1. Open All Night – As great a flying song as Chuck Berry has written, as great a Chuck Berry song as John Lennon has written. Just Bruce and his guitar, flying thru the New Jersey highways in the space between night and morn, waiting for rock and roll to deliver him as he delivers us.
2. Two Hearts – A deep breath on The River, and live he matched it with "Out On The Street" in the middle of his four hour concerts and it brought the house down. Sure "Streets" with its "are you ready for the weekend" and singalongachorus, is the one you think of, but it is "Two Hearts" easy going romance that gets you there.
4. Give The Girl A Kiss – This didn't make it on to Darkness? THIS??? First time I noticed it was live on stage, and it is the sort of song that if you can't write it, you can't write it. A pure slab of good time rock and roll and you can hear it on the outtakes album Tracks It funs you our of your mind.
5. Freehold – Know how I've been ribbing Bruce over being a slumming landlord. This song, I don't think he's ever officially released it, proves my point. On the boot I'm listening to, he dedicated "Freehold" to his hometown, and on the boot I'm listening to, dedicating it to the Mayor. If he had managed to dig this deep about his reaction to money. If there was a line on Wrecking Ball as self-aware as the one where he wonders if the girls who broke his heart would dump him if "they knew I'd strike it rich", I haven't heard it. The thing about this song, whether Bruce is remembering walking home with a limp or jerking off or the Church and High School, it has the clarity and passion of a shared truth: it's like lookisharing his most intimate memories.
6. Brilliant Disguise – Why? Because before his marriage , Bruce and fiancee goe to have their fortune read and the gypsy swears their fortune is bright but he isn't convinced: "Maybe, baby, the Gypsy lied". A stunning admission in a completely emotionally naked song from an act of self revelation much scarier than… well, than anything else he has done.
7. The E Street Shuffle – "The band's playing and the singer's something about a prophet, something about a party, And rock and rol's going to take me home."-That quotes from one of my favorite pieces of rock crititicsm ever. Ariel Swartley's "The Wild, The Innocent And The E-Street Shuffle" review from "Stranded".
8. Livin' In The Future – Bruce wrecked this song by tieing it to a rant about Goverment surveillance. Bruce used to be the Yeoman of political discourse, but around about here he abdicated it for… John Kerry? If surveillance was a problem in 2007, why isn't it now? Whatever, Clarence is in top form, and lines like "Opened up my heart to you, got all damaged and undone.
9. The Ghost Of Tom Joad – Yup, I was at MSG when he played this with Tom Morello. Nearly fell out my fucking chair. And I don't like the song because it seems to me ridiculous to base a piece if agitpop around a fictional character. But, this night, with this guitarist. They made the point.
10. From Small Things (Big Things Come) – Now this is political rock. Given to Dave Edmunds when Dave met him backstage one night, this is old time rock and roll.