I wrote about Bruce Springsteen’s The River nearly five years ago finished my blog post by stating “I’ve read enough about The River to know that I have to hear it in full.”
That never happened, and I sit here now writing about this celebrated 1980 album with the same thought running through my head. The River was Springsteen’s fifth album, sandwiched between Darkness on the Edge of Town and Nebraska. It marries the somberness of those records with a pop sensibility that would show up again four years later on Born in the USA.
Springsteen says this album contains the seeds of much of the songwriting that followed it, including the marital conflict he explored so effectively on Tunnel of Love.
I said it then and I’ll say it again… I really need to listen to this album.
Got a wife and kids in Baltimore, Jack
I went out for a ride and I never went back
Like a river that don’t know where it’s flowing
I took a wrong turn and I just kept going
[Chorus]
Everybody’s got a hungry heart
Everybody’s got a hungry heart
Lay down your money and you play your part
Everybody’s got a hungry heart
[Verse 2]
I met her in a Kingstown bar
We fell in love I knew it had to end
We took what we had and we ripped it apart
Now here I am down in Kingstown again
[Chorus]
Everybody’s got a hungry heart
Everybody’s got a hungry heart
Lay down your money and you play your part
Everybody’s got a hungry heart
[Verse 3]
Everybody needs a place to rest
Everybody wants to have a home
Don’t make no difference what nobody says
Ain’t nobody like to be alone
[Chorus]
Everybody’s got a hungry heart
Everybody’s got a hungry heart
Lay down your money and you play your part
Everybody’s got a hungry heart
I must confess that when I first heard “Hungry Heart” all those many years ago, I didn’t know it was Bruce Springsteen. I just knew I liked it. I assume the rest of the album must be pretty darn special since Bruce has more recently gone on tour playing the album in its entirety. So, I too should really give the whole record a good listening.