Bruce Springsteen
The Promise

This gem was released in 2010, but the songs, some re-sung and re-recorded, are old, dating back to the second half of the 70s when Springsteen, having won a delicate lawsuit with his former manager, regained his freedom and did what a musician of his caliber could do: he shut himself in the studio and poured everything into music. The result was a plethora of songs, all beautiful. A (small) part of those songs, the more rock ones, composed the 1978 masterpiece Darkness on the Edge of Town; the larger part were instead "danceable" tracks, a blend of pop (American style like The Beach Boys), soul, and rhythm n' blues which had nothing to do with the rock of the album Springsteen was about to release. Those songs were cut and began circulating in the numerous live bootlegs until the “official” release in this double CD that finally does them justice.

The first CD opens with The Racing in the Street, a different version from the one that ended up on Darkness on the Edge of Town, an equally beautiful, country version characterized by the sound of the violin and harmonica absent in the "original" of which this piece is the "demo". Someday and The Brokenhearted are a splendid example of Springsteen's compositional versatility, a track with a strong 60s flavor, where he displays a vocal style reminiscent of his hero Roy Orbison: the female backing vocals are beautiful. Wrong Side of the Street and Rendezvous instead reclaim the typical rock band "texture" of the E Street Band, the one that will return in the subsequent (after Darkness on the Edge of Town) masterpiece, The River. The second CD starts with the splendid Save My Love, a simple, pop song revolving around the "snare" sound of Max Weinberg's drums. Talk to Me and The Little Things are two other American pop tracks with a strong early 60s flavor, just over 3 minutes where a perfect arrangement dominates, with excellently assembled piano, guitar, drums, and horns, with nothing out of place. This kind of perfection is often found in old American pop songs; it's no coincidence that Dylan has been engaged for some years now in the "recovery" of American pop, the even more "classic" kind, preceding the 60s. Breakaway was the first song recorded for Darkness on the Edge of Town, it reprises the Roy Orbison style with beautiful "sha la la" female choirs (Patti Scialfa and Soozie Tyrell) and a lovely horn section. However, the masterpiece of the album and, in my opinion, one of Springsteen's most beautiful songs is The Promise, a very touching piece that was left out of Darkness on the Edge of Town because it directly echoed the ugly story with the manager (Mike Appel): the song speaks in very personal and "intimate" terms about the betrayed promise, of the blood and artistic pact that Springsteen had made, neglecting, despite himself, the economic and legal aspects of the "piece of paper" (the contract) that allowed him to start his musician adventure: musically it reminds of, although entirely different, the masterpiece Thunder Road which is also mentioned in the lyrics. I conclude by recalling two splendid but very famous songs that make up this work, Because the Night on the first CD and Fire on the second, finally reprised in studio versions after being already released live in Live/1975-1985.

To those who only know Springsteen's rock or perhaps his folk side, I recommend rediscovering his pop vein with this excellent work.