Darkness on the Edge of Town is the fourth studio album by the American singer-songwriter Bruce Springsteen, released on June 2, 1978, by Columbia Records. The album was recorded after a series of legal disputes between Springsteen and his former manager Mike Appel, during sessions in New York City with the E Street Band from June 1977 to March 1978. Springsteen and Jon Landau served as producers, with assistance from bandmate Steven Van Zandt.
For the album's lyrics and music, Springsteen took inspiration from sources as diverse as John Steinbeck novels, John Ford films, punk rock, and country music. Musically, the album strips the Wall of Sound production of its predecessor, Born to Run (1975) for a rawer hard rock sound emphasizing the band as a whole. The lyrics on Darkness focus on ill-fortuned characters who fight back against overwhelming odds. Compared to Springsteen's previous records, the characters are older and the songs are less tied to the Jersey Shore area. The cover photograph of Springsteen was taken by Frank Stefanko in his New Jersey home.
Released three years after Born to Run, Darkness did not sell as well as its predecessor but reached number five in the US, while its singles—"Prove It All Night", "Badlands", and "The Promised Land"—performed modestly. Springsteen and the E Street Band promoted the album on the Darkness Tour, their largest tour up to that point. Upon release, critics praised the album's music and performances but were divided on the lyrical content. It placed on several critics' lists ranking the best albums of the year.
In later decades, Darkness has attracted acclaim as one of Springsteen's best works and one that anticipated later records. It has since appeared on various professional lists of the greatest albums of all time. Outtakes from the recording sessions were given to other artists, held over for Springsteen's next album, The River (1980), or later released on compilations. Darkness was reissued in 2010, accompanied by a documentary detailing the album's making.
Background
Bruce Springsteen released his third studio album, Born to Run, in August 1975, which was his breakthrough album, propelling him to worldwide fame. Despite the album's success, Springsteen was subject to a critical backlash from some music critics and journalists when they questioned whether the album deserved its popularity or if Springsteen lived up to the media hype then surrounding him. Following its release, Springsteen had disagreements with his manager, Mike Appel; Appel wanted to capitalize on the album's success with a live album, while Springsteen wanted to return to the studio with his Born to Run co-producer Jon Landau.
Realizing that the terms of his record contract were unfavorable, Springsteen sued Appel in July 1976 for ownership of his work. The resulting legal proceedings prevented him from recording in a studio for almost a year, during which he toured the United States and Europe with the E Street Band – Roy Bittan (piano), Clarence Clemons (saxophone), Danny Federici (organ), Garry Tallent (bass), Steven Van Zandt (guitar), and Max Weinberg (drums). Springsteen wrote new material on the road and at his farm home in Holmdel, New Jersey, reportedly amassing between 40 and 70 songs. The lawsuit reached a settlement on May 28, 1977, in which Springsteen bought out his contract with Appel, who received a lump sum and a share of royalties from Springsteen's first three albums.
Production
Recording history
thumb|alt=A black and white photograph of seven men standing in a hallway. One is kneeling in the center while three stand on his left and three on his right|Springsteen (center, kneeling) and the E Street Band in February 1977, months before the album's sessions began.
Springsteen entered Atlantic Studios in New York City with Landau and the E Street Band to record his next album on June 1, 1977, four days after the legal proceedings ended. Springsteen initially focused on pre-written material before turning his attention to unfinished compositions for which he had written music but not lyrics. Songs recorded or attempted at Atlantic, some of which he had used in live sets, included: "Rendezvous", "The Promise", "Frankie", "Don't Look Back", "Something in the Night", "Because the Night", "Racing in the Street", "Fire" (which Springsteen wrote for Elvis Presley), "Breakaway", "Our Love Will Last Forever", a ballad titled "One Way Street", and two rockers named "I Wanna Be with You" and "Outside Lookin' In". Unlike the sessions for Born to Run, the full band recorded the songs at once and moved quickly from one to the next, often shortly after Springsteen had written them. Landau had informed CBS Records to not schedule a release date, wanting to ensure Springsteen had the right songs for the album at the right time.
By September 1977, Springsteen grew frustrated with Atlantic's sound and environment and moved recording to the Record Plant, where most of Born to Run had been recorded. Weinberg, who suffered from illness during most of the sessions, remembered Springsteen demanding perfection from the musicians while simultaneously giving them little direction, saying he "[let] things flow" and did not "nitpick over details". Van Zandt also had a hand in the arrangements,
With Springsteen still unsatisfied, the sessions continued into November and December, with the band recording "Adam Raised a Cain" and "Give the Girl a Kiss". The ballad "Let's Go Tonight" was rewritten as "Factory" with new lyrics and the incomplete compositions "Candy's Boy" and an untitled piece referred to as "The Fast Song" were combined into "Candy's Room". "Darkness on the Edge of Town" was recorded during the tail end of the sessions in March 1978; Springsteen later said the band found the song's drum sound in Record Plant's Studio A while it was being renovated. The intention to record most of the backing tracks live with minimal overdubs was hindered by the studio's carpeted floors, which muffled resonance. The sessions reportedly yielded between 50 and 70 songs, although only 32 are known.
After nine months, recording completed in January 1978, with overdubs extending into February and March. According to the authors Philippe Margotin and Jean-Michel Guesdon, Springsteen had a rule when choosing songs for the final track list: "Each song had to remain sober and austere, so as to convey its message as effectively as possible." Choosing ten tracks for the album, now called Darkness on the Edge of Town, he scrapped songs he felt did not fit the desired theme, were too bland, or too commercial. He gave several songs to other artists: "Hearts of Stone" and "Talk to Me" to Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes; "Because the Night" to Patti Smith; "Fire" to Robert Gordon; "Rendezvous" to Greg Kihn; "Don't Look Back" to the Knack; and "This Little Girl" to Gary U.S. Bonds. The tracks "Independence Day", "Drive All Night", "Sherry Darling", and "Ramrod" were held over for Springsteen's next album, The River (1980), while others surfaced on bootlegs before official releases on compilations such as Tracks (1998) and The Promise (2010). "Darlington County", later recorded for and released on Born in the U.S.A. (1984), was also written during the Darkness sessions. Springsteen said in a 1978 interview that he felt it "wasn't the right time" to release the extra material, nor did he want to "sacrifice the intensity" of the album.
Sound and mixing
Springsteen struggled to achieve the exact sounds he envisioned for the record, which he admitted was due to his and Landau's inexperience as producers. He wrote in his 2016 autobiography that "as with Born to Run, our recording process was thwarted by our seeming inability to get the most basic acceptable sounds." While Landau wanted "a highly professional, technically perfect sound", Van Zandt sought a "more garage-band tone color". Springsteen assigned the engineer Jimmy Iovine to create a combination of the two's ideals; however Iovine and the assistant engineer Thom Panunzio struggled to achieve this goal. Iovine found trying to get the guitar sound was "impossible", while Panunzio described the drums as the hardest to record.
Mixing extended into May 1978, specifically for "The Promised Land". Iovine, suffering from exhaustion after months of recording, was replaced by the Los Angeles producer and engineer Chuck Plotkin, who created a balanced mix. The album was mastered by Mike Reese in Los Angeles. Van Zandt hated the final mix, saying the final record contained some of Springsteen's "best and most important songs", but suffered from "terrible production".
Music and lyrics
When writing the album's songs, Springsteen was particularly influenced by works of fiction that focused on individuals confronted by adversity; these included the John Steinbeck novels The Grapes of Wrath (1939) and East of Eden (1952) and their respective film adaptations directed by John Ford and Elia Kazan; westerns such as Ford's The Searchers (1956); and the songs of country/folk artists Hank Williams and Woody Guthrie. Springsteen also took note of rising British punk rock acts the Sex Pistols and the Clash, and new wave artists such as Elvis Costello.