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Welcome back to Hit Parade, a podcast of Pop Chart History from Slate magazine about the hits from

coast to coast. I'm Chris Malanthe, chart analyst, pop critic, and writer of Slate's Why Is This

Song Number One series. On our last episode, we talked about Bruce Springsteen's long evolution

from Bard of Asbury Park to Rockstar. By the turn of the 80s, Springsteen finally scored his first

major pop hit, but his transformation

into an MTV-era icon was yet to come. In essence, in 1982, Bruce Springsteen had laid the

groundwork for two albums at once, and the differences between the songs on 1982's Nebraska

and the ones he held for his next LP, which would be a full East Street band Rocker, were

largely cosmetic. Some songs on Nebraska, apart from their naked production, could have worked

as full band rave-ups, like Johnny 99, or Open All Night. Compare this to a black This new jersey in the morning like a lunar landscape

Compare this to a track that did wind up on the next album

The Infectious Blue Collar Tall Tale Working on the Highway

It benefited from the East Street approach

But it was still lean and direct.

It was all about presentation. A rummed on a unfulfilled sexual desire called

I'm on fire sounded as austere as anything on Nebraska.

But with the addition of Roy Bitten synthesizers and gently tapped Max Weinberg drums, it became an evocative 80s mood piece.

I got a bad desire. Oh, oh, oh. 80s mood piece.

Another tune that started as a morose acoustic demo about the folly of nostalgia,

about time passing and missed opportunities, with the addition of a Danny Federici organ hook worthy of a baseball stadium became the barn burner Glory Days.

Springsteen also wasn't just writing for himself.

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