This is the Season of The River

Bit over on Salon on the difficulty of making the album:

In March of 1979, Bruce Springsteen would begin work on his fifth album, the follow-up to 1978’s “Darkness On The Edge of Town.” A year and a half later, after having written (or rewritten) and recorded (and re-recorded) over 50 songs, accumulating hundreds of master tapes, preparing three different album track listings, and trying the patience of everyone around him both personally and professionally, the record was done. “The River” would finally be released in October 1980.

35 years later, Columbia Records brings Springsteen fans “The Ties That Bind: The River Collection,” a deluxe box set that chronicles not just the music created during the sessions for “The River,” but also documents the fascinating and frustrating journey behind the recording process...it also presents the original single-album version of the record that was submitted to Columbia before Springsteen changed his mind, called “The Ties That Bind.” This is accompanied by a new video documentary featuring an in-depth interview with Springsteen very candidly telling the story about the making of the album, where one learns that the rumored difficulties around the making of record were not overstated.

Springsteen’s perfectionist tendencies in the studio were nothing new. He’d pulled similar agonizing stints with “Born To Run” and “Darkness On The Edge of Town,” and was quoted as saying, “That’s me, that’s what I do, I work slow, and I work slow for a reason: to get the results I want,” when it came to his approach in the recording studio.