Produced By:
Bruce Springsteen, Jon Landau, Chuck Plotkin, Roy Bittan.
Personnel:
Roy Bittan, Randy Jackson, Jeff Porcaro, Bruce Springsteen.
Additional Musicians:
Michael Fisher, Bobby Hatfield, Mark Isham, Bobby King, Douglas Lunn, Ian McLagan, Sam Moore, Tim Pierce, David Sancious, Patti Scialfa, Kurt Wortman.
Songs:
‘Human Touch’,‘Soul Driver’,‘57 Channels (And Nothin’ On)’,‘Cross My Heart’,‘Gloria’s Eyes’,‘With Every Wish’, ‘Roll Of The Dice’, ‘Real World’, ‘All Or Nothin’ At All’, ‘Man’s Job’, ‘I Wish I Were Blind’, ‘The Long Goodbye’, ‘Real Man’, ‘Pony Boy’.
Critically reviewed as the more significant piece of work of the pair of albums Springsteen released simultaneously in March 1992, Human Touch was actually far more uneven and unsatisfying than its ‘younger’ sister. Whereas recording for Lucky Town had ostensibly taken the matter of a few weeks, the sessions for what became Human Touch stretched over a period of more than two years, with a number of styles and groups of musicians employed. Bruce had wanted to explore new sounds having freed himself from what he perceived to be the constraints and limita-
tions of the E Street Band and its established sound. The loose idea for his comeback album (there was an eventual gap of four and a half years between Tunnel Of Love and the 1992 albums) was to create a 1960s soul ambience.To this end, Bobby Hatfield of the Righteous Brothers and Sam Moore of Sam and Dave were employed to add significant backing vocal parts. The muscular title track opened the album in confident fashion, but its six and a half minutes ultimately proved the strongest of the collec- tion of fourteen songs. Others had their merits, but tended to suffer from a heavy handedness resulting either from some uninspired arrangements or being forced into an unconvincing direction. Lurching from the light-hearted satire of ‘57 Channels (And Nothin’ On)’ to the biblical and apocalyptic ‘Soul Driver’, both previewed at the 1990 Christic shows and, from the generic ‘Man’s Job’ and ‘Real Man’ to the traditional children’s folk song that closed the collection, ‘Pony Boy’, the album suffered from a damaging lack of focus.
Highlights:
‘Human Touch’ – this song announced Bruce’s return with an assertive, keyboard-heavy piece depicting a man’s longing for intimacy against the harshness of the world, in a similar vein to material on Tunnel Of Love. Released as a single taster of what was to follow, ‘Human Touch’ would in fact prove to be the highest artistic point in an over- reaching and unsatisfactory collection.
‘Soul Driver’ – featuring some good, dark Old Testament imagery to illustrate a character’s desperation, this is the most successful attempt to capture a new sound on the
album, even if it isn’t exactly traditional soul. A lilting melody is propelled by two guitars and E Street alumni David Sancious on Hammond organ.
‘With Every Wish’ – this acoustic number provides welcome relief from the histrionic and generic sounding workouts on the album. It also indicates an unexpected move of the maturing and more reflective Springsteen towards drawing on natural imagery, rather than relying on the streets around him. Mark Isham’s trumpet part greatly enhances the piece, whilst subtly echoing Born To Run’s ‘Meeting Across The River’ where the character has already rushed into a plan without pausing to “think first” and seems destined for trouble.
‘I Wish I Were Blind’ – this sounds like an old standard, perhaps because there are no Bruce hallmarks present and because the imagery (“cottonwood blossom” and blue- birds!) is so familiar. There is absolutely nothing original about this song, but the gentle melody and forlorn vocal manage to lift it into something very touching and believ- able.
Weak Spots:
‘Cross My Heart’ – actually a good bluesy lyric, partially adapted from a Sonny Boy Williamson song, and a good rhythm, but the two-chord guitar solo is risible and badly damages the track.
‘All Or Nothin’ At All’ – from the partially borrowed title (from an old Small Faces number one hit), through to the extended vocal coda of the repeated title line, this has no
charm, a vaguely bawdy wit, but nothing that marks this track out as deserving of a place on a Springsteen record over the scores of fine works that have bitten the dust as outtakes throughout his career. The same can be said for much of this disappointing album.
Key Missing Tracks:
‘Over The Rise’ (Tracks) – a subdued lyric (including a quote from film critic Pauline Kael) sung with an echo effect, emphasising the finality of the singer’s loss, now with only his own company, over a simple bass-heavy accompaniment, this explores the same natural expanses that ‘My Beautiful Reward’ inhabits.
‘Gave It A Name’ (Tracks) – although the recording date of this is printed as August 1998 in the Tracks booklet, this enigmatic song’s presence among eleven other Human
Touch session outtakes suggests this to be a printing error.
‘Gave It A Name’ also features the same quote from Pete Dexter’s fine novel Paris Trout that Bruce incorporated into the Lucky Town song ‘The Big Muddy’. Here, the image of moral corruption being contagious is represented as a character trait of violence, seemingly inherited from a father by his son. An understated, simple riff plays out under a restrained Bruce vocal.Thematically, it has links to ‘With Every Wish’ but its inclusion on the final album would not have made sense unless it was accompanied by some of the other slower-tempo outtakes.
‘Part Man, Part Monkey’ (B-side; Tracks) – a witty telling of the 1925 John Scopes trial that highlighted the debate over the teaching of evolution versus creationism. The
song features an invigorating and fun Bruce vocal and bounces along with a fine, spiky guitar part – and again featured the Springsteen/Sancious reunion.