Talk:Darkness on the Edge of Town

"Four corners" - link
It's not appropriate to link to the "Four courners" article in this article. Since there's no article about the "four corners" vinyl stratagem I linked the disambiguation page for Four corners. --Blenda Lovelace 11:32, 25 January 2006 (UTC)

Probable Rolling Stone useful source -- feel free!
Newer Release of Darkness on the Edge of Town from Rolling Stone Magazine just made available- here's the source: --Leahtwosaints (talk) 07:45, 22 September 2010 (UTC)

Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of all time
Where did this rank in Rolling Stone's list? Wherever it did, someone should include it. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.86.22.51 (talk) 00:42, 25 November 2010 (UTC)


 * 151, and it is already cited in the article. -- J. Wong (talk) 17:57, 31 October 2011 (UTC)

History "Original Research"
The History section contains original research. Analysis of the songs counts as original research.

"In terms of the original LP's sequencing, Springsteen continued his 'four corners' approach from Born to Run, as the songs beginning each side ('Badlands' and 'The Promised Land') were martial rallying cries to overcome circumstances, while the songs ending each side ('Racing in the Street', 'Darkness on the Edge of Town') were sad dirges of circumstances overcoming all hope."

and

"This collection of songs, each of which Springsteen sang in the first person, was given unity by several recurring themes. The words “darkness” / “dark” appear in six of the tracks, while nine of them feature the “night” / “tonight”. “They” are mentioned in eight songs, with a general suggestion of nameless people who exert a negative influence. “Work” / “worked” / “working” form part of six songs, and so do the words “dream” / “dreams”. Six is also the number of songs in which Bruce and his characters are found “driving” / “racing” / “riding”, or mentioning the names of cars. There are references to “blood”, 'born', 'love' / 'loved' in four of the tracks. In the song 'Racing in the Street,' Springsteen alludes to Martha & the Vandellas' Dancing in the Street with the lyric 'Summer's here and the time is right for racing in the street,' which is similar to the Rolling Stones similar appropration of the lyric in the song 'Street Fightin' Man'."

Of course, if you have actual cites for these claims, then add them. Otherwise, delete the statements because they constitute WP:Original Research.

-- J. Wong (talk) 19:26, 31 October 2011 (UTC)

deleting them 2 years later as I agree, and there has been no response. The second paragraph especially is an incredible stretch...the same words could be cherry-picked from hundreds of albums. 75.138.158.16 (talk) 12:11, 28 July 2013 (UTC)

Assessment comment
Substituted at 12:50, 29 April 2016 (UTC)

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Genre of rock
The Rolling Stone and AllMusic reviews were not saying the album was in the genre of rock & roll which is early style rock. It's nothing like that. And something that rocks hard or is hard rocking is not necessarily in the hard rock genre. It's just an energetic rock presentation.

I will next list sources that say rock genre. Binksternet (talk) 00:34, 21 August 2019 (UTC)


 * Who said "it rocks hard"? What are you reading? Dan56 (talk) 00:43, 21 August 2019 (UTC)

Now, could anything be more explicit than this?
 * Joe Marchese of The Second Disc: "Darkness showed that one could marry hard rock with piano and saxophone"
 * Eileen Chapman and Kenneth Womack of Interdisciplinary Literary Studies: Darkness on the Edge of Town: Hard Truths in Hard Rock Settings Dan56 (talk) 00:43, 21 August 2019 (UTC)
 * Pitchfork says rock.
 * It says it "ranks with rock's classic albums", if you're gonna be anal about distinctions. Dan56 (talk) 01:21, 21 August 2019 (UTC)
 * The book The Rough Guide to Rock by editor Peter Buckley says that this album was a progression from Born to Run (which is a rock album) but "harder and more guitar-driven".
 * Thank you for pointing out that Born to Run is a rock album (not that I see the writer say this). Dan56 (talk) 01:27, 21 August 2019 (UTC)
 * Nobody talks about heavy distortion in the music, which is an identifier of hard rock. The people saying this was a hard rocking album were just pointing to the high energy. Binksternet (talk) 01:01, 21 August 2019 (UTC)
 * No one is obligated to talk about "heavy distortion" just so it can be acceptable to you (or Wikipedia) that hard rock be kept in the infobox; 4/4 rhythms are common in rock, and none of your sources mention that either, not that I'm objecting to "rock"'s inclusion, as you can see. None of the sources I brought to your attention have used the phrase "hard rocking" or "rocks hard". They have all said "hard rock". I don't understand why you do not acknowledge this and keep repeating the misrepresentation. I refuse to believe you are this obtuse. Dan56 (talk) 01:17, 21 August 2019 (UTC)
 * Thanks for not (accurately) addressing said sources again, by the way. Dan56 (talk) 01:23, 21 August 2019 (UTC)
 * Rob Kirkpatrick in The Words and Music of Bruce Springsteen: "Darkness is the album in which Springsteen leaves R&B behind and plants himself firmly in the world of hard rock, seventies style." [My emphasis] Dan56 (talk) 02:39, 21 August 2019 (UTC)

Single releases
I am able to date the three singles to June, July and Oct 1978 via The Great Rock Discography (Canongate Books) if that's helpful (I know the first two are different to in the article)?--TangoTizerWolfstone (talk) 03:20, 23 February 2023 (UTC)


 * If you could go ahead and source them :-) I'll take anything I can get. – zmbro (talk) (cont) 03:22, 23 February 2023 (UTC)