TOP TEN SPRINGSTEEN SONGS

With Bruce Springsteen playing at Old Trafford this week, we preview it with our list of his top ten songs...


1 - Born To Run

Every legendary song needs its own legend, and Born To Run's comes from the story of how it was written. After two promising but commercially unsuccessful albums, Bruce Springsteen was in his last chance saloon as far as his music career was concerned. So he wrote a song about having one last shot at glory (a trademark - almost to the point of cliche - theme for him over his career). But it's not the lyrics that mark this out of one of rock music's all-time classics, it's the everything-and-the-kitchen-sink approach to the music, clearly inspired by Phil Spector's Wall Of Sound, and climaxing perfectly with the few seconds where the song seems to fade away before exploding back to life, as thrilling as any other moment in music history.

2 - Thunder Road

Another Born To Run classic that is thematically close to the title track, Thunder Road is another 'let's get out of here' track, but stylistically it's very different. Starting with a plaintive piano/harmonica-led verse, it gradually builds up and manages to be very catchy despite lacking a traditional chorus. The lyrics are amongst Springsteen's best, not least the closing line "It's a town full of losers, we're pulling outta here to win", while throwaway lines like "You ain't a beauty, but hey you're alright" (picked by Julia Roberts as the song lyric that described her most accurately) sum up his appeal to the everyman and everywoman of America (and the world).

3 - Atlantic City

"Well they blew up the chicken man in Philly last night, and they blew up his house too." As anthemic as any opening line in Springsteen's oeuvre, it comes from the most accessible track from his folky acoustic album Nebraska. Released in 1982 in between The River and Born In The USA, it stands out from both of those for its sparse instrumentation, mainly because he took the decision to release his 4-track demos as the album rather than the version he had recorded with the E-Street Band. Atlantic City is another tale of a young couple making an escape to the titular city, which was racked at the time by crime families (the 'chicken man' was a real mob boss named Philip Testa, who was blown up in March 1981) and general decline and despair. Basically, it's a less optimistic version of the two songs above.

4 - The River

Coming from the double album of the same name, this is one of his best downbeat songs, with the river acting a symbol of hope for the working class protagonist and his young girlfriend, but circumstances soon overtake them, leaving him with just his memories of that hope: "That night we went down to the river, though I know the river is dry, it sends me down to the river tonight." As for unfulfilled hope, does any line sum it up as well as this one: "Is a dream a lie if it don't come true, or is it something worse?" A truly great song that may not have been a massive hit, but will always be remembered as one of his best.

5 - Highway Patrolman

Another song from Nebraska, this is one of his clearest examples of story-telling, so much so that Sean Penn actually made a film based on it (The Indian Runner). The highway patrolman is called Joe, and his unruly brother Frankie goes off to war in Vietnam while Joe stays home and marries their sweetheart Maria. When Frankie comes back, he gets in trouble at a bar and possibly kills another man before going on the run, with Joe having to chase him like any other suspect but eventually letting him escape over the border because: "Man turns his back on his family, well he just ain't no good."

6 - Racing In The Street

Coming after the optimism and yearning of Born To Run, you might have expected follow-up album Darkness On The Edge Of Town to be pretty upbeat, considering that Springsteen had enjoyed plenty of success and acclaim for that album. However, the follow-up's title said it all, as Darkness was full of stories of tragedy, failure and the loss of hope, none more bleak and affecting than Racing In The Street, "She sits on the porch of her daddy's house, but all her pretty dreams are torn, she stares off alone into the night, with the eyes of one who hates for just being born." If that sounds depressing, Springsteen's plaintive vocals and simple piano-led instrumentation make it even more of a dirge. But an incredible one and the first one to play anyone who thinks that there's nothing more to him than the anthemic rock of Born In The USA.

7 - Hungry Heart

During the late 70s, Springsteen wasn't too interested in recording upbeat poppy songs, prefering to focus on the darker side of life (see above), so whenever something commercial popped in his head, he gave it someone else instead. Patti Smith's Because The Night is one of the best examples of these, and Hungry Heart was meant to be too. He wrote it for The Ramones, but was convinced to keep it for himself. The lyrics are still fairly dark, about a broken relationship and a constant unfulfilled yearning for love, but he sugarcoats it with his poppiest production of all, echoeing the treatment he'd give to his tale of a bitter Vietnam veteran (Born In The USA) a few years later.

8 - Gypsy Biker

The newest song on this list, it comes from last year's Magic album and showcases the E-Street Band at their very best, with a pounding drumbeat, soaring harmonica and duelling guitars all creating a wall of noise to back Springsteen's tale of the homecoming of US soldier killed in action in Iraq. An outspoken opponent of Bush and the war, his lyrics here say it all: "The favored march up over the hill, in some fools parade, shoutin' victory for the righteous, but there ain't much here but graves." You can maybe see it as a kind of sequel to Born In The USA, with the betrayed veteran replaced by the hidden victim of a more media-savvy war.

9 - Into The Fire

A lot of American musicians tried to write songs about 9/11 in the years after it happened, but sadly a lot of them ended up like Toby Keith's braindead jingoistic rant Courtesy of the Red, White, & Blue. Seven years after his last album, Springsteen returned (with the E-Street Band in tow for the first time in 18 years) with The Rising, an album partly written as a reaction to America's great tragedy. Of course, he did it well, with Into The Fire's heartfelt tale of a fire fighter's widow getting the tone and emotion right: "It was dark, too dark to see, you held me in the light you gave. You lay your hand on me, then walked into the darkness of your smoky grave."

10 - 4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)

One of Springsteen's best love songs, Sandy is also the best track from his formative first two albums, and sees love conquer all in a troubled area (Springsteen's hometown in New Jersey). Musically, it's a lot more whimsical than most of what was to follow, with clear references to Van Morrison and a bit of a Gallic flavour too. Like most of second album The Wild, The Innocent And The E-Street Shuffle, it's a little bit rambling, but it's a rough gem whose sweetness is untarnished by the fact that a young Tony Blair used to listen to it while he was courting Cherie.