Back tracks

There was a time in the late 1990s when my parents thought I was buying new CDs on a weekly basis. This is due partly to getting gas at a place in Cedar Falls called The Music Station. And with that tidbit of information, I can see where they were coming from.

But new CDs every week? Not quite. I was more like a binge spender. If, somehow, I managed to actually get to payday with money — rare, very rare (sorry Mom and Dad) — I always felt like I had a surplus, and therefore was entitled to go buy something.

One Friday, I picked up a handful of CDs on the cheap. I recall getting three or four Bruce Springsteen albums for something like $8 apiece. They were (I think): Born to Run, Darkness on the Edge of Town, Nebraska and Greetings from Asbury Park, NJ. If you're going to double your Springsteen library, those aren't bad choices.

After various listens, Born to Run took priority for replays. That's a fairly obvious choice. Asbury Park was next, followed by Darkness and Nebraska.

Then, for whatever reason, I just didn't listen to Darkness very much. If a song came up on shuffle, I wouldn't necessarily skip it — I just didn't seek that album out. I liked the songs and all, I just hadn't considered the album itself very often.

Sometime before Christmas last year, my mom called and asked if there was anything I wanted. Other than money, she meant. After listening to some previews on NPR, I told her she could pick up The Promise, an album made up of 25 or so songs that didn't make the cut for Darkness.



After listening to the outtakes and then to Darkness, it's easy to see why these extra songs didn't make the cut. They just don't fit. They're mostly great songs without a home. Some of them got sliced up and used elsewhere, some evolved into the tracks on Darkness, some just got boxed up and tucked away.

If it did nothing else, The Promise forced me to go back and listen to Darkness as an album, rather than a collection of nice songs that were OK to play on shuffle. My thought was, "OK, if these outtakes are good songs, that must mean those on Darkness are clearly superior."

Yes, they are. Where Born to Run was all muscle cars and hot summer nights, Darkness is what happens when the bills come due. Gritty, dark and brilliant. I could go on and on and on, but I won't. Check out three tracks: "Adam Raised a Cain," "Racing In the Street" and "Darkness On the Edge of Town."

You'll see what I'm talking about.