Says who?
These two words always spring to mind whenever I see a Best Of compilation by any given artist. Was it curated by the man himself? I doubt it, but really I have no idea. As with all these things, it’s down to personal preference. There are, granted, tracks that would probably cause riots if they were omitted from a collection such as this, so the indubitable classic ‘Born To Run‘, with its wild-eyed escapism and entertaining feelgood schtick is impossible to leave out, as are the era-defining, socially aware stadium belters like ‘Born In The USA‘ or ‘Dancing In The Dark‘, and you can’t really argue about the grammy award-winning ‘Streets Of Philadelphia‘ being included, not least as it was, in many countries, including the UK, his highest charting single.
There’s such a wealth of material, I guess, that some things aren’t going to make the finished article, but I would proffer that it is tantamount to sacrilege that only one cut from Bruce Springsteen‘s 1978 trailblazer Darkness On The Edge Of Town gets a shout. As good as ‘Badlands‘ is, it’s almost like a Meat Loaf pastiche in some ways, while the remarkable ‘Candy’s Room‘ and ‘Adam Raised A Cain‘ are notorious for their absence.
Even more shocking is the almost complete disregard for 1982’s Nebraska. Sure, the stark but beautiful ‘Atlantic City‘, the sole inclusion here, probably is the highpoint of my favourite long player by the man, but it’s such a treasure trove – and quite a brave release at the time, darker and quite unlike anything else in his career – that I feel like, at the very least, ‘Highway Patrolman‘ would have merited an airing. And don’t even get me started on the complete disregard for The River‘s ‘Sherry Darling‘ and its intoxicating, effervescent exuberance.
Ok, rant over. I should also point out that this is still an excellent collection. How could it not be? And clearly, the compilers have gone out of their way to try to include something from every quarter of Springsteen’s career. So we have the cinematic, evocative ‘The Wrestler‘ on the deluxe digital version rubbing shoulders with unequivocal masterpieces like The Wild, The Innocent & The E Street Shuffle‘s ‘Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)‘ and commercial highs such as the chart-busting ‘Hungry Heart‘. It is perhaps the more recent tracks that hold the most intrigue, however, possibly because we haven’t heard them billions of times over the past 50-odd years, so the utterly gorgeous ‘Hello Sunshine‘ probably does warrant its place upon this set. Come on though, ‘Girls In Their Summer Clothes‘ better than ‘Backstreets‘? Better than ‘The Promised Land‘? Get out of here!
So, in summation, I suppose, for all my churlish arguments about the abundance of Springsteen songs of fantastic gravity that somehow never made it onto this collection, it’s still a mightily enjoyable listen. It’s just that I reckon I could have compiled an even better one!
