Word: springsteen
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...Bronx, Yankee owner George Steinbrenner was taking delight in firing people. He is so paradigmatic of impetuous power (throwing tantrums, bad-mouthing employees in the press, hiring a spy to dig up dirt on Dave Winfield) that he's simply called the Boss--and not in a hip, Bruce Springsteen...
Throughout most of the fourth disk, synthesizers play floating minor chords over mechanized drumbeats. In the mystifyingly moronic "Trouble in Paradise," the same Springsteen who professes to value lyrics actually writes "You do the drying, I'll do the dishes/Who'll do the crying when all the wishes don't come true?" Springsteen must have intended for the listener to sense a deep, realistic optimism at the core of Springsteen's famous hard-luck pessimism: instead, he sounds like a musical Danielle Steele, chronicling the middle-age discovery of true joy in a tainted world: "Happy/With you in my arms/Happy/With...
Even those who bemoan Springsteen's turntowards socially-conscious narrative music, then,will be happy with the end of the album:conceivably, Springsteen intended the embarrassingsoft-rock barrage that burdens much of disk fourto warn the fan that there are worse things thanprotest music. On "Goin' Cali," Springsteen showsthat even at his most tuneless, his leastpropulsive, his voice conveys remarkablycompelling, barely restrained emotion. And"Brothers under the Bridge," hearkening back tothe similar but incomparably awful 1983 tune ofthe same name, does demonstrate a certain amountof maturation: It is as powerful as "Youngstown,"Joad's cornerstone and Springsteen's bestnew song...
...telling that the book intended toaccompany Tracks is titled Songs,which of course is complete nonsense: whatSongs contains are lyrics, while actualsongs have music. Springsteen, in the course ofhis evolution, has arrived--regrettably, ifJoad is any evidence--at a point where hebelieves the messages in songs need not beconveyed through music. And so the intermixing ofother forms of media--since the late '70s,Springsteen says, his inspiration has come notfrom music but from "films, novels andbook"--necessary in the absence of compellingmusic, a cross-polination which often reaches thepoint of extreme pretentiousness or even ofridiculousness: The Ghost of Tom Joad...
...with Tracks and Songs,Springsteen has composed a sort of documentary tohis own musical career, attempted to focus andshape our understanding of his musical evolution.Springsteen does not have overly ambitious hopesfor the compilation's reception: Tracksseems intended as a message to those who arealready familiar with Springsteen. This is as itshould be: those who are not ardent fans will beless than enthusiastic about paying $50 for acollection of songs which, on the whole, weresimply not good enough to be included on earlierrecords. Tracks is an attempt to remindfans of the energy of Springsteen's youth, and toconvince them...