Bruce SpringsteenGreetings from Asbury Park, N.J.

Young Bruce can't get the words out fast enough here, and that's the thrill. "Blinded by the Light" opens with a torrent of internal rhymes and carnival imagery, then "Spirit in the Night" rolls in on honking sax with Crazy Janey in tow. "Growin' Up" struts cocksure and wide-eyed at once. Loose, scrappy, coffeehouse intimacy with bar-band nerve. The Jersey boardwalk myth starts right here. Drop the needle and hear it being born.