I’m very excited to have met listener David Skinner through The River’s facebook page, because he is sharing some real treasures with me that he is allowing me to pass along to you! David is a cartoonist, and in the ‘70s and ‘80s he worked for national music magazines. He’s updated a couple exclusively for The River like this one. I’m including both the original and the “Riverized” version for you to see. Here’s what David has to say:

“I found the cartoon that I did on Springsteen back in 1980, when he released "The River." All of us at Record World were big fans of Springsteen, and one of our writers was pretty good friends with him. After seeing him in concert back in those days, we were all amazed that he hadn't already become a superstar...his concerts were incredible. The 1978 "Darkness" concert that he did at MSG is still the best concert I ever saw...it was like a tent revival.

So...we felt that "The River" would possibly be his breakthrough album. Sure enough, one of the tracks, "Hungry Heart," finally gave him a top ten hit of his own (others such as Manfred Mann, Patti Smith and the Pointer Sisters had had hits with his material).

My first caption was: "All the way to the bank, Big Man," but the editor (always protective of the Boss) thought that implied that Springsteen was selling out, artistically. That certainly wasn't my intent, and everyone liked the "River" drawing (I'm pretty sure I used the cover shot from "Darkness on the Edge of Town" as reference), so I went "back to the drawing board" (figuratively) and revised the punchline.

I've revised it once again for "The River"...the station, that is."