Springsteen Thursday: “The Wild, The Innocent, & The E Street Shuffle” Turns 40

It looks like a big Springsteen morning here at The Way of Improvement Leads Home.  November 5 marked the fortieth anniversary of Springsteen’s second album, The Wild, The Innocent, and the E Street Shuffle.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SVY43TbibY]

Here is a taste of Melanie Paggioli’s article on the album at The Friends of Bruce Springsteen Special Collection blog:

Bruce Pollack in the New York Times writes: “In an era of diminishing returns, false prophets and false bottoms, where the best of our instant pop-up superstars are either choked off, laid back, lame or laid out flat…. it is with a great sense of relief that I announce to disbelievers that Bruce Springsteen has delivered another stone, howling, joyous monster of a record…..”

Pollack ended his review with a prophetic “Can you imagine what his third album will be like?”

Many fans didn’t discover The Wild, The Innocent & The E Street Shuffle until that third album emerged, and Born to Run caught their attention when it came on the radio and compelled them to buy a ticket to the next Springsteen show they could. They tracked down and bought his first two albums to learn where this third masterpiece had come from.

As Springsteen’s career grew, critics continued to praise the album as its place in his body of work was becoming clearer.