It’s not loose jamming or finely-crafted progressive rock compositions, but somewhere in between. If nothing else, ‘Circus Story’ does include a bit of foreshadowing with its final line: “All aboard, Nebraska’s our next stop.” Springsteen wouldn’t get to Nebraska for another decade, but the sombre tone of ‘Circus Story’ helps set the stage.įor side two of The E Street Shuffle, Springsteen and The E Street Band stretch out to extended lengths. ‘Wild Billy’s Circus Story’ finds Springsteen jumping at the chance to detail as many characters as possible without really saying much of anything. While he was fine-tuning his storytelling skills, Springsteen was still biting off more than he could chew in the early days. The E Street Band aren’t quite turning on a dime like their next incarnation would on Born to Run, but the twists and turns that make up ‘Kitty’s Back’ are as mind-bending and jazzy as the group would ever get.īringing back the carnival atmosphere of ‘4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)’, ‘Wild Billy’s Circus Story’ almost acts as a reprise. But Springsteen can’t help himself from taking ‘Kitty’s Back’ through a plethora of speeds and styles, creating a sense of whiplash between street-corner jazz, dirty soul, and shuffling rock music. Starting off as a slow-burning hard rock track, Springsteen lights up the fretboard with impassioned squeals, not unlike the kinds of tones that Neil Young got out of his guitars. It’s all Springsteen, and his stinging lead guitar attack can best be heard on the intro to ‘Kitty’s Back’. For The E Street Shuffle, there’s no Little Steven or Nils Lofgren to take the lead. One of Springsteen’s most underrated traits is his mastery of the guitar. ‘4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)’ is Springsteen at his most romantic, idolising his hometown just before he decided that he needed to escape from it. At the centre of the track is Springsteen unspooling an observational tale about all the people you could see from the top of a Ferris wheel in Asbury Park: greasers, stoners, homeless people, and factory girls just waiting to get swept off their feet. It gives the song a woozy and dream-like feel that’s complemented by Federici’s accordion. Lopez alternates between half-time and common time during the chorus. Slowing things down after the blistering glee of ‘The E Street Shuffle’, Springsteen keeps his Jersey-centric persona going by taking the listener back to Asbury Park. Sancious and Clemons add a potent R&B edge to the sound, with their clavinet and horn mix edging Springsteen closer to the Motown sound than he would ever get. Much in the same way that ‘Tenth Avenue Freeze Out’ would detail the band’s (somewhat made-up) origin story two years later, ‘The E Street Shuffle’ brings you right into Springsteen’s world, rounded out by characters who either dance or scuffle as the summer heat beats down. The frenetic pace of the album comes right out of the gate on ‘The E Street Shuffle’. His verbose lyrical style remained intact, but Springsteen and The E Street Band were aiming for something broader and more cinematic for their second studio album. Instead of emphasising his singer-songwriter side as he did on his debut album, Springsteen decided to flesh out his sound and kickstart his own myth with The E Street Shuffle. This was the band that he brought into the studio for his follow-up, The Wild, The Innocent, and The E Street Shuffle. Although Springsteen performed most of the instruments on the relatively stripped-down LP, the most important cast of characters contributed to the fuller arrangements: bassist Gary Tallent, keyboardist David Sancious, drummer Vini ‘Mad Dog’ Lopez, and saxophonist Clarence Clemons.įor his first series of tours as a solo artist, Springsteen brought along organist Danny Federici to round out the ensemble. In order to bring his mix of rock, soul, and folk to life, Springsteen assembled the first version of what would become the E Street Band. Springsteen had already released his debut album, Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J., earlier in 1973.
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