Malin IV

The screen door slams.  Mary’s dress waves.  So begins Springsteen’s epic Born to Run.  His third album, and maybe his last.  The first two didn’t sell well, so Born to Run was his last chance.  Last chances are as illusory as any other fabrication, but imagined doom does have a way of distilling thought.  The album distilled blue-collar resilience, youthful desire and operatic composition into a rock and roll manifesto - us against the world.  Springsteen would grow past man vs. man and man vs. society to explore man vs. himself in later albums, but those albums wouldn’t have happened if he hadn’t poured his romantically delusional self into his third act.

Third albums frequently represent the crux of a band’s career.  The first ones are full of possibility and the second ones are usually rushed into production by those pesky mercantilists at record companies, so the third ones are often the defining statement of an early career.  Get it right, and there will be many more albums.  Get it wrong, and play increasingly smaller county fairs into some oblivion next to a hog pen. 

Hard Day’s Night.  London Calling.  Fear of a Black Planet.  Toys in the Attic.  After the Goldrush.    Damn the Torpedoes.  War.  Too Far To Care.  Tres Hombres.  Pyromania.  Backatown.  Dookie.  Fear of Music.  Summerteeth.  Ok Computer.  The Lonesome Jubilee.  You can argue about my third album theory.  But you’d have to ignore a substantial body of work.

Years ago, I told someone I approached Davenport as my third album.  I explained that Libertyville, Grayslake, the Grayslake Park District, the Northeastern Illinois Planning Commission, the Lake County Forest Preserve and even Prairie Crossing Charter School didn’t qualify as albums.  Those were EPs.  Vernon Hills was the first collection of sufficient depth to qualify, and Douglas County was number two.     

Davenport was number three.  It was late at night and early in my tenure as I made the analogy.  Pouring my romantically delusional self into it, the back against the wall, us against the world spirit moved me.  It rang true to me.  It rang true to enough other people that we succeeded.  Globalization of manufacturing?  The allure of the sunbelt?  Those less than urban places that pay less than their share of regional costs?  Bring them on.  They are no match for our collective capabilities.  They cannot compete with our collective spirit.     Baby, we were born to run… 

Heck, we were so successful they had to regionalize DavenportOne into the Quad Cities Chamber to spread the success around a little more. 

I’m well aware of how the Boss’s third album closes.  “They reach for their moment and try to make an honest stand.  But they wind up wounded, and not even dead …”.  A bit of a downer, so my mixtape would jump right to Badlands, and the defiant optimism and soaring hope would pulse anew.  

Successful third albums begat fourth albums.  This seemed lost on QCTimes reporter Brian Wellner as he and I listened to William Shatner sing “Bohemian Rhapsody” in my office while he finished his “Craigster” sandwich on my last day.   “I thought Queen wrote that?” Brian remarked.  I assured him they did.  It is track eleven from their fourth album “A Night At The Opera”.  Truly, to watch Brian be confused about whether Captain Kirk wrote Bohemian Rhapsody is among the most memorable moments of my occupancy of the office. 

Faithful readers of Davenporttoday may recall my opening post was titled “Community 3.0”.  In it, I offered hope the open communications platform would connect Davenporters together, and to a brighter future.  That future is now for others to be romantically delusional about, and my best advice is to be the most passionately improbable you can be.

A Night At The Opera.  Yankee Hotel Foxtrot.  Bookends.  Led Zeppelin IV.  Grace Potter and the Nocturnals.  Tim.  And Justice For All.   Bleed American.  Life’s Rich Pageant.

Wishing Davenport the best, from a rattlesnake speedway in the Utah desert…