The River is a contemporary, New Jersey version of
The Grapes of Wrath, with the Tom Joad/Henry Fonda figure -- nowadays no longer able to draw upon the solidarity of family -- driving a stolen car through a neon Dust Bowl "in fear/That in this darkness I will disappear." Quite often, he does.
Since The River is the culmination of a trilogy that began in high gear with Born to Run (1975) before shifting down for Darkness on the Edge of Town (1978), you might expect it to stand and deliver weighty conclusions, words to live by. Well, they're there, if you want or need them, and they're filled with an uncommon common sense and intelligence that could only have come from an exceptionally warmhearted but wary graduate of the street of hard knocks. Here's one example: "Now you can't break the ties that bind/You can't forsake the ties that bind." Or: "Two hearts are better than one/Two hearts girl get the job done." Or: "Everybody needs a place to rest/Everybody wants to have a home ... /Ain't nobody like to be alone." Quoted out of context, without the evocative musical accompaniment of the E Street Band and Springsteen's unsparingly emotional singing, these lines seem incredibly simple yet sturdy. Not very cosmic but they'll do. I suppose, if you feel the necessity to nail some sort of slogan to the wall. Then you can sit back and stare at it and miss the whole point -- not to mention the scope -- of the album.
Scope, context, sequencing and mood are everything here. Bruce Springsteen didn't title his summational record The River for nothing, so getting hit with a quick sprinkle of lyrics is no solution when complete immersion is called for. Each song is just a drop in the bucket, and the water in the bucket is drawn from a river that can take you on a fast but invigorating ride ("Sherry Darling." "Out in the Street." "Crush on You." "I'm a Rocker"), smash you in the rapids ("Hungry Heart"), let you float dreamily downstream ("I Wanna Marry You") or carry you relentlessly across some unknown county line ("Jackson Cage." "Point Blank." "Fade Away." "Stolen Car." "Ramrod." "The River." "Independence Day"). When the surface looks smooth, watch out for dangerous undercurrents. You may believe you're splashing about in a shallow stream and suddenly find yourself in over your head.
Keeping the trilogy in mind, if Springsteen's archetypal journey from innocence (Born to Run) to experience (Darkness on the Edge of Town) taught him anything, it was that he wasn't even halfway home -- that, contrary to what F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote, most Americ
