My Least Favorite Song from Every Springsteen Studio Album

God, this was hard to write

Don’t glare at me, Boss; you wrote them (Image: USA Today)

This is the article I’ve avoided writing since Christmas Eve. That was when I published a piece titled “My Favorite Deep Cuts from Every Springsteen Studio Album,” and from the moment I finished it the flip side of that record has been swirling in my brain: my least-favorite Bruce song on each album. It felt almost sacrilegious to actually put it down on paper, but a faith worth its salt should always be open to a little criticism.

Let me be clear up front, though. While the twenty songs listed here may be my least-favorite (especially the ones that should have been replaced with ones he left in the vault for years or decades before finally releasing them), they are still Springsteen songs. Much like pizza and blow jobs, even a “bad” Bruce song is better than no Bruce at all. Also, unlike previous articles there will be no playlist at the end of this one; I simply cannot bring myself to create one with this title.

Here are my least-favorite Springsteen songs from each of his twenty studio albums:

1. “Mary Queen of Arkansas” (Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J.). Making this exercise a tough one right out of the gate, I don’t hate this song by any means, but it is the weakest on his otherwise stellar debut.