One at a Time: "Greetings from Asbury Park, NJ" (1973) by Bruce Springsteen

#379 "Greetings From Asbury Park, NJ" (1973) by Bruce Springsteen

Don't tell anyone, but "Greetings" is my favorite Bruce Springsteen album. 

I have a weird thing for debut albums; it's just the imagery of the thing, of a young artist putting everything that he/she's got into a single piece of work, one that they've been working towards their entire life. They go all out because its the first chance they've got to do so, and they never know if it's going to be the last chance. Debut albums also make me think about an artist in their purest form. It's the music that they begin making - before they grow or change or adapt. Of course, this doesn't apply to every debut album, but it definitely applies here, (and in cases such as "Blowin' Your Mind," "Bob Dylan," "Empty Sky," "Murmur," "Dire Straits," and probably many others).

"Greetings" is just so haggard and messy, like Bruce literally used all the words and musical notes that he could think of, beginning with the wordiest song of his entire career, "Blinded by the Light." Just hearing the opening piano to "Growin' Up" conjures a picture of a skinny little kid with a beard, sweating and hustling and trying to make me pay attention to what he's saying.

There are weak songs on this album: "Mary Queen of Arkansas" proves that Bruce's lyrical style has yet to be smoothed out, with very indelicate lines like "I'm just a lonely acrobat," and "I don't understand how you can hold me so tight and love me so damn loose." Plus, the song was voted the worst Springsteen song by "Backstreets," the long-time fan newsletter. "The Angel" is a little slow sometimes, and as much as I like it, sometimes I skip it.

But the rest of the songs are like one big conglomerate of words and weird phrases that come to mean something the more and more you listen to it. None of them linger too long, or overstay their welcome, and "Growin' Up," "Lost in the Flood," and "For You" are among Springsteen's best all-time songs.

"Greetings" has a seriously unfair advantage here, what with me being both a huge Springsteen fan, and a huge fan of debut albums in general. Oh well:

1. "Greetings from Asbury Park, NJ" (1973) by Bruce Springsteen 
2. "Tapestry" (1971) by Carole King
3. "Tea for the Tillerman" (1970) by Cat Stevens 
4. "Car Wheels On a Gravel Road" (1998) by Lucinda Williams
5. "Bookends" (1968) by Simon and Garfunkel
6. "The Bends" (1995) by Radiohead
7. "Stop Making Sense" (1984) by The Talking Heads
8. "Honky Chateau" (1972) by Elton John 
9. "Burnin'" (1973) by The Wailers 
10. "The Rolling Stones Now!" (1965) by The Rolling Stones
11. "Born Under A Bad Sign" (1967) by Albert King
12. "The Slim Shady LP" (1999) by Eminem