Track Listing

1. E Street Shuffle
2. 4th Of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)
3. Kitty's Back
4. Wild Billy's Circus Story
5. Incident On 57th Street
6. Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)
7. New York City Serenade

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4542 in Music
• Released on: 1990-10-25
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.com
If Springsteen's debut, Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. revealed just how ambitious a talent he was, it also fell just short of realizing those ambitions. No such problem with this, his second album. The Dylanesque wordplay is there, but with more narrative detail, as on "4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)," "Kitty's Back," and "Rosalita," each of which became instant Springsteen classics and were demanded by his concert crowds for years. But even on this record, the music isn't allowed to take a back seat to the words--the latter two, at least, are full-tilt rock & roll numbers, with abrupt tempo shifts, soaring instrumental parts, and production that's just chaotic enough to make you wonder if the whole thing is going to blow apart and then smile in appreciation when it doesn't. The Wild, the Innocent, and the E Street Shuffle was the first time Springsteen scaled the heights of rock & roll greatness--but it wouldn't be the last. --Daniel Durchholz

Customer Reviews

Even the casual Springsteen fan should own this cd.
Born to Run brought Springsteen to America's attention and earned him the Time and Newsweek covers. However, the real break out was this cd some two years earlier. It has always been my favourite and remains so today. Musically it is all over the map. There is no escaping Dylan's influence - but it is Dylan with R & B, jazz and Latino flavorings and with a New Jersey accent. Any fan who started his Bruce experience with either of the Borns would be surprised, to say the least, by the accordion on Asbury Park (Sandy), the soulful Butterfield Blues Band opening of Kitty's Back followed by the jazzy Van Morrisonesque vocals and the Jimmy Smith organ stylings of David L. Sancious. Although the record is musically extremely diverse the lyrics provide the consistency required to make this a great piece of music. To me The Wild, the Innocent and the E Street Shuffle plays like a collection of autobiographical stories relating to Springsteen's Jersey life all those years ago. Moreover, it sounds like Bruce and the boys just got together one night and laid down these tracks. Now, the sound quality is admittedly less than ideal. I don't care. I first listened to the vinyl on an old, cheap stereo with a couple of pathetically small and inefficient speakers. Although this recording may be far from audiophile quality it certainly sounds better to me than it did as an LP, an 8-track or a cassette!

There isn't a weak track on this cd. As I listen to each song I think to myself "man this is a great tune - the best one" and then the next song begins and I think "wow, this is a really great song". The bottom line is that this is a terrific cd. All Springsteen fans, even the casual ones, should have it.

Part Walt Whitman, Part Van Morrison, Totally Springsteen
Having had the privilege of living in the Eatontown-Long Branch-Red Bank area in 1972, I really feel the verisimilitude and depth of feeling Springsteen and his E Street Band brought to every note and word of this album. Sandy, Rosalita, Kitty's Back, are, simply put, really hard rock songs played through a doo-wop, east coast, r&b type sensibility, which really fits with the preoccupations of a big city-resort area in the summertime. If "Greetings..." was Bruce's way of saying hello to his audience, this album was the true introduction. Anyone who ever strolled the boardwalk with a young, wild, yearning heart knows what this music is about, its greatness, its power.

Bruce's almost photographic sensibilities render a true, gritty, romantic, and brilliantly alive masterpiece from the neon, the salt-water taffy, and the hustles. And "Wild Billy's Circus Story" is simply a classic of the carny life, right up there with "Freaks" and "Nightmare Alley".

But this music is more than that, I realize. The Band's playing and Springsteen's writing are at a level here that beggars description--buy it. Listen. It's a GREAT album.

Great Music But Lousy Fidelity.
It's a shame that this album has never been remastered to bring the sound quality up to what it could and should be. The music itself rates 5-stars, but because the album was never remastered, the quality of the sound rates 2-stars. To me, it is amazing that an artist of Springsteen's stature and accomplishment has allowed this inferior product to remain in its current condition. I keep waiting for it to be upgraded so I can buy it and hear it as it deserves to be heard.