Bruce Springsteen – Darkness On The Edge Of Town

Nice Pressing,no issues..One of my favorite Boss Album..Good Vinyl you can buy.

Can someone help me?

My version matrix/runout is:
A-side: PAL-35318-1A TML-M E3 (and maybe 1S or something like that in the end)
B-side: PBL 35318 2C TML-M C3 (and maybe ƧS or something like that)

Everything is etched except TML-M is stamped.

And it's have a promo gold stamp on back cover.

This drive me crazy because I don't find my versio in here. Thank you!

Why does the front cover show a thin dark band down the right side? It makes it look as if all but this thin band was left out in the sun for too long.

Darkness on the Edge of Town would turn a corner for Bruce, as it did for his listeners, where a bit of social and emotional complexity settled over this record, with songs that were tight, compact, emotional and readily willing to turn over their secrets.

Springsteen has forever alined himself with one or more protagonists on all of his albums, yet here on Darkness, it’s nearly impossible not to aline Bruce with that being standing in the shadows. That said, the records was a bit bewildering, it’s an album still filled with rage and confusion, where his characters seem to be victims of circumstance, out of step with their relationships, never taking their jobs seriously, and yes, the inability to step into adulthood. With all that Springsteen’s been through, it would seem that he’d have tossed that notion of fate right out the window like a lite cigarette bouncing across the asphalt, as when it came to his personal life, Bruce was demandingly in control.

Yet, if one looks deeper into the face standing behind this record, his first album in three years, there is an element of bittersweetness, angst and yes a personal rage derived from the lawsuit surrounding his former manager Mike Appel. The record lacks the cinematic romanticism that was woven through his first three albums, where he envisions himself and his lyrics with stark portraits of blue color Americana, as if he were pacing back and forth, waiting on the new decade to turn the corner in order that the latter half of the 70’s could be compartmentalized and forgotten. The album fundamentally changed the way we heard rock n’ roll, it also change the spirit of how rock would reveal itself. One of those revealing differences is that Darkness tossed out the Phil Spector ‘Wall of Sound’ style, where what was delivered barely stood on its own two feet, yet alone soared, due the to the record’s density. Much of that density came from the drumming of Max Weinberg, drumming that was nothing less than enormous in size, a ringing heartbeat that could not be avoided on a single track. Another notable change was that Clemons has far fewer solos, less moments to shine, where in that limitation, the songs are very earthy and earthbound in their manifestations. By toning down Clemons, the organ of Danny Federic, who’s nearly lost in the background on Bruce’s other albums, steps forward in a singular cosmic manner, filled with dynamic trebly chords that sing in their own right; just listen to his brilliant solo toward the end of “Racing In The Street.”

More so than on any other album one can hear the linage of Springsteens guitar pastiche, Jimmy Page, Jimi Hendrix, Duane Eddy, Jeff Beck and a host of others, yet within those complexities of styles, Springsteen manages to fuse them all into his own singular guitar vision, a guitar vision that’s also featured more front and center here. To that end, Bruce moves with a purposeful linear movement and focus, where Bruce appears to be visiting the same old haunts, the same bars, cars, streets and avenues, yet he’s seeing these places with different eyes, from a differing vantage point, where he occupies a different space, almost as if he was walking into a room filled with characters from a previous life who don’t even recognize him.

It’s been forty years since Darkness, a record with a whole lot of heart wandered in through the side door, and still it remains an attention holding listen. It’s an album that still feels as if Bruce where honing his craft and his story telling, but then all of his albums have that attribute, as if what Bruce was looking for was just down the street and around the corner, where just when you think Bruce has laid down the perfect line or perfect chord, he’s off chasing another one.

*** The Fun Facts: Darkness was the first album recorded live in the studio by the E Street Band. The essential riff for the song “Badlands” was lifted from the Animals’ number “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood.” The album was intended to be called Badlands, with Columbia Records having put the album art to bed and ready for printing. The album cover photos for both Darkness and The River were take from the same photo shoot by Frank Stefanko. and features the same shirt Bruce is wearing on the cover of his book “Born To Run,” where he’s leaning on the hood of a Corvette. The cover for the album was shot at photographer Frank Stefanko’s home in Haddonfield, New Jersey. Frank later sold the home, where the realty company listed it as the house used for the photo shoot for Darkness, though when Frank went back to that neighborhood covering the “Darkness” documentary, he asked the owners if the wallpaper was still up and they sadly said “No.”

Review by Jenell Kesler