Cover Me is the PrettyFakes effort at analyzing a sometimes-overlooked component of the work of Bruce Springsteen: the album art which presents the music we know and love so well. Since most fans would buy any new album by the Boss whether it was literally or figuratively wrapped in a paper bag, like Led Zeppelin or Neil Young, the packaging isn’t as paramount. As great lovers of album art—from the one-off cassette covers constructed by the Mountain Goats to the exquisite lettering of Blue Note albums—we wanted to examine this corner of the Springsteen world.
Released Jan. 5, 1973.
Front cover design by John Berg.
Front cover photograph Tichnor Bros., Inc., Boston 02130
Prof: So, the nice thing about doing these chronologically is that we get to start with a winner—the cover to Greetings from Asbury Park. I love the postcard conceit. Not only does it say that this is an album about a place, but it also hints that this is an album about the distance between the bright glow of a sun-kissed ideal and the harsh glare of a back-alley reality—or maybe it’s more accurate to say it’s about the conflict between two dueling romanticisms, since I’m not sure we can characterize any of these songs as trafficking in “reality.”
In this regard, it’s got to be significant that the postcard images seem to have have been blown up slightly large so that the grains pop out and make the pictures of happy tourists throngs and local landmarks look just a little cheap and shabby:
gorjus: Speaking canonically, this is also that rare and welcome Bruce cover: there’s no portrait! Prof., you’re exactly right that this is about place, not the band. The cover isn’t the cover of an album—it’s the cover of a book of stories. By “signing” the top, Springsteen gains ownership over all the (now-mythical) stories of Asbury Park.
This is also one of those artifacts that has to be touched: the compact disc just has a paper insert, but the album folds open—again, like a book—revealing the stories and characters within. A knock-out design-wise, and the die-cut and fold-out cover was a big investment by Columbia for an artist debut.
Prof: Well, he was going to be the New Dylan, don’t forget. That fold-out cover works with the fantasy/reality theme, too: when you peel back the picture of the Asbury Park that the Chamber of Commerce wants you to see, you reveal the lyrics that paint a picture that of an Asbury Park it would like to hide. It’s fitting that the first lyrics listed under the postcard (continued from the back cover) are for “Lost in the Flood,” all gang warfare and blasted veterans.
Gorjus: (digging through shelves) Actually, I just realized that the insert to the CD version actually is pretty good—it folds out to represent the “back” of the postcard, just like the album has when you flip it open, complete with the silly picture of Bruce in the stamp area. And I’m going to do this on every Cover Me post: where are our deluxe reissues?? My copy still has that blasted “CD” logo on the front cover!
Next up: Wildness! Innocence! Shuffling!
It’s also not about the band because they’really wasn’t one for this album!
That kind of post card was a typical confection of late 1950s/early 1960s tourism (see the recent stamp reissue by state in the same style). I do wonder if there were an original pre-existing post card for Asbury Park. If not, do people now buy facsimiles of 2/3 of an album cover on the “boardwalk”?
Yeah, this was a pre-existing postcard, and we updated above to note that it was made by the Tichnor Bros., a venerable Boston-based postcard outfit.
and still one of Springsteen’s best and deepest luv songs, For You
A damn fine read, gentlemen. Looking forward to the next entry…
Hi Guys, when I visited Asbury Park in the beginning of the 90’s I met an old gentleman in a newsagency and I asked him where I could find and buy this famous postcard, he told me that it have never existed for real, it was all a mock-up for this album, which is a true mile-stone in the rock history…
I grew up in two places: Jersey City and Manahawkin. Once, back in 1970 we were headed to the “Coffee House” in Beach Haven to hear someone named Bruce Springsteen, a local boy. We got tired of trying to get a ride via hitchhiking, so we gave up. I never did see him and regret not trying harder. Well this local boy sure made it big. Love him.
Well I went on a little stalking mission in October to Rumson, NJ and then Asbury Park. There was a little shop there on the boardwalk and I asked if they had any of these postcards. She told me she orders them by the hundreds but they sell out immediately. Then she said “oh wait!” and pulled 2 of them from underneath the cash register drawer. So now I have on and my sister does too! I only regret that we did not have the time to find the local post office and have it mailed from Asbury Park, NJ!!