Carlin revisits those pivotal years with a fan’s fervor and a journalist’s attention to detail ... Like a director’s cut, Tonight in Jungleland expands on, updates and sometimes revises his researches into Springsteen’s self-invention in the 1970s ... Carlin’s prose heightens the drama of the album’s construction ... Vividly summons the album’s struggle and its spirit.
Few writers make the recording and writing process feel as alive as Carlin does, recounting the story behind Born to Run with a deep appreciation for Springsteen’s craft and artistry; it’s music writing and biography at its finest ... A unique look inside the artistic process.
Carlin delves into the messy details surrounding the mercurial, obviously talented then-25-year-old ... Readers will be amply rewarded—swept up in the whirlwind of Springsteen’s touring circuit, exhausted by his long sessions in the recording studio, and elated at the triumphant conclusion ... Carlin admirably maintains a sense of immediacy. This book is an exemplary rock history, by turns poetic and gritty.
An admirably comprehensive study ... Born To Run was a triumph, installing Springsteen in rock’s canon, but this book thrives in exploring the hard work that preceded it.
Carlin takes a fascinating look at the challenges of making an album whose success now seems inevitable, exploring what drives artists to create as well as how their relationship with their work can shift as it becomes part of popular culture. Springsteen fans should snap this up.
