The Ties That Bind

Bruce Springsteen takes a trip to the rock n roll heartland with this documentary on The River album.

This documentary features an interview with Bruce only, he sings some songs with a guitar. There is archive and concert footage with the band including an excerpt from Max Weinberg's wedding.

The River became noted for its mix of raw and frivolous songs next to more darker and solemn songs. As Bruce notes it was part of the creative tension between Steve Van Zandt and Jon Landau.

The making of The River was a tortuous process according to Bruce. There were plenty of songs written, some were unfinished and others did not make it on to the double album but were later released on the Tracks album.

The album was released in late 1980 and some of the songs reflect the recession that gripped the American heartland, this is demonstrated in the title song of the album.

This is a must see for fans of The Boss, but even for the casual viewer it gives you an understanding of how an album of real raw songs comes together which is a world away from manufactured pop.

The Ties That Bind (2015)

*** 1/2 (out of 4)

Here's another very good documentary that came with the Special Edition release of Bruce Springsteen's The River album. There's no doubt that The Boss knows how to deliver a deluxe album and this documentary has the singer/songwriter sitting down with his acoustic guitar and talking about the album.

Obviously if you're a fan of Springsteen then this is going to be a must-watch because he goes into pretty good details about the production of the album and what he was trying to do with it. He talks about where he was living at the time, what music he was listening to and what he wanted to get into the album. There's also talk about the original one disc version that he turned in as well as how it ended up becoming a two LP set. Other subjects include some of the songs that didn't make the cut as well as what it was like taking the album out on tour.

At less than a hour it's mainly just Bruce talking and with the guitar in hand he does a couple of the songs from the album. There's some behind-the-scenes footage, concert footage and home movie footage shown as well, which is another great thing. None of the other band members are interviewed, which some might see as a negative thing but it's clear this documentary was just meant to capture Springsteen's feelings on the album.

Non-essential for all but Bruce fans, and look, maybe I should've left Nomadland as my last watched film for 2020, given that it's undoubtedly among the year's best films and all... ...but on the other hand, I think this was the year where I listened to Bruce the most since I "discovered" him in 2016.

His deep discography (and a couple of great concert films) really helped comfort me, and get through the last 12 months, so maybe it's nice to bid farewell to this year with a nice and cozy Bruce documentary like this.

Listening to Bruce talk about his creative process, strum on an acoustic guitar, and commentate some cool archive footage doesn't make for a great "film" exactly, but it is very enjoyable for fans like myself.