It was my first time missing Bruce in Foxboro since whenever the last time he played there before '08 was (I've only seen him twice, '08 and '12, so not nearly as much as it sounds by that statement). So I had my own impromptu Bruce show in my car, just tossed the Springsteen songs on shuffle and that was that.
I knew I'd regret passing up the show, but fortunately, I was left with an entirely different aspect of Bruce to consider: someone ranked all 314 of his songs, ranked from worst to best.
And to this woman who compiled the rankings, Caryn Rose, I just want to say props. Thank you for not telling me it's some B-side off The River or anything off of Human Touch. Thank you for not insulting the intelligence of the masses and going for a "Gotcha!" play at the end.
Rose, who writes for the Vulture apparently, confirms that "Born to Run" is Bruce's opus, followed directly by "Thunder Road," "Born in the USA" and "Badlands." You want to quibble with the rankings of those four specifically? Fine. You want to tell me "Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out" or "Dancing in the Dark" is worthy of cracking the top five rather than simply the top 30, I don't disagree at all.
This takes me back to a list Entertainment Weekly made of every Breaking Bad episode, ranked worst to first from No. 62 to No. 1. It was like the sabermetric nerds telling me Sandy Leon has been a better player than Xander Bogaerts this year for the Red Sox. "Four Days Out," some random episode in Season 2, likely isn't better than any episode in Seasons 4 or 5, with the possible exception of "Rabid Dog" (rightfully ranked last). And then "Fly" was in the top 5? Now that is straight up sabermatrician bogusness.
So one more time, thank you to a Rose, whoever she is, for not making a list just for the sake of making a list to #embracedebate.
PS-name me another blog that's gonna mesh Bruce, Breaking Bad and advanced baseball statistics on this fine Thursday. You can't.
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