After 43 years of unpredictable, yet successful music career, the time has come for Bruce Springsteen to pack his hard work into few compilations. Chapter and Verse came out parallel with his highly-anticipated autobiography Born To Run, allowing it to be additionally pushed.
The dessert of this compilation are Bruce’s early works, with the earliest being recorded in 1966. In translation, Bruce Springsteen can easily celebrate his 50th professional birthday this year. Still, knowing this extraordinary musician, he is not going to that, as he doesn’t want to be perceived as a super senior. He does not want to give up, despite the fact that the demanding music market may not play in his favor nowadays.
Chapter and Verse comprises two parts. Part one includes unreleased demo-recordings of Bruce’s beginnings – their embryo state, with all of its technical imperfections. It gives his fans a chance to investigate the exegesis of Springsteen’s creative road. Long story short: at the beginning, there was a garage rock singer who evolved as vocalist, poet and composer.
The second part is a rapid retrospective of all of Bruce’s phases. Not one album is presented with more than one song, which gives you enough sense of how Springsteen developed his artistic persona. From weak garage-progressive tendencies, it took him only few years to shine with the perfection called Born To Run. The summit came with Nebraska and Born in the USA. Ghost of Tom Joad is return to the Nebraska era, while The Rising saluted brave citizens who helped the community after the 11.9.2001.
Ergo, Chapter and Verse is not a classic best of compilation, rather superficial presentation of what The Boss of rock was doing throughout the decades. My recommendation is to listen to his albums. Start with Born To Run or Born In The Usa, and then continue with Nebraska. This collection can not stand on its own.
