These days you don't wait on Romeos you wait on those BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN POLL RESULTS

Ghost of Tom Joad was my teenage Bruce album; I know lirs thinkits really samey and kinda overwrought, but the storytelling was like miles above most novels I was reading. It was kind of like reading my first Vertigo comic

Wow, lirs = lots

Hah, I had a tape with Tunnel of Love on one side and Graceland on the other.

There was definitely a time and place where "I don't like Bruce (though I may appreciate the irony of Born* being songs that people think are more triumphant than they are) but I like Tunnel of Love" was a respectable opinion.

ToL was my #1, I do have a problem with a lot of late-'80s rock/pop production but none of the things that bother me are really present on that album, I think it's nice and restrained for the most part.

I went the 'I don't really like Springsteen but I'll give this Nebraska thing a go' route into Bruce but that one didn't actually click with me until much later on when I'd come around to the '70s stuff and BitUSA.

60. Highway Patrolman from Nebraska (1982)
69 points, 4 votes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-wPDmQEy2Y

yay! I'm happy to get it in, I voted it really high, makes me cry every damn time

59. New York City Serenade from The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle (1973)
70 points, 4 votes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xA82phRQ0vI

"NYC Serenade" > "Jungleland"

I've just realised I'll know about 10% of this countdown

that explains why you didn't vote for highway patrolman. man, just the phrasing on "Perrineville barracks number 8"...

Ooh wee! Glad my vote helped NYC Serenade squeak in.

I debated cutting "NYC Serenade" because I had so many Wild, Innocent tracks already but I'm glad I didn't because it's a stunner. Euler otm on it's value vs. "Jungleland".

I'll take Joe Roberts over the Junkman any day

58. Independence Day from The River (1980)
74 points, 3 votes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnAJlJHXn_M

57. Land of Hope and Dreams from Wrecking Ball (2012)
75 points, 4 votes (one voter specifies the version on Live In New York City, 2000)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__BORWT33p0

only 3 votes for independence day eh

also: q for everyone but jamie - will that be the highest wrecking ball song

Playlist: http://open.spotify.com/user/mondosalvo/playlist/5sS8pSeutHuNnIpGkaUwye

i did not specify the live version of "Land of Hope and Dreams" on my ballot but that was definitely the version i was voting for, Wrecking Ball version was a massive disappointment imo

56. Wreck On The Highway from The River (1980)
76 points, 4 votes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YSr1ZT0PkE

I feel bad for not having much to say about the results so far, except I'll agree with some dude that the live version (ANY live version) of "Land of Hope and Dreams" is superior to the studio version.

55. No Surrender from Born In The USA (1984)
80 points, 4 votes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MD3DdskaPhs

54. Stolen Car from The River (1980)
84 points, 4 votes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPobte6iqSU

Yaay No Surrender -- it's so cheesy but it's my kind of cheesy. I feel like Bruce writes songs like this in his sleep.

Ooh shit I almost missed the rollout!

No Surrender is CLASSIC anthemic Bruce. he should write national anthems for all nations

my least favorite BITUSA track :(

It's way better than Workin on the Highway!

oh you!

I thought "Downbound Train" was the consensus clunker on BitUSA?

53. Cover Me from Born In The USA (1984)
88 points, 4 votes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkaSxmvZnGs

Downbound Train is in my top 2 or 3 on the album, easily. it is fucking amazing.

oh shit I love Cover Me

and yeah Downbound Train owns, wtf 'clunker' gtfo

:)

Cover Me's a dive bar dancin' in front of the jukebox song if ever I heard one

52. Meeting Across The River from Born To Run (1975)
89 points, 4 votes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ma8shnd04eg

"Cover Me" is the BITUSA track that grew on me; love his solo.

wtf, Only 4 votes for "Cover Me"? Also My first to place and this my post 9000.

xpost, yay for "Meeting Across The River" & noir Bruce!

Cover Me is so fantastic. I don't think I voted for it in the end, but damn what a song.

51. Blinded By The Light from Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. (1973)
89 points, 4 votes (equal with Meeting Across The River)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Iaca30QbOo

oh no! how did i miss this, and it's gone more than a hundred posts without me. this is literally the only list i care about!

his solo on Cover Me is so so Neil Youngish. i love it too.

okay that's enough for today, mainly as i've been awake for about 35 hours and going insane. need to sleep.

vs eg "no surrender"/"cover me," "downbound train" is just in a whole other league AS WILL BE PROVEN BY SCIENCE IN THIS POLL

1. i'm glad NYC Serenade got in cause i didn't vote for it. five years ago it would've been top 10, but lately in my relistens to WIESS (quite often this past month) i've found myself skipping it. maybe it just sounds better in headphones, in my car speakers right now it's a bit too loose for me to grasp on like i used to.

2. i am the one snob who specified the live version of Land of Hope and Dreams. that version is connected to a Big Important Teenage First Love Memory for me, so of course.

bruce's "blinded" is so much better than the cover, god i hate manfred mann

I like 60s Manfred Mann, but yeah...70s onward is just garbage.

So far almost every track on here is one I did not vote for, and yet just about all of them so far make me feel like I should have voted for them instead. Love Bruce.

I'm sad to see "Independence Day" so low, but at least it made it. "Cover Me" was hard for me to cut so I'm happy to see it.

there are many days when "meeting across the river" is my fave bruce song, period. it's easily top 10 for me on any other day. it's very much of a piece with a lot of other songs on born to run, in which nothing actually happens but the singer describes in compellingly mysterious detail about what might possibly happen if you just come along for the ride.

also, that trumpet.

zachlyon otm re Blinded -- I grew up only knowing and HATING the Manfred Mann version and when I heard Bruce's version I was like THANK GOD YESS it's so much better and more poetic and understated

I mean, fucking CHOPSTICKS in the bridge? And deliberately eliding the deuce so it sounds like DOUCHE. 70's Manfred Mann are jerks, imo

"downbound train" def falls into the clunker category for me. "the car wash, where all it ever does is rain." ugh.