On March 31, 1992, a mere six months after Guns N' Roses released two albums on the same day, Bruce Springsteen released two albums on the same day. They were called Human Touch and Lucky Town and are considered by most Springsteen fans to be low points in the Boss' career.
In keeping with the twins theme Rock and/or Roll is releasing two episodes of Gettin' Bossy on the same day! On this episode, entitled Human Town, BJ and his Gettin' Bossy co-host Brian Sword from The Double Stop take a look at how Bruce ended up out in sunny California instead of New Jersey making an album with studio musicians instead of the E Street Band.
Then BJ and Brian have each taken the 24 songs that made up the Human Touch and Lucky Town albums and from that group of songs chosen and sequenced one album's worth of material in the spirit of "what could have been." At the end of this episode BJ describes the album that he constructed from the available material, an imaginary album called Human Town.
When Born in the USA was released, I hated it. Didn't give it the time of day. But with Tunnel of Love, I finally figured Bruce out and what he was singing about. Thus, Human Touch/Lucky Town was the first new Springsteen albums released after I became a fan. As such, they hold a special place in my Bruce fandom for me. I listened to them constantly. I taught myself guitar using these songs. This was the first tour of his I saw. Interestingly, I also discovered Stephen King about the same time.
ReplyDeleteSo, I stopped listening to y'all's episode 003 long enough to think about my own version of Human Town/Lucky Touch. The first 7 tracks, grouped by LP, rolled out of my memory instantly. The next 4 came out after reviewing the tracklisting. Then, with tracks 12 and 13 I cheated. Both tracks come from the Tracks box set. I don't mind Happy Bruce, and these two cuts are fantastic, especially Clarence's sax in BIYA. The second song on 13 are what I'd pick if Tracks is off limits.
1. Human Touch
2. With Every Wish
3. I Wish I were Blind
4. Lucky Town
5. Better Days
6. Living Proof
7. If I Should Fall Behind
8. Roll of the Dice
9. Man's Job
10. Leap of Faith
11. My Beautiful Reward
12. Back in Your Arms*
13. Happy* / Book of Dreams
Back in 2008, I wrote a review of Lucky Town (http://scottdparker.blogspot.com/2008/08/music-review-lucky-town-by-bruce.html).
Question: What were the 3 Roy songs?
Now, back to y'all's shows and to see y'all's version of the one album.