Early, Middle, Late Springsteen
Like Ed Driscoll at Instapundit, I too loved Bruce Springsteen's first three albums and really don't have much interest in the rest -- though unlike Driscoll it has little to do with Springsteen's politics. If I only listened to albums that were 100% aligned with me politically, I would have to walk around all day just looping Rush's 2112.
After several great albums, Springsteen in his mid-era, he went all poppy and dropped a lot of the lyricism of his early work. The slide from his early work to Born in the USA was a bit like finding out Bob Dylan was the author of Call Me Maybe and All About That Bass.
In Springsteen's late era, he has simply become some grim prophet of New Jersey post-industrial decline. I can handle his pop stuff, but his more recent stuff is simply unlistenable in my book. Here is what it reminds me of: For those of you who saw the movie Network, remember how Howard Beale was taken aside by the Ned Beatty character for a grim lecture? Before that moment, Beale was a popular, authentic spokesman who hit a nerve with the populace. Afterwards, he was boring and depressing and unwatchable. I have always wondered if Bruce Springsteen had a similar meeting.
