Darkness on the Edge of Town

Background

Recovering from legal troubles and the stress of the breakthrough success of Born to Run, Springsteen released a somewhat less commercial album in Darkness on the Edge of Town. In terms of the original LP's sequencing, Springsteen continued his "four corners" approach from Born to Run, as the songs beginning each side ("Badlands" and "The Promised Land") were martial rallying cries to overcome circumstances, while the songs ending each side ("Racing in the Street", "Darkness on the Edge of Town") were sad dirges of circumstances overcoming all hope. Unlike Born to Run, the songs were recorded by the full band at once, frequently soon after Springsteen had written them. Steven Van Zandt received a credit for production assistance for helping Springsteen tighten the arrangements from Born to Run's epic sound.

Though the album failed to generate any substantial hit singles ("Prove It All Night" made it into the Top 40 in the U.S. at No. 33 and follow-up "Badlands" just missed, peaking at No. 42), Darkness was critically well-received and claimed the No. 1 slot on NME album of the year. In 2003, the album was ranked No. 151 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. The cover shot and inner sleeve photo were taken by photographer Frank Stefanko inside Stefanko's Haddonfield, New Jersey, home. Springsteen says, "When I saw the picture I said, 'That's the guy in the songs.' I wanted the part of me that's still that guy to be on the cover. Frank stripped away all your celebrity and left you with your essence. That's what that record was about."

A reissue box set was released in November 2010. This had initially been planned for 2008 to mark the 30th anniversary of the original album's release but was delayed presumably due to Springsteen's numerous other 2008 projects. By January 2009, Springsteen's manager, Jon Landau, was saying the project was still in the works: "When we can find six weeks to sit down and finish it I'm sure we will." A documentary entitled "The Promise: The Making of Darkness on the Edge of Town" was produced for the box set. The documentary premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in the fall of 2010 and aired on HBO on October 7, 2010.

During the Darkness sessions, Springsteen wrote or recorded many songs that he ended up not using on the album. This was to keep the album's thematic feel intact, even at the expense of not having hits on it. According to Jimmy Iovine, Springsteen wrote at least 70 songs during the sessions and 52 of those songs were recorded with some not fully completed.

Some of the unused material became hits for other artists such as "Because the Night" for Patti Smith; "Fire" for Robert Gordon and The Pointer Sisters; "Rendezvous" for Greg Kihn; "This Little Girl" for Gary U.S. Bonds; and several tracks for Southside Johnny including 3 songs released on the Asbury Jukes album entitled Hearts of Stone. Other songs such as "Independence Day", "Point Blank", "The Ties That Bind", and "Sherry Darling" would turn up on Springsteen's next album, The River, while still others became bootleg classics until surfacing on Springsteen's compilations titled Tracks, 18 Tracks, and The Promise.

Critical reception

In a contemporary review for Rolling Stone, Dave Marsh viewed Darkness on the Edge of Town as a landmark record in rock and roll because of the clarity of its production, Springsteen's unique guitar playing, and the programming, which he said connected the characters and themes in a subtle yet cohesive manner. Marsh remarked that the subject matter of the songs fulfilled the hype that previously surrounded Springsteen: "What they've always said was that someday Bruce Springsteen would make rock & roll that would shake men's souls and make them question the direction of their lives. That would do, in short, all the marvelous things rock had always promised to do." Robert Christgau was less enthusiastic in The Village Voice. He found Springsteen's narratives versatile and the characters remarkable on "Badlands", "Adam Raised a Cain", and "Promised Land", writing that they showcased "how a limited genre can illuminate a mature, full-bodied philosophical insight". He deemed other songs, particularly "Streets of Fire" and "Something in the Night", more impressionistic and overblown, revealing Springsteen to be either "an important minor artist or a very flawed and inconsistent major one". In the UK, the album was ranked at No. 1 among the "Albums of the Year" for 1978 by NME.

In a retrospective review for AllMusic, William Ruhlmann said that Springsteen began to fully realize his characters as working class on Darkness on the Edge of Town, whose "hard truths in hard rock settings" made for a less accessible work than Born to Run. Rolling Stone later wrote that the album was the E Street Band's best performance, "colored by the raw sound happening at the time". In 2003, it was ranked at number 151 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. According to Acclaimed Music, Darkness on the Edge of Town is the 103rd most frequently ranked record on critics' all-time lists.

Track listing

All tracks written by Bruce Springsteen.

The Promise: The Darkness on the Edge of Town Story

A box set reissue entitled The Promise: The Darkness on the Edge of Town Story was released on November 16, 2010. The 6-disc set includes 3 CDs and 3 DVD or Blu-ray discs. This contains a remastered version of the Darkness on the Edge of Town album, a new 2-CD album, The Promise containing 21 previously unreleased outtakes from the Darkness sessions, a documentary titled The Promise: The Making of Darkness on the Edge of Town, and 2 DVDs of live performances. The deluxe box set contains an 80-page spiral-bound reproduction of Springsteen’s original notebooks documenting the recording sessions for the album containing alternate lyrics, song ideas, recording details, and personal notes.

The box set was in production for several years and was originally expected to be released for the 30th anniversary in 2008. On August 4, 2010, it was announced that Springsteen was putting the finishing touches to the box set. The documentary received its première on September 14, 2010, at the Toronto International Film Festival. The box set won the 2012 Grammy Award for Best Boxed or Special Limited Edition Package.

The Promise additional track listing

All tracks written by Bruce Springsteen unless otherwise noted.

Unreleased outtakes

Springsteen wrote and recorded over 40 songs during the Darkness sessions. "Don't Look Back", "Hearts of Stone", "Iceman" and "Give the Girl a Kiss" would eventually see their release on the Tracks box set while 21 other outtakes would be released on The Promise album. Some of the songs recorded during these sessions would end up on his next album The River. However, there remains at least 16 songs that are still locked in the vaults, many of which have never even been released through the many circulating bootlegs.

Personnel