Last week I did predict that the Born to Run album cover is the most popular among fans, but I would not have guessed that it would gain almost 50% of the vote. However, probably the most notable thing about the poll result is that, among the 16 choices, the top 8 is made up of album covers from 1973 to 1987, and the bottom 8 consists of album covers from 1992 to 2009. Traditionally, this is probably roughly what a poll about the music would show. The older albums are more popular. That's often the case, not just for Bruce but for most artists of his stature. But I had been naive enough to think - hell, I had hoped a little bit - that despite what people think of the music, maybe a poll about the artwork would show a different pattern.

Sure, within the pattern of older versus newer, there are differencies between what a musical poll would have shown and what this poll show. For instance, I've never seen a "best album poll" where Greetings came in second as is the case here (except maybe if the poll was conducted in 1974 :-)), and The River usually fares better than number 8, but still.  While album artwork is usually not Bruce's strongest side (in my opinion) I think some of the recent albums deserve much better than what they got here. I personally voted for the Seeger Sessions album cover. I think it's beautiful and exquisite! And Devils & Dust.... one of my least favorite albums... has very powerful artwork in my opinion. But like last week, since you could only vote for one, and since the Born to Run album cover is undeniably a masterful statement, there's just no way you can do all the albums justice.

Complete result:

Born to Run       45.2%
Greetings From Asbury Park, NJ     9.1%
Darkness on the Edge of Town     9.0%
Born in the USA     7.8%
Nebraska     6.3%
Tunnel of Love     4.4%
The Wild, the Innocent....     3.4%
The River     3.1%
Magic     2.8%
Working on a Dream     1.6%
Devils & Dust     1.5%
The Rising     1.3%
Seeger Sessions     1.3%
The Ghost of Tom Joad     1.2%
Human Touch     1.2%
Lucky Town     0.9%

This week Born to Run is definitely not going to win, because now we'll look at Bruce's musical influences. You can always discuss who are the most important influences. The ones I've chosen as options represent influences to several different Bruce styles, and are mostly artists that Bruce himself has mentioned several times as influences. But I'm sure you could think of dozens of other names that deserved to be included.