The River is the fifth studio album by Bruce Springsteen. It was released on October 17, 1980.
It's notable for being Springsteen's only double album. The River was produced by Jon Landau, Springsteen himself, and bandmate Steven Van Zandt. The album was Springsteen's first to go number one on the Billboard Top LPs & Tape chart and spent four weeks at the top of the charts. It was also nominated for Best Rock Vocal Performance at the 1982 Grammy Awards.
One thing often noted on The River is its mix of the frivolous next to the solemn. Bruce stated this was intentional, in contrast to Darkness on the Edge of Town. He said in an interview "Rock and roll has always been this joy, this certain happiness that is in its way the most beautiful thing in life. But rock is also about hardness and coldness and being alone ... I finally got to the place where I realized life had paradoxes, a lot of them, and you've got to live with them."
The album also gave Springsteen hit first US top 5 hit with lead single "Hungry Heart", while the Title Track (only released as a single in some European countries) also became one of Springsteen's greatest classics. Other singles from the album were released, although they don't get the same attention (e.g. "Fade Away" was a top 20 hit, yet is almost forgotten today in comparison to Springsteen's major classics).
Tracklist:
Side one- "The Ties That Bind" (3:33)
- "Sherry Darling" (4:03)
- "Jackson Cage" (3:03)
- "Two Hearts" (2:42)
- "Independence Day" (4:45)
Side two
- "Hungry Heart" (3:19)
- "Out in the Street" (4:17)
- "Crush on You"(3:11)
- "You Can Look (But You Better Not Touch)" (2:35)
- "I Wanna Marry You" (3:26)
- "The River" (5:01)
Side three
- "Point Blank" (6:06)
- "Cadillac Ranch" (3:03)
- "I'm a Rocker" (3:34)
- "Fade Away" (4:41)
- "Stolen Car" (3:52)
Side four
- "Ramrod" (4:04)
- "The Price You Pay" (5:26)
- "Drive All Night" (8:26)
- "Wreck on the Highway" (3:54)
Contains examples of:
- Audience Participation Song: "Hungry Heart" and "The River" are common examples of this.
- Based on a True Story: According to Springsteen, The River is largely based on the lives of his sister and her husband. The girl indeed was pregnant when she was 17, and managed to go on against all odds and difficulties.
- Cool Car: Cars are often means of escape and objects of desire for Springsteen's protagonists, with two examples on the album.
- "Ramrod": "She's a hot stepping hemi with a four on the floor / She's a roadrunner engine in a '32 Ford..."
- "Cadillac Ranch": "Cadillac, Cadillac / Long and dark, shiny and black / Open up your engines, let 'em roar / Tearing up the highway like a big old dinosaur..."
- Distracted by the Sexy:
- "Crush on You": the narrator is constantly getting distracted by beautiful girls to the point of wanting to drop everything and just run after them.
- Epic Rocking: "Drive All Night" is a straight-up example of this, being eight and a half minutes long. It would be Springsteen's longest studio track until "Outlaw Pete" on Working On A Dream. "Point Blank", although not to the same extent, still clocks at six minutes.
- Then, while the Title Track, clocking at five minutes, is sure not short per se, it's often extended to absurd lengths in live versions, as on the Live 1975/85 box set and on the Live in NYC album.
- Foreshadowing:
- A number of songs on the album, the Title Track itself, for example, presaged the themes he would devote Nebraska to.
- This was the first album where he began to write seriously about love, marriage, and relationships. These themes would be explored in greater detail on Tunnel Of Love. In particular, he singles out "Stolen Car" as a predecessor for those themes.
- Garage Rock: A prominent influence on the album due to the guidance of Steve Van Zandt. This lead to a rawer, messier sound on the album with some songs and outtakes verging on punk.
- Genre Roulette: The album is known for being a grab bag of genres, ranging from folk rock, rockabilly, country rock, soul, party rockers, and sparse ballads. All these convey a variety of moods, leading to the below-mentioned Mood Whiplash.
- Heavy Meta/"I Am" Song: "I'm a Rocker".
- Lyrical Dissonance: "Hungry Heart" and "Cadillac Ranch" are blatant examples of this, with their upbeat sound contrasting with their themes.
- "Hungry Heart" sounds like a nice, upbeat 50s-style tune, but the lyrics are about a guy who got married, had kids, and then ran away from his family because he stopped being in love with his wife.
- "Cadillac Ranch" is a cheerful and energetic Rock & Roll track dealing with the inevitably death. The title is specifically a reference to the art installation in Amarillo, Texas which features ten Cadillacs buried into the ground. Essentially acting as a metaphor for expendable cars.
- Minor example, but "Sherry Darling" seems to be an upbeat party ballad, yet is really an extended complaint about the singer's mother in law.
- Morality Ballad: "Hungry Heart" could be described, to paraphrase Max Frisch, as a morality ballad without a moral. The main character finds himself bewildered and torn by his actions, but it is clear he would do the same things again.
- Mood Whiplash: And completely intentional, as you can see above, when described by Springsteen himself talking about the change of tones on the album in an interview.
- Obnoxious In-Laws: Described in the song "Sherry Darling", where the narrator can't stand the mother of his girlfriend.
- Wham Line: On "The River":"Then I got Mary pregnant, and man, that was all she wrote."
