The album was recorded after a series of legal disputes between Springsteen and his former manager Mike Appel, during sessions in New York City with the E Street Band from June 1977 to March 1978.

Released three years after Born to Run, Darkness did not sell as well as its predecessor but reached number five in the US, while its singles—"Prove It All Night", "Badlands", and "The Promised Land"—performed modestly.

The resulting legal proceedings prevented him from recording in a studio for almost a year,[b] during which he toured the United States and Europe with the E Street Band – Roy Bittan (piano), Clarence Clemons (saxophone), Danny Federici (organ), Garry Tallent (bass), Steven Van Zandt (guitar), and Max Weinberg (drums).

[c][9][11][13] Springsteen entered Atlantic Studios in New York City with Landau and the E Street Band to record his next album on June 1, 1977,[14] four days after the legal proceedings ended.

[e] Weinberg, who suffered from illness during most of the sessions,[11] remembered Springsteen demanding perfection from the musicians while simultaneously giving them little direction, saying he "[let] things flow" and did not "nitpick over details".

[30] With Springsteen still unsatisfied, the sessions continued into November and December, with the band recording "Adam Raised a Cain" and "Give the Girl a Kiss".

"[11] Choosing ten tracks for the album, now called Darkness on the Edge of Town, he scrapped songs he felt did not fit the desired theme, were too bland, or too commercial.

[11] He gave several songs to other artists: "Hearts of Stone" and "Talk to Me" to Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes;[35] "Because the Night" to Patti Smith; "Fire" to Robert Gordon;[j][11][37] "Rendezvous" to Greg Kihn; "Don't Look Back" to the Knack; and "This Little Girl" to Gary U.S.

[43] Iovine, suffering from exhaustion after months of recording,[k] was replaced by the Los Angeles producer and engineer Chuck Plotkin, who created a balanced mix.

[45] When writing the album's songs, Springsteen was particularly influenced by works of fiction that focused on individuals confronted by adversity; these included the John Steinbeck novels The Grapes of Wrath (1939) and East of Eden (1952) and their respective film adaptations directed by John Ford and Elia Kazan; westerns such as Ford's The Searchers (1956); and the songs of country/folk artists Hank Williams and Woody Guthrie.

Springsteen also took note of rising British punk rock acts the Sex Pistols and the Clash, and new wave artists such as Elvis Costello.

[51] According to a 2019 essay by the scholars Kenneth Womack and Eileen Chapman, Darkness saw Springsteen "drive away from the beach and boardwalk and into the ethos of the American heartland".

[52] Containing older and more mature characters than Born to Run, the songs on Darkness focus on ill-fortuned people who fight back against overwhelming odds;[11][53] they are frustrated and angry at their inability to achieve better lives.

[15][46] A 2008 analysis by Larry David Smith and Jon Rutter splits the album into three acts that describe "a tale of socioeconomic struggle and submission": the first details the characters' situations ("Badlands" to "Something in the Night"), the second concerns their struggles and search for hope ("Candy's Room" to "The Promised Land"), and the third finds them facing the consequences they must endure to succeed ("Factory" to "Prove It All Night"); "Darkness on the Edge of Town" acts as an epilogue, in which "Springsteen seals his narrative deal".

[55] Whereas Springsteen's previous albums were mostly set in and around the Jersey Shore area, the majority of Darkness is less characterized by a specific place and refers to other parts of the United States, from the generic American landscape to the Utah desert and Louisiana towns; although "Something in the Night" and "Racing in the Street" still take place around "the Circuit", a loop formed by Kingsley and Ocean Avenues, west of the boardwalk in Asbury Park.

[46] The autobiographical "Adam Raised a Cain" uses biblical references to portray a difficult father-son relationship, in which the son pays for the sins of the father.

[31][46][57] Musically, it is a punk-influenced rock track driven by a heavy drumbeat and a riff played simultaneously by the guitars, bass, piano, and organ.

[57][59] Thematically offering a post-Born to Run perspective,[58] depicting a moment where an individual's dreams are halted,[60] Springsteen reminds the listener that once someone has "something" it can easily be taken away.

[17][60] Telling the story of a man who will not let the bleakness of life ruin his love for car racing,[57] its characters resemble those of Born to Run's "Thunder Road", albeit two or three years later.

[62] "The Promised Land" is a country rock song with influences ranging from Van Morrison and Bob Dylan, to the Beatles and Hank Williams.

Musically, this slow rock song features both quiet and loud sections; Margotin and Guesdon note Springsteen's vocal performance for its "powerful intensity", being "on the verge of breaking".

[13] The first single, "Prove It All Night" with "Factory" as the B-side, was released on May 23, 1978,[85] and extensively promoted by U.S. radio stations, reaching number 33 on the Billboard Hot 100.

[102] More positively, Robert Hilburn of Los Angeles Times said that Darkness "blends the rousing musical splendor and passionate, uplifting themes of Born to Run with even stronger production touches and a more consistent, probing group of songs".

[100] In The Village Voice, Robert Christgau commented on the narratives and the characters on "Badlands", "Adam Raised a Cain", and "Promised Land", writing that they showcased "how a limited genre can illuminate a mature, full-bodied philosophical insight".

He deemed other songs, naming "Streets of Fire" and "Something in the Night", more impressionistic and overblown, revealing Springsteen to be either "an important minor artist or a very flawed and inconsistent major one".

[96] More negatively, Creem's Mitchell Cohen and Crawdaddy's Peter Knobler, criticized the use of similar car themes as Born to Run and pondered if Springsteen was capable of writing about other topics.

[71] Hilburn argued the album affirmed Springsteen as a seminal rock figure of the 1970s, equaling the magnitude of Elvis Presley and the Rolling Stones.

[r] Reviewers have recognized Darkness as a harbinger for Springsteen's later career, forming the basis of his songwriting for the next decade, and foreshadowing efforts like Nebraska (1982) and The Ghost of Tom Joad (1995).

[69] Brian Kachejian of Classic Rock History argued that the brilliance lies "not in the dark picture that Springsteen had painted about his life experiences, [but] in the small glimmers of hope that resounded in many of the songs".

[142][143][144] The documentary was directed by Thom Zimny and features archival footage from the recording sessions and live performances from the era by Barry Rebo.