After 1975's "Born To Run," Bruce Springsteen's world should have been smooth sailing: he had a hit record, graced the cover of two of the country's biggest magazines, and was quickly gaining a reputation as the most exciting live performer out there. Unfortunately, a series of legal issues put a damper on The Boss's good fortunes, preventing him from recording the much anticipated follow-up to "Born to Run" for three years. Despite his inability to produce a record, Bruce wrote and recorded furiously during this time, beginning the most prolific period of songwriting in his career lasting right through the "Born In The U.S.A." period. Additionally, he toured vigorously to make ends meet, perfecting the sound of the E Street Band as a well oiled, intense machine able to handle anything thrown at them. In 1978, the time had finally allowed for a new album, and the result was "Darkness On The Edge Of Town."
More than any other album, "Darkness" seethes with a fury not heard on any of Bruce's other albums. Angered by the road block placed in front of his promising career, the emotional gamut on "Darkness" runs from determined and optimistic ("Badlands," "The Promised Land"), to utterly resigned and hopeless ("Something In The Night," the title song). Frustration rears its head at every turn on this album; even the heady, sexual rush of "Candy's Room" fells less like a release of tension and more of a desperate, futile attempt at a moment of clarity.
Several of Bruce's signature images and themes from "Born to Run" or still present "Darkness," but also have a much different meaning applied to them in the context of the events between the two albums. For example, on "Thunder Road" and [the song] "Born to Run," the symbolic American highway is an image conjuring freedom, redemption, and independence; on "Darkness," the motif is still used, but in songs like "Something in the Night," "Racing in the Street," and the title song, it's largely used to represent emptiness and futility, chasing a dream down a road with no end in sight. "Darkness" also marks the debut of one of Bruce's most important subject matters: his father. "Adam Raised a Cain" is a punchy, fiery cautionary tale of how Bruce has inherited has father's own depression and frustration, one of his darkest, angriest songs, driven by a hellish guitar riff and the band roaring behind him. "Factory," by contrast, is a sympathetic look at the daily 9 to 5 rut his father quickly got stuck in, with real time lyrics of a day in the life that offers little to hang hope on.
"Darkness" is also a watershed moment for the E Street Band. By 1978, this incarnation of the band had been road tested for over three years, and were now a tight, beefy unit capable of giving these songs the punch they need, from Max Weinberg's ferocious pounding on "Badlands," to Roy Bittan's iconic, beautiful playing on "Racing in the Street," to Steve Van Zandt's rough but soulful harmonies throughout the album. It was hear they became 'the mighty E Street Band,' and that spark has been kept alive on every subsequent studio album they've played in, and enhanced further in concert.
What keeps "Darkness" from a perfect rating is that Bruce left some of his best songs off the record ("Because the Night," "The Promise," "Don't Look Back") that could've supplanted one of the less memorable songs ("Streets of Fire" in particular feels incredibly underdeveloped). That's a minor quibble though, and "Darkness On The Edge Of Town"is still one of the key records in establishing the core tenets of Bruce's artistry, and of the stories he continues tell 40 years later.
