Hi, everyone. Welcome to another edition of Music Monday.

(Image found online.  Original source unknown.)

In January I spotlighted the 50th anniversary of Bruce Springsteen’s debut album. Today the celebration centers around his fourth studio record. Darkness On The Edge Of Town was released 45 years ago on June 2, 1978. It came three years after his breakthrough smash, the masterpiece also known as Born To Run. The delay came from Springsteen’s battle to free himself from the contract with his first manager, Mike Appel, due to conflicts over the direction The Boss’s career should take.

Enter John Landau, the rock critic who befriended the man he called “rock & roll future” in 1974. He has been Springsteen’s manager and ally ever since. Landau co-produced BTR and was the primary producer on all of The Boss’s albums until 2001’s, The Rising.

If BTR was about hope, Darkness expressed what happened when that feeling was gone. One who may “spend your life waiting for a moment that just won’t come”, or those who “walk through these gates with death in their eyes” to kill themselves day by day, piece by piece in the grueling existence of a mind numbing job like one offered by factory life, or those who had nothing but were better off that way because “soon as you’ve got something they send someone to try and take it away” to the ones who “got stuff running ’round my head that I just can’t live down”.

The take away messages seemed clear but empowering in a sense. Springsteen offered some relief by way of his own experience which was to let go of what he had heard his whole life to make way for the new narrative of real life which is that most people exist rather than live. And life was going to be hard enough to live without those false promises mocking you at every turn. Real life was not going from comfort to comfort to get what you wanted, it was about having to fight hard just to get what you needed. The real world was a harsh unflinching one where surviving day to day without that hope meant acknowledging that no one was coming to save you. You had to do that yourself. And the discovery that even if prayers were heard, sometimes the answer was no.

To mark 45 years of this fabulous record, I am sharing two songs today. The first is one of the songs he performed with his ever faithful E Street Band the night he was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame in 1999. It is the track from the album that is my go to when I need to remember I have a choice in how I can react to whatever is going on in my head because of the lies life not only wants to tell us but expects us to believe. It is reclaiming your mind, heart and soul. It is yet another example that even when Bruce does not have a solution, he still has an answer. And it takes me away from life long enough to catch my breath and regain my strength in order to return to the struggle.

“Blow away the dreams that tear you apart
Blow away the dreams that break your heart
Blow away the lies that leave you
Nothing but lost and brokenhearted”.

The second song was featured in the 2001 movie, “Prozac Nation”. It is an outtake from the album that has to be one of the most heartbreaking tales Springsteen has ever told. According to his website, the original 1978 full band version of this song was not released until the 2010 album of the same name. Despite leaving this track off Darkness, he was performing it live during that period so fans were clamoring for it to be made available. He recorded a new stripped down version of this song for the 1999 album, 18 Tracks. And it is this simple sparse yet unbelievably elegant track that has completely captivated me from the very first moment I heard it. The melancoly timbre of his voice accompanied only by a solo piano arrangement underscores the sadness and pain of the story he shares with us. It hits me every time I hear it that this man has been one of the greatest gifts of my life. He sings my existence in every note: the good, the bad, the broken and the dark. Yet somehow I am comforted by the knowledge that he gets it. And no matter what, he is my home. My safe place. My constant.

“All my life I fought that fight
The fight that you can’t ever win
Every day it just gets harder to live
The dream you’re believing in”.

Top two images: The front and back covers of Springsteen’s 1978 album. Bottom two images: alternate photos taken during the photo shoot for the album. All photos by Frank Stefanko. (Images found online.  Original sources unknown.)

Bruce Springsteen: “The Promised Land” (1978, wriiten by Bruce Springsteen).

Bruce Springsteen: “The Promise” (1999, wriiten by Bruce Springsteen).

Stay safe and well.