The Promise: The Making of Darkness On The Edge Of Town

I don’t own Darkness On The Edge Of Town.

But after seeing the documentary The Promise: The Making of Darkness on the Edge of Town, I want it.

I don’t have an explanation for not owning it, and radio never really gave it a fair shake except for “Badlands.”

And good luck finding a station that even plays that.

I think that any good documentary-particularly one that focuses on a piece of work like a record album-can measure success by gauging the extent in which you want to learn more about the subject.

After watching the documentary the other night on HBO, I wanted to hear that album immediately.

You get the songs in the documentary, including how they were made, the selection process, etc. They’re good enough to get you interested in the record, but it’s the story of the record that really drove my desire.

I wanted to hear what Springsteen did on this record, an album that came after some heated turmoil with Mike Appel and the long-deserved success of Born To Run. To hear the back story, and how Springsteen approached this record is riveting.

It also sounds like Springsteen was crazy-prolific during this period, and the box set captures some of those tracks that didn’t make the cut in two other additional discs. Since a lot of those cuts ended up on The River, I’d like to hear the other stuff that didn’t make that album either.

And I totally forgot that Springsteen penned “Fire.”