sup, i'm currently watching his show with the e street band from new york on Palladia, and am not really familiar with his work outside of the big singles and the songs from this concert, as i own both the cd and the dvd. So any real help on maybe 1 or 2 of his studio albums to pick up.

thanks. And yes it is a bit strange seeing Steven Van Zandt without the toupee and even seeing Max behind the kit (im used to him on conan.

n00bs should just start with the most accessible: born in the usa

if ya like, go backwards and jam them all.

I went a slightly unconventional path in getting into Springsteen. I started with the Greatest Hits and then picked up, in order, Nebraska (a raw, folksy, ultimately downer of an album, but really underrated IMO), then The Rising (his post-9/11 album) before getting into the more classic works like Born in the USA and The River. Those are my favorites from him, and most would put Born To Run in there as well though I haven't listened to it quite as much.

i actually have that on cassette, well its my dads, and one day he let me rumage through his tape collection and take whatever i wanted lol. I prob haven't listened to it all the way through

I'd pick up Essential Bruce springsteen first. It's quite a good overview, and it will allow you to pick and choose amongst different "eras" to further explore, as the release date info is found in the liner notes.

Yeah, it depends on what aspect of his career appeals most to you.
For his quirky, spirited side, pick up his first two albums (both very good).
For basically straight-ahead rock, there are the two "Born" albums, "Tunnel of Love", and "Human Touch" (I must be the only one who's really fond of this album).
For his folk/rockabilly side, which I personally don't much like, there are "Nebraska", "Lucky Town", "Devils and Dust", and "Ghost of Tom Joad".
For a mixture of the heavily meaningful stuff and the rock/pop there are "Darkness..." and "The River".
I don't know where "The Rising", "Magic", and his latest fit in with the others. He doesn't sound the same anymore.

Also, I highly recommend "Tracks", a four-disc collection of unreleased music. Some top-notch songs on there, especially on disc 2.

Start off with Born to Run, it is one of the few perfect albums ever made.

Absolutely. Not only is it absolute perfection, but I guarantee that Bruce will play at least four of the album's nine tracks in any concert you see.

Thunder Road - Classic
10th Ave. Freeze Out - Classic
Night's - Classic
Backstreets - Classic
Born to Run - Classic
She's The One - Classic
Meeting Across the River - Haunting
Jungleland - One of the best F'ing songs ever made

First:
Born to Run
Darkness on the Edge of Town
Born in the U.S.A.
Tunnel of Love
Lucky Town
The Rising
Magic

Next:
The River
Nebraska
Devils & Dust

Then:
We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions
The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle
The Essential Bruce Springsteen (specifically for the bonus 3rd disc)
Tracks

Finally:
Hammersmith Odeon, London '75
Live: 1975-85
Live In New York City
Live Boots

Nebraska is the only Springsteen album I really like.

If you can grab it for a good price, get The Essential Bruce Springsteen. Target, Wal*Mart and FYE often have the Essential series on sale for under $15. Well worth it for 3 discs. Spans Bruce's whole career and is very comprehensive.

I'm surprised at the lack of love for The Ghost of Tom Joad. I'd had the two Born albums when I was a kid, but Ghost of Tom Joad came out right before I went to college and got me interested enough to pick up all his back catalogue. While he's had great songs throughout his career, that album remains my favorite of his.

I couldn't agree more.

The River belongs no lower than fourth spot on this list.

The sequence that I discovered his music and grew to appreciate it was as follows:

Born in the USA
Born to Run
Darkness on the Edge of Town
The River
*Live 1975-85 (*especially Thunder Road)
Tunnel of Love
Nebraska

The rest of his albums have their great songs, but to me, the above as full albums were the jewels in the collection. There are tracks on these albums that are more than just great rock songs, they are passionate, some are epic, and the real classics can give you goosebumps when you hear them and become familiar. You just respond on some type of emotional level to some of these songs. Enjoy the journey.

With all due respect, I don't think Springsteen is a singles artist. Like Radiohead, whose Greatest Hits album was a bit of a mess, Springsteen's albums are cohesive and different enough that they should be experienced as whole albums. If your only taste of The River is "Hungry Heart" and the title track, you really miss out on a lot.

Wax your floor and lay down on one side of the room. Have a buddy slide across on his knees and slam into your head with his crotch.

Nice!

Of course, if your a total newb, you should really start with the basics, like counting.

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It wasn't intended as list of best to worst. More of a starting point for some of his most accessible work, then progressing to albums that are less easy to get your arms around, and deeper cuts (although The River is a strange hybrid in this way, some of his most pop-oriented work, mixed with some dark stuff).

Springsteen is one of, if not my favorite artist, but the River and Born in the USA I can never recommend to a new listener, because the synthesizer/keyboards ruin those albums.

Born to Run
Wild, Innocent
Tracks Highlights Disc
Greetings From Asbury
Ghost Tom Joad
Tunnel of Love
Nebraska
Darkness

?? The keyboards on The River are very different from Born. "Cadillac Ranch" is one of my favorite songs and I've never found those keys yucky. I don't find the The River to be in the no-newbie zone. "The Ties That Bind" and a few other tunes are simply great, traditional sounding rock songs.

'Nebraska'.

It's his best work.