As an antidote to the new Bruce Springsteen album, a pleasant enough departure from his usual sound but about as energetic as a Perry Como record, here’s the song that might be the most rollicking rave-up in his catalog. There’s no debating that “The Wild, The Innocent and the E Street Shuffle” represented the peak of Springsteen’s shambolic early sound, which changed once Jon Landau got his mitts on The Boss. He replaced his energetic but sloppy drummer Vini Lopez with the polished Max Weinberg, but settled for the competent rock and roll keyboards of Roy Bittan after the jazz-influenced David Sancious left for a solo career. Listen to the organ solo 3:34 to 4:08 to hear what was lost.
You can hear the difference on this version from the 1978 tour. Bittan and Danny Federici together can’t make up for what Sancious brought to the table by just playing finger exercises.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWJLhFpK2zk