Look at the cover of
\nNebraska<\/i> and you can almost hear the hush of the desolate
\nhighway the driver is traveling on. That hush reflects the quiet
\nmoments in this album, recorded only on a 4-track. That hush can
\nalso be heard from critics who, until then, wrote off Bruce
\nSpringsteen as a hopeless Dylan-wannabe.<\/p>\n
Springsteen has always written about the common man\/woman who is
\ntrapped by a prison far more powerful than Folsom or Attica. He
\nrefers to the trappings of small town life; how people either rot
\nstaying in a crippling existence of monotony or burn out trying to
\nget away. However, his legendary backup band, the E Street Band,
\nand Springsteen’s uncanny ability to write a memorable chorus
\ntypically dispelled people from looking further within his songs
\nfor meaning.<\/p>\n
No such mistake needed to be made with
\nNebraska<\/i>. Armed with an acoustic guitar and a 4-track,
\nSpringsteen opted not to record with the E Street Band. He also
\nopted to sharpen his character profiles. I can’t imagine what the
\nrecord executives thought when they heard the title track. In a
\nsimple, detailed account, Springsteen tells the story of Charlie
\nStarkweather, one of the granddaddies of modern serial killers.
\n“Sheriff when the man pulls that switch sir and snaps my poor head
\nback\/ You make sure my pretty baby is sittin’ right there on my
\nlap,” Springsteen’s voice doesn’t laud or condemn Starkweather. He
\njust tells the story in all its chilly, barren setting.<\/p>\n
Springsteen’s status as a songwriter would have been elevated
\nwith that single song. However, he continues his vivid portraits
\nthroughout the rest of the album. A man tries to calm his woman’s
\nfears about trying to keep a roof over their heads in “Atlantic
\nCity,” a man battles insomnia and a hard ass supervisor in “Open
\nAll Night.” Perhaps the most chilling visual Springsteen paints us
\nis on “Johnny 99.”<\/p>\n
The character in “Johnny 99” gets drunk to alleviate his
\ndepression after he loses his job. In a stupor, he guns down a
\nnight clerk and gets apprehended by an off-duty cop. In a
\nheartbreaking climax, the character tells the judge, who gave him
\nlife, “Then won’t you sit back in that chair and think it over
\njudge one more time\/ And let ’em shave off my hair and put me on
\nthat execution line.” Springsteen then lets out a chilly cry and
\nthe harmonica kicks in.<\/p>\n
In one of my earlier reviews,
\nThe Ghost Of Tom Joad<\/i>, I described the characters in the
\nalbum as people who were on the verge of having the bottom fall out
\nfrom under them. In comparison, the characters in
\nNebraska<\/i> have already experienced the bottom falling out and
\nhave fallen through to another bottom that few people know
\nabout.<\/p>\n
There is some hope for most of the characters in
\nNebraska<\/i>. Repeated prayers of “Hi ho, silver-o, deliver me
\nfrom nowhere,” can be heard on multiple songs. And radio and
\ntelephone lines stretch out like a row of crucifixes is another
\nmetaphor that Springsteen incorporates throughout the album.
\nSalvation through rock: If one artist can do that, it is
\nSpringsteen. The final track, “Reason to Believe,” even has
\nSpringsteen singing hopefully, yes, you guessed it, “Still at the
\nend of every hard earned day, people find some reason to
\nbelieve.”<\/p>\n
\nNebraska<\/i> may not be played as much, or at all on radio, but
\nyou do not have to go far to hear its influences. You can hear
\n“State Trooper” being played during the finale of the first season
\nof “The Sopranos.” A movie, made by Sean Penn, was based on the
\nsong, “Highway Patrolman.” The Cowboy Junkies do a wicked cover of
\nthat song on their double-live album. And Sub-Pop just released an
\nentire tribute album to
\nNebraska<\/i> with
\nBadlands: A Tribute To Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska<\/i>.<\/p>\n
\nNebraska<\/i> is the work of an artist who still had something to
\nprove to doubters. His next album,
\nBorn In The U.S.A.<\/i>, would be the pop-savvy album that record
\nexecs were hoping the Jersey artist could deliver. However,
\nNebraska<\/i> would forever change the course of the rest of his
\nalbums. Just listening to some of the lyrics in
\nTunnel Of Love<\/i>,
\nBorn In The U.S.A<\/i>. and
\nLucky Town<\/i>, Springsteen may have played ball to sell albums,
\nbut his lyrics are unmistakable in their uncompromising nature.
\nTrue to that form, when then President Ronald Reagan wished to use
\n”
\nBorn In The U.S.A<\/i>. as a campaign slogan, Springsteen
\nannounced in concert that he doubted Reagan ever heard one song off
\nof
\nNebraska<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Springsteen would obviously release a companion to
\nNebraska<\/i> with
\nThe Ghost Of Tom Joad<\/i> in 1995; a great album unto itself.
\nHowever,
\nNebraska<\/i> stands alone as Bruce Springsteen’s finest
\nrecording. Few artists as big as Springsteen would have dared to
\nrelease such a bleak album as his popularity was steamrolling
\ntoward superstardom. Its unfortunate that the album is only just
\nnow getting the true praises it so richly deserves.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":25699,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5832],"rating":[5646],"class_list":["post-36905","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-bruce-springsteen","rating-rating-a"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36905","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36905"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36905\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25699"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36905"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=36905"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=36905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}