wild the innocent and the e street shuffle

WILD THE INNOCENT AND THE E STREET SHUFFLE SERIES

“Incident On 57th Street” is a song that would be a beacon in many artist’s catalogs, but struggles to even shine as the brightest song on this record. “Wild Billy’s Circus Story” is a track that unfortunately gets overshadowed as the last track on Side A of Shuffle, but things don’t disappoint when you flip the record over. “Kitty’s Back” has gone on to become an absolutely ridiculous song at live performances, with renditions that run up to 20 minutes in length. Meanwhile, the latter is a more jam-based jazzy track that introduces us to the bad part of town. The former is a happy-go-lucky love ballad, with bright imagery of fireworks on the boardwalk and music to match. ”4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)” and “Kitty’s Back” are two opposite sides to a similar story.

WILD THE INNOCENT AND THE E STREET SHUFFLE SERIES

To describe Springsteen’s poetry on Shuffle is not something that can be done in a review, but might be better accomplished in a series of lengthy encyclopedias. The depth of the characters and storylines is something that not many will be able to understand, and after countless listens to this record and Born To Run, is not something I claim to have familiarized myself with completely. We identify with future heroes and heroines and with the oppressive nature of the police, who, along with many characters on this record, return in glorious form (and in different names) on Born To Run. Opener “The E Street Shuffle” introduces listeners to a host of characters who supposedly live on E Street. There are full-length stories in play here, which partially explains the lengthiness of each track. What listeners will encounter on this record is poetry – equal parts witty and clever as it is deep and complex. Although he was only seven months older than he was when he released his first record, Springsteen grew up a lot in that time, and it is reflected by his lyricism. This record was the spark for Springsteen’s rise to fame. And if you were worried about the shortness of the record, worry no longer those seven songs total to over 45 minutes of the sexiest rock music ever made. But holy macaroni, are they a solid group of songs. When you break down Shuffle, the first thing you notice is that it seems short – it only has seven songs. Only after Springsteen released Born To Run did choice cuts from this record end up seeing some love on FM radio. It was received even more warmly by critics than its predecessor, but it was equally as much of an atomic explosion on the Billboard charts. The Wild, The Innocent & The E Street Shuffle bore what at the time was a nauseating amount of resemblances to Greetings. Even on Shuffle, only three members of the E Street Band would continue on to work with The Boss for his entire career. An interesting point is that when Springsteen started off, he signed a contract with Columbia Records for Bruce Springsteen – no E Street Band existed for quite a while. Shuffle is more rock’n’roll while at the same time being more funky, the lyricism is improved to an exponential power, and it is the recorded debut of Springsteen’s E Street Band. Perhaps more impressive than the short turnaround is the quantum leap between the two records. The Wild, The Innocent& The E Street Shuffle came out barely seven months later – on Sep. Even lessthan less than a year, if that makes sense. So what did he do? He wrote, recorded and released an entire record in less than a year. With Columbia Records disappointed at the result of Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J., there was only one thing for Bruce Springsteen to do – give it another chance.

Wild the innocent and the e street shuffle