With one or two exceptions, I didn’t hear any of the albums on this list during the actual 70s. I discovered them mostly in the 80s and 90s, as I became a bigger music fan and dug through bins at used record stores to find CDs I’d read were important.

So in most cases, while I haven’t known these records since they were released, I have lived with them for 20-30 years.

Today’s featured album, however, is a major exception. I discovered Bruce Springsteen’s sophomore album only this year.

To be fair, I had listened to it before — at least in parts — but I’d never really heard it. But during a re-exploration of Springsteen’s career a few months ago — spurred by his strong new album Wrecking Ball — I found The Wild, The Innocent and the E-Street Shuffle in my CD player.

What I discovered was an album bursting with musicality, theatricality and an infectious creative energy. Springsteen spins his street-smart character sketches with staccato bursts of bruiser poetry. The lyrics could pass for stream-of-conscious if they weren’t so meticulously shaped.

Musically, the newly formed E-Street band tore through multiple genres, but mostly settled into a jazz-rock groove that makes every track feel like the world’s coolest lawn concert.

I’ve grown to appreciate Springsteen a lot more over the past few years, through both his new and old music, but nothing he’s done quite matches the casual majesty of this album.