Over the weekend, with the assistance of two older brothers from out of town and approximately 500 beers I had the opportunity to take in Bruce Springsteen’s 3-cd / 3-dvd mega Darkness on the Edge of Town reissue. I had quite a bit of anticipation built up and some how some way this monster exceeded expectations.
Two of the three cds are previously unreleased outtakes from the DOTEOT sessions. Turns out The Boss recorded somewhere in the neighborhood of 70 songs for that album that eventually got pared down to the ten toughest as Springsteen heard them at the time. Much of the work that wasn’t “Tougher Than the Rest” are Phil Spector influenced 3-minute single joyous pop rock songs that would later resurface in sonic form on his next 2-LP release The River.
One of the more outstanding examples of this pop sound from the 2-CD The Promise (The Lost Session: Darkness on the Edge of Town) release, which can be purchased separately, is the song “Ain’t Good Enough For You.” During the “making of” documentary you get a feel for just how much Bruce’s main man Miami Steve Van Zandt loved this type of song, going as far as to call some of Bruce’s decisions to leave out various songs a “tragedy.” Van Zandt argues that if Bruce would have went with what sounded like hit records he would be considered one of the better pop song writers in history.
In yet another treat from this full on Darkness attack Springsteen has released an official video for “Ain’t Good Enough For You” that features some of the same in the studio footage that is shown prominently during the “making of” documentary. This is a real infectious song so check it out:
That’s a great tune right there. After taking all these riches in I’m left with a big hangover and a bigger thank you to the Springsteen camp for releasing all this amazing stuff into the “Real World.”
