Bruce Springsteen fans believe one slight fix to his 1992 album, Human Touch, would make it much better.
The Boss is currently on his Land of Hope and Dreams tour, with a trio of dates at Manchester’s Co-Op Live Arena now finished. Springsteen will head to France, Spain, and Germany on a tour of Europe this summer. Springsteen brought a handful of old songs back into his setlist, including the title track of Human Touch. Though the album did not receive the same acclaim as Born to Run or Born in the U.S.A., some fans still have a soft spot for the album. A series of posts to the r/BruceSpringsteen subreddit has seen fans suggest what could be done to fix the album, with one suggesting it needed to be “tighter” than it was at the time of its release. They asked fans: “Did Human Touch just need to be tighter?
“I’ve always been of the opinion that Human Touch contained some great music, but also too much filler. I thought maybe he could have trimmed the fat from the album, paring it down to nine to eleven songs, running about forty to forty-six minutes, closer to Lucky Town. I started with the play counts for the 1992-93 tour from Setlist FM, figuring the most played songs from that album would be a good place to start. Not 100% agreeing with that list, I switched a couple of songs in and out, coming up with this list.”
The list in question was not a new album order for Human Touch, but a revision of what featured on the album. A suggested running order for the ten songs kept on the revised album can be found below.
- Human Touch
- Soul Driver
- 57 Channels
- Cross My Heart
- Gloria’s Eyes
- Roll of the Dice
- Real World
- Man’s Job
- I Wish I Were Blind
- The Long Goodbye
The original poster added: “I haven’t tried to put them in a new album order, but I think these songs would make a stronger, tighter version of Human Touch.” Some fans have suggested the list is a tad stronger than the final release, though one song cut from the revised list should be swapped back in.
One Springsteen listener wrote: “I personally would’ve kept With Every Wish and dropped Gloria’s Eyes instead. Not necessarily because I like With Every Wish, but because Gloria’s Eyes is such a nothing song in my opinion. It’s like a negative All Or Nothin’ At All.
“Also I think keeping Pony Boy but leaving it as an extra hidden track like The Way on The Promise album would be cool. It’s a nice little tribute for his son, but taking up a whole track listing and being counted as an official Springsteen release is insane.”
Another fan agreed that Human Touch needed to be tighter when it first released, writing: “It absolutely needed to be tighter. Especially with Lucky Town releasing alongside it. There are also some songs from Tracks that maybe could’ve been swapped out.
“In any case, I think if it had been shorter, it might be more well-regarded these days. The length doesn’t allow for songs like Roll of the Dice or I Wish I Were Blind to shine in the ways they could’ve.”
A third wrote: “That and it needed to not sound like an 80s disaster in post grunge 1992.” Despite the problems of Human Touch, fans have considered The Long Goodbye’s placement as a perfect spot for it. One user wrote: “The Long Goodbye is a great final track. As others have said, add With Every Wish and ditch Gloria’s Eyes.
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