There’s a truly great EP buried within this over-stuffed and thematically inconsistent album.
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Roll of the Dice (590)
When Bruce announced his participation in the Amnesty International Human Rights Now! Tour in 1988, his re-arrangement and performance of this Bob Dylan classic became the title track of an EP released the following month.
Introduced without fanfare on the Seeger Sessions Tour, Bruce’s immigrant song grew into his summational statement and band tribute. Read the backstory and watch great performances inside.
Every fan knows it; every audience member is part of it: “Badlands” is Bruce’s anthem of steadfast resistance, persistence, and faith in his audience. It’s one of his very best songs.
An anthem cloaked as an elegy, a gospel wrapped in rock, “The Rising” is one of Bruce’s finest, most important, and most superbly crafted songs.
The literal and emotional centerpiece of Letter to You, “House of a Thousand Guitars” is one of Bruce’s most intimate and summational songs.
Is “The Promised Land” a song of defiance or surrender? That depends on the ear of the behearer.
“Darkness on the Edge of Town” is one of Bruce’s most enduring classics. But is it a song about heroic defiance or defeat and addiction?
The title’s not a coincidence: This Wrecking Ball deep cut is a direct sequel to Bruce’s 1985 Top Ten single.