The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle sold poorly when it was first released in 1973 but received acclaim from critics. Rolling Stone magazine's Ken Emerson said that its lengthy, vividly written songs make for a more challenging and romantic album than Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J., but still retain that album's ebullient music because of Springsteen and the E Street Band's masterful playing. In a less enthusiastic review for Creem, Robert Christgau wrote that it does not cohere as a whole, although its livelier songs make it "the kind of album that will be fun to go back to" if Springsteen improves upon it. According to him in Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies (1981), Springsteen eschewed the limiting folk conventions of his first album for a vibrant, quirky style of rock and roll that balances his celebrations of wild youth with a mature embrace of city life: "This guy may not be God yet, but he has his sleeveless undershirt in the ring."

The Wild, the Innocent and the E Street Shuffle made its first appearance on the British albums chart on June 15, 1985. In the wake of Springsteen's Born in the U.S.A. Tour arriving in Britain, the record hit number 33 and remained in the Top 100 for 12 weeks. The Rolling Stone Album Guide (1992) later called the album a "masterpiece", "cinematic in its sweep" and densely poetic with "vignettes of urban dreams and adolescent restlessness". Goldmine magazine's Rush Evans said it was not only a five-star album but also Springsteen's "most overlooked album ... to those who know its seven richly vivid songs, it is recognized as an innovative masterpiece." Reviewing it for AllMusic, William Ruhlmann felt the record epitomized Springsteen's romanticized songwriting and diversity as a composer, making it his best work and "one of the greatest albums in the history of rock & roll". In 2003, Rolling Stone ranked the record at number 132 on the magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time, and 133 in a 2012 revised list. Writing in Hot Press, Pat Carty declared "if I want to beam like an idiot and remember why I fell in love with music in the first place, this is the Springsteen record I put on". Chicago Tribune critic Greg Kot was less enthusiastic and remarked only on how the record was highlighted by the beautiful three-song suite that ended it.

Rejected songs

On November 4 and 5, 1997, eight tracks not included on The Wild, the Innocent and the E Street Shuffle were mixed and evaluated for inclusion on the Tracks box set, to be released in 1998. They included "Zero and Blind Terry", "Thundercrack", "Seaside Bar Song", "Santa Ana", "Bishop Danced", "Evacuation of the West" aka "No More Kings In Texas", "Phantoms" and "Fire on the Wing". The first five, which included a live version of "Bishop Danced", recorded on January 31, 1973, at Max's Kansas City, New York City, were included; "Phantoms", "Fire on the Wing" and "No More Kings/Evacuation" remain officially unreleased.

"The Fever", recorded in a single take on May 16, 1973, was also rejected and disliked by Springsteen. His manager at the time, Mike Appel, without informing Springsteen or Columbia Records, sent a cassette of the song to approximately forty disc jockeys across the US, including Ed Sciaky in Philadelphia, Kid Leo in Cleveland, and other DJs in Boston, New York, Houston, and Dallas. The song was then included on an endless stream of bootlegs, and was well known to Springsteen fans as one of his best songs. When it failed to appear on Tracks, along with "The Promise", another highly regarded unreleased song, a backlash occurred among fans on the Internet. In response, a second release, 18 Tracks, was hastily assembled and released on April 13, 1999, with both songs included.

Track listing

Personnel

  • Bruce Springsteen – lead vocals (all tracks), guitar (all tracks), maracas (track 1), recorder (track 2), harmonica (track 4), mandolin (track 4)

The E Street Band

  • Clarence Clemons – tenor saxophone (tracks 1, 2, 3, 6, 7), backing vocals (tracks 1, 2, 3, 6, 7)
  • Danny Federici – backing vocals (tracks 1, 2, 4, 6, 7), accordion (tracks 2, 4), organ (track 3), second piano (track 5)
  • Garry Tallent – bass guitar (all tracks except 4), tuba (tracks 1, 4), backing vocals (track 3)
  • David Sancious – piano (all tracks except 1, 4), organ, clavinet (track 1), soprano saxophone (track 1), electric piano (track 1), backing vocals (track 7), organ solo (track 3), Mellotron (track 7), string arrangement (track 7)
  • "Mad Dog" Vini Lopez – drums, percussion (all tracks), backing vocals (tracks 1, 3, 7), cornet (track 1)

Additional personnel

  • Richard Blackwell – percussion (tracks 1, 7)
  • Albany "Al" Tellone – baritone saxophone (track 1)
  • Suki Lahav – choir vocals (tracks 2, 5)

Technical

  • Mike Appel & Jim Cretecos – record producers (for Laurel Canyon Ltd.)
  • Louis Lahav – engineer
  • Teresa Alfieri & John Berg – design
  • David Gahr – photography

Charts

{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center"

|-

! scope="col"| Chart (1975)

! scope="col"| Peak<br />position

|-

!scope="row"|US Billboard Top LPs & Tape

| 59

|}

{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center"

|-

! scope="col"| Chart (1985)

! scope="col"| Peak<br />position

|-

! scope="row"| Australian Albums (Kent Music Report)

| 60

|-

|-

|-

|}

Certifications and sales

References

  • Album lyrics and audio samples