“Lost In The Flood” by Bruce Springsteen

"Lost in the Flood" is the dark night of Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J., the debut Bruce Springsteen delivered to Columbia in January 1973. Mike Appel and Jim Cretecos produced it, and Springsteen wrote, arranged and sang it. It's sparse and piano-driven, and it seems to be about a soldier home from Vietnam: how America treats its veterans has always been a raw nerve for him.

Don't come looking for a tidy plot. Image piles on image, and each of the three verses spins a different story, the first one steeped in religion. It adds up to despair and grief with a thin crack of hope, the first of the big, epic Springsteen songs built to leave you wrung out. On the record it sits between "Does This Bus Stop at 82nd Street?" and "The Angel".

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