Bruce Springsteen – Greetings From Asbury Park N.J. (1973)

Well, another Superhero of Twentieth Century Rock, who only seems to grow more appreciated with age.  I only got into him later with albums such as ‘The River’ (1980) and ‘Nebraska’ (1982) but have since at least listened to, if not purchased the early ones.  Hailed early on as ‘The New Bob Dylan’, a mantle he has tried hard to disown.  Early on he was being acclaimed as ‘The Boss’ and has made memorable albums with his band, The E Street Band, as well as much quieter solo albums.  This debut certainly exuded confidence and was quite well received. The surprise is that the best 2 songs ‘Blinded By The Light’ and ‘Growing Up’ were only added to the record after CBS complained that the album lacked a catchy single.  Springsteen immediately went into the studio and laid down these two superb songs.  ‘For You’ and ‘Spirit In The Night’ are pretty good too.  Not a bad debut, but then this was the early Seventies when so many bands came up with great albums.