La poetica springsteeniana della fuga e del riscatto dalla mediocrità quotidiana di una qualsiasi desolata provincia americana ebbe in ‘Born to run' la sua definitiva affermazione: il Boss da allora fu ‘l'eroe della strada' di tutte quelle persone a cui una ‘Thunder road' sembrava avesse strappato un pezzo della loro stessa vita, persa come nei testi di Bruce tra dolci sogni e amare realtà.
Proprio di queste ultime è popolato ‘Darkness on the edge of town', quasi una presa di coscienza da parte dell'autore che nel cammino all'età adulta corrisponda una perdita dell'innocenza inevitabile e dolorosa figlia di spietate ‘Badlands' da cui sarebbe meglio evadere per sempre, ma che poi non tutti hanno il coraggio di lasciare. E forse, chi ci prova, cerca ancora una terra promessa (‘The promised land') in cui credere, nonostante anche Mary abbia imparato dopo anni che il paradiso non esiste, pur portando con sé l'urlo liberatorio e consapevole di ‘Adam raised a Cain'; dove le parole ‘strozzate' in gola del nostro e il riff rabbioso delle chitarre rendono chiaro un certo disagio autobiografico e la disillusione presente nell'intero album - speculare al marcato ottimismo e volontà del suo precedente lavoro del 1975.
La celebrazione della notte come custode di miti e ricordi di un'adolescenza sbiadita torna in ‘Something in the night', in quello che resterà chiuso per sempre nella ‘Candy's room', nelle ‘Streets of fire' oscuro rifugio di un perdente senza meta, ormai annientato dalle troppe menzogne ingoiate e nell'invito a confrontarsi con una realtà che vuol dire anche sconfitta, nel prezzo da pagare per ‘un anello d'oro e un bel vestito blu' di ‘Prove it all night' ( 'You hear the voices telling you not to go, they made their choices and they'll never know what it means to steal, to cheat, to lie-what it's like to live and die.' ). Nella strada tempio di amori e impeto giovanile, corse in auto con una ‘Chevy del'69' e bravate (‘Me and my partner Sonny built her straight out of scratch and he rides with me from town to town . We only run for the money got no strings attached - we shut'em up and then we shut'em down') si riflette la struggente malinconia di ‘Racing in the street', che travalica il semplice significato di ‘canzone', per farsi racconto di anni lontani e unici; prima del Vietnam, di Nixon e del buio, in uno dei vertici assoluti dell'uomo di Hoboken, New Jersey. Quel buio, che avvolge la città, la rende quasi cieca e inerme di fronte al tempo che scorre inesorabile, protagonista nella title-track finale: cuore di tenebra che prende posto nell'anima; lento e minaccioso sul ciglio delle nostre vite ( ‘Lives on the line where dreams are found and lost'), mai assente, ma con squarci di luce nel cielo a chiusura di un'opera densa e matura che cerca, al di là di un consapevole pessimismo, una via d'uscita possibile.
Magari lungo l'autostrada che porta al mare e lavare, così, ‘dalle nostre mani questi peccati'.
Elenco tracce testi samples e video
01 Badlands (04:04)
Lights out tonight
trouble in the heartland
Got a head-on collision
smashin' in my guts, man
I'm caught in a cross fire
that I don't understand
But there's one thing I know for sure girl
I don't give a damn
For the same old played out scenes
I don't give a damn
For just the in betweens
Honey, I want the heart, I want the soul
I want control right now
you better listen to me baby
talk about a dream
Try to make it real
you wake up in the night
With a fear so real
Spend your life waiting
for a moment that just don't come
Well, don't waste your time waiting
(Chorus)
Badlands, you gotta live it everyday
Let the broken hearts stand
As the price you've gotta pay
We'll keep pushin' till it's understood
and these badlands start treating us good
Workin' in the fields
till you get your back burned
Workin' `neath the wheel
till you get your facts learned
Baby I got my facts
learned real good right now
You better get it straight darling
Poor man wanna be rich,
rich man wanna be king
And a king ain't satisfied
till he rules everything
I wanna go out tonight,
I wanna find out what I got
I believe in the love that you gave me
I believe in the faith that could save me
I believe in the hope
and I pray that some day
It may raise me above these
(Chorus)
mmmmmmmm, mmmmm, mmmmmm
For the ones who had a notion,
a notion deep inside
That it ain't no sin
to be glad you're alive
I wanna find one face
that ain't looking through me
I wanna find one place,
I wanna spit in the face of these badlands
02 Adam Raised a Cain (04:35)
In the summer that I was baptized
my father held me to his side
As they put me to the water
he said how on that day I cried
We were prisoners of love, a love in chains
He was standin' in the door I was standin' in the rain
With the same hot blood burning in our veins
Adam raised a Cain
All of the old faces
ask you why you're back
They fit you with position
and the keys to your daddy's Cadillac
In the darkness of your room
your mother calls you by your true name
You remember the faces, the places, the names
You know it's never over it's relentless as the rain
Adam raised a Cain
In the Bible Cain slew Abel
and East of Eden he was cast
You're born into this life paying
for the sins of somebody else's past
Daddy worked his whole life for nothing but the pain
Now he walks these empty rooms looking for something to blame
You inherit the sins, you inherit the flames
Adam raised a Cain
Lost but not forgotten, from the dark heart of a dream
Adam raised a Cain
04 Candy's Room (02:48)
In Candy's room there are pictures of her heroes on the wall
But to get to Candy's room you gotta walk the darkness of Candy's hall
Strangers from the city call my baby's number and they bring her toys
When I come knocking she smiles pretty she knows I wanna be Candy's boy
There's a sadness hidden in that pretty face
A sadness all her own from which no man can keep Candy safe
We kiss my heart's pumpin' to my brain
The blood rushes in my veins fire rushes towards the sky
We go driving driving deep into the night
I go driving deep into the light in Candy's eyes
She says baby if you wanna be wild you got a lot to learn, close your eyes
Let them melt let them fire let them burn
`Cause in the darkness there'll be hidden worlds that shine
When I hold Candy close she makes these hidden worlds mine
She has fancy clothes and diamond rings
She has men who'll give her anything she wants but they don't see
That what she wants is me, oh and I want her so
I'll never let her go no no no
She knows that I'd give all that I got to live
All that I want all that I live to make Candy mine
Tonight
07 Factory (02:20)
Early in the morning factory whistle blows,
Man rises from bed and puts on his clothes,
Man takes his lunch, walks out in the morning light,
It's the working, the working, just the working life.
Through the mansions of fear, through the mansions of pain,
I see my daddy walking through them factory gates in the rain,
Factory takes his hearing, factory gives him life,
The working, the working, just the working life.
End of the day, factory whistle cries,
Men walk through these gates with death in their eyes.
And you just better believe, boy,
somebody's gonna get hurt tonight,
It's the working, the working, just the working life.
10 Darkness on the Edge of Town (04:30)
They're still racing out at the Trestles
But that blood it never burned in her veins
Now I hear she's got a house up in Fairview
And a style she's trying to maintain
Well if she wants to see me
You can tell her that I'm easily found
Tell her there's a spot out 'neath Abram's Bridge
And tell her there's a darkness on the edge of town
Everybody's got a secret, Sonny
Something that they just can't face
Some folks spend their whole lives trying to keep it
They carry it with them every step that they take
'Till some day they just cut it loose
Cut it loose or let it drag 'em down
Where no one asks any questions
Or looks too long in your face
In the darkness on the edge of town
Some folks are born into a good life
Other folks get it anyway anyhow
I lost my money and I lost my wife
Them things don't seem to matter much to me now
Tonight I'll be on that hill 'cause I can't stop
I'll be on that hill with everything I got
Lives on the line where dreams are found and lost
I'll be there on time and I'll pay the cost
For wanting things that can only be found
In the darkness on the edge of town
Carico i commenti... con calma
Altre recensioni
Di thunder87
Questo è a mio avviso il miglior disco rock che sia mai stato prodotto.
Il povero vuole essere ricco, e il ricco vuole essere re, e il re non è soddisfatto finché non regna su cosa.
Di mosesgama
Questo è l'album più crudo, oscuro (in senso di atmosfere) e rock, che il Boss abbia mai fatto.
Le capacità interpretative del Boss raggiungono i massimi livelli, il pezzo ci entra dentro come un proiettile.
Di AJM
Il barile del Boss è incredibilmente ben fornito e quello che ne tira fuori non è certo all’altezza dei dischi usciti ai tempi d’oro, ma è molto superiore a quelli pubblicati nei recenti, tempi bui.
Quello fu un album più intimista e disilluso dei precedenti, soprattutto se paragonato con il capolavoro "Born To Run" del 1975 in cui la facevano da padrone le speranze e i sogni di giovinezza.
Di Ancora D'Oro
Il disco in questione è una vera porcata.
Il succo del disco si riassume in brani che ruotano attorno ad un banalissimo accordo, massimo due.
