Oh Boy, Oh Boy, Oh Boy!

An album dissection is not the exactly the right term for what I have in mind, actually this will be more like a snap shot of my musical life and the roll this specific album took in it.  My first selection is The River by Bruce Springsteen.

The Boss entered my musical lexicon in the summer of 1979.  I was eleven when my parents decided to let me go to camp, in Tennessee.  Camp County Lad is an all boys camp that draws kids from all over the country.  It was there that I met Tim Dyke.  Tim was a huge Bruce Springsteen fan.  He once told me "I would buy an album of Bruce burping.  Bruce's Best Belches!" Tim's passion for Bruce manifested in everything around him.  Tim played Darkness on the Edge of Town five times a day.  He and David Dreyfus, another person I grew to worship, would spar by quoting Bruce lyrics back and forth, the pauses between quotes grew longer and longer until finally one of them would give up.  This was my first exposure to a true music fanatic and I caught the bug.

When I got home from camp, I was all Bruce all the time.  I bought Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. ,The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle , Born to Run , and Darkness on the Edge of Town and listen to them until they were my own.  I began to follow a musician for the first time and the anticipation of The River was almost too great. 

I bought, studied then listened to The River for two months straight.  Bruce sings and The E. Street Band play with passion and emotion.  "Two Hearts", "Point Blank", and "Stolen Car" are just some examples of that passion on The River. 

Before Bruce, I had only listened to the Beatles.  They have their place, a place for me rooted in bunk beds and stuffed animals, Bruce was the first musician that made me want to turn up the music full blast and scream along with him.  "Crush On You", "Cadillac Ranch", and "I'm A Rocker", all taxed my vocal cords and my parents.   

"The River", as a song, is almost perfect.  Starting with a haunting harmonica riff setting the stage for a tragedy.  I was just becoming aware of lyrics and lyrics like "for my ninetieth birthday I got a union card and a wedding coat." strike to the core.  They spoke to me about the end of innocence and started me on a path of appreciation for great music.

So much of the love for music is situational.  When I listen to The River now, I feel many of the same emotions I felt the first time I heard it, but I know that it is because of Tim Dyke, camp, and my age when I first heard The Big Man blow his saxophone on "Drive All Night" that draws me to this album, an album that will always be very close to my heart.