The story as I remember it — and I mean that literally because I’m not consulting a search engine, I’m telling you my memory — is that Bruce Springsteen toiled and toiled over his album Human Touch for a very long time, it may even have been years but it definitely was many months.
On the day he declared the album ready to send off to the record company, he breathed a great sigh of relief and started writing, and over the next two weeks he came up with all of the songs for another album, which he banged together and called Lucky Town.
And that’s how and why Springsteen released two albums on the same day in (OK this time I’m checking with DuckDuckGo) 1992.
Here’s the bottom line for me, though: To me Lucky Town — the burst of creative energy — is far superior to Human Touch — the carefully crafted, meticulously produced but ultimately heartless album in comparison.
The creative impulse wants to dance. It reaches its zenith when it is flying and having fun. Just hearing the facts of their creation convinces me that Lucky Town was destined to be a better album.
And now that I did check with the search engine, I see my memory got some of the facts askew, but the bottom line is Springsteen pulled teeth to get Human Touch completed, and Lucky Town was a romp, and that (to me) is why Lucky Town is the better album. Those were just better days.
