Boss

¶ To listen quickly : First Listen: Bruce Springsteen, 'The Promise' : NPR:

As much as any music Springsteen has made, before or since, these songs are steeped in the history of rock 'n' roll. Elvis Presley, with whom the band was obsessed, died during these sessions, in August 1977. You can hear his influence in Springsteen's phrasing all over the set, most explicitly in "Fire," a Presley tribute so spot-on, it sounds like a cover. (Springsteen let his pal Robert Gordon record it; ditto The Pointer Sisters, who scored a 1978 hit with a version.) At one point in "Come On (Let's Go Tonight)," a breathtakingly spooky early version of the somber Darkness track "Factory," Springsteen intones, "The man on the radio said Elvis Presley died."