Recovering from legal troubles and the stress of the breakthrough success of Born to Run, Springsteen released a somewhat less commercial album, Darkness on the Edge of Town. Sales were not as high as Born to Run, but the album still did better than was expected. The extroverted optimism which was a hallmark of Born to Run was absent with a vengeance from Darkness on the Edge of Town. With its haunting themes of regret, failure and dashed hopes, many Springsteen aficionados consider this to be his finest album.
In terms of the original LP's sequencing, Springsteen continued his "four corners" approach from Born to Run, as the songs beginning each side ("Badlands" and "The Promised Land") were martial rallying cries to overcome circumstances, while the songs ending each side ("Racing in the Street", "Darkness on the Edge of Town") were sad dirges of circumstances overcoming all hope.
The album failed to generate any hit singles, with "Prove It All Night" barely making the Top 40 in the U.S. and follow-up "Badlands" not even doing that well.
In 2003, the album was ranked number 151 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. The same year, the TV network VH1 named Darkness on the Edge of Town the 68th greatest album of all time.
Track Listing
All songs written by Bruce Springsteen.
- "Badlands" – 4:01
- "Adam Raised a Cain" – 4:32
- "Something in the Night" – 5:11
- "Candy's Room" – 2:51
- "Racing in the Street" – 6:53
- "The Promised Land" – 4:33
- "Factory" – 2:17
- "Streets of Fire" – 4:09
- "Prove It All Night" – 3:56
- "Darkness on the Edge of Town" – 6:28
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