Bruce Springsteen

The Ties That Bind: The River Collection (Sony Music)

[rating: 5/5]

Fans would often wonder why Bruce Springsteen would spend so long in the recording studio. For every record that saw the light of day, Bruce would record enough material for another one or possibly two albums. Until The Tracks anthology appeared in 1998 most of that un-released material remained under lock and key. Occasionally, one of the songs would emerge as a ‘b-side’.

The River is Springsteen’s double album opus from 1980. The original collection features the singles Hungry Heart and the title track alongside vignettes that attempt to unravel the mysteries of adult life. There are detailed portraits of Springsteen’s relationship with his father (Independence Day) and hefty dollops of good-time fraternity rock (Sherry Darling and Cadillac Ranch among them).

The River album (produced by Springsteen, Jon Landau and Steve Van Zandt) is included here alongside an early draft of the project, the single disc, The Ties That Bind. Slated for released prior to Springsteen’s wide screen revisions, and boasting original mixes from Bob Clearmountain, The Ties That Bind includes some material we know from The River as well as the rarity, ‘Cindy’, ‘Be True’ (later a b-side) an alternate take of ‘Stolen Car’ and a rockabilly ‘You Can Look (But You Better Not Touch)’.

Jewels from the Springsteen canon are often found in the margins of his recorded output or they come directly off the live mixing desk. This is an artist that didn’t include calibre songs ‘Fire’ (a hit for the Pointer Sisters) and ‘Because The Night’ (a hit for Patti Smith) on his previous album Darkness On The Edge Of Town (1978) – enthusiasts are on red alert whenever a whiff of an unreleased tune is mentioned.

This collection treats us to twenty-two studio outtakes: featuring eleven previously unreleased songs (a swag of which have stayed out of the clutches of the most ardent bootleggers). Highlights include the blistering ‘Meet Me In The City’, ‘Party Lights’, the noir like ‘Stray Bullet’ and the searing ‘b-side’ ‘Roulette’. Then there are curios such as a bare bones demo of ‘Mr Outside’. Offering a window into Springsteen’s creative process, odd lyrics found in the outtakes later pop up on the sparse Nebraska album or even find a place on an alternate song on The River.

The collection is capped off by a twin-dvd concert that captures the mighty E Street Band tearing it up in Tempe, Arizona. It’s here the Jersey Devil opens the live show with ‘Born To Run’: a move once suggested by a critic as being akin to Cecil B. DeMille starting his film the Ten Commandments by parting the Red Sea.

There’s a coffee table book with 200 photos and facsimiles of Springsteen’s own notebook from the period. A newly commissioned documentary from longtime collaborator Thom Zimny features rehearsal footage filmed back in the day through to Bruce perched outside his garage in 2015 strumming a few tunes on his acoustic guitar and discussing the work. For Springsteen fans this collection is an essential part of the artist’s narrative.

Sean Sennett

This review first appeared in The Australian.