Coming, as this album does, after a three year break during which Bruce had been written off as ‘yesterday’s man’, you would expect some difference between Born To Run and Darkness On The Edge of Town but the differences are major and they served as a sharp signal of where future Springsteen material would go. Gone are the romantic ideas of “getting to that place where we wanna go” and walking in the sun. In there place a harsher, more realistic tone. We are left in no doubt that running away is not the answer. The characters on Darkness are staying in town and working through their own personal darkness. Continue reading