The River

The River is the fifth studio album by the American singer-songwriter Bruce Springsteen, released as a double album on October 17, 1980, through Columbia Records. The album was Springsteen's attempt to capture the E Street Band's live sound on record. Co-produced by Springsteen, his manager Jon Landau, and bandmate Steven Van Zandt, the recording sessions lasted 18 months in New York City from March 1979 to August 1980. Springsteen originally planned to release a single LP, The Ties That Bind, in late 1979, before deciding it did not fit his vision and scrapped it. Over 50 songs were recorded, with outtakes being released as B-sides, or on compilation albums. The River is a heartland rock and rock and roll record with a live garage-band sound, combining party songs with introspective ballads. The lyrics expand on the themes of Springsteen's previous albums Born to Run and Darkness on the Edge of Town and mainly focus on love, marriage, and family. Springsteen took inspiration from the writer Flannery O'Connor for the characterizations. The cover photograph of Springsteen was taken by Frank Stefanko, who also took the front cover photograph of Darkness on the Edge of Town. From Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Riv...) under Creative Commons Attribution CC-BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/...)