Released in 1982, this is easily Springsteen’s most heartfelt and in some ways, bleakest album. It is also his least known album. Recorded at home with only an acoustic guitar and a harmonica for musical accompaniment, it is an American “dust-bowl” folk album in the tradition of Springsteen’s folk music heroes Woody Guthrie and the young Bob Dylan. The songs themselves are about ordinary working class people in tough situations in Middle America – a man who takes up a contract killing to pay his debts (“Atlantic City”), a policeman in a small town whose brother is a petty criminal (“Highway Patrolman”), a Vietnam War veteran who comes home to a dead-end job and a nervous breakdown (“Johnny 99”), a man remembering his dead father and his old home that no longer belongs to him (“My Father’s House”).
It is Springsteen at his most somber and earnest, and the songs are riveting. There are a few brutally honest albums in rock music. John Lennon’s 1970 “Working Class Hero/Plastic Ono Band” is one, the Who’s 1975 album “The Who By Numbers” is another, as is Bob Dylan’s portrait of a broken marriage – 1974’s “Blood On the Tracks”. This album falls into that category of honest, riveting albums.
There are no fist-pumping arena rock anthems here. Instead, in the tradition of Bob Dylan’s early work, Springsteen builds and breathes life into the gray, sometimes amoral characters in his songs. These are not just songs, they are short stories set to music. And like most well-written short stories, they can be mesmerizing. That is the beauty of folk music – it tells stories of ordinary people, folks like you and me.
The ambience is intimate, since Springsteen recorded all these songs at home without a back-up band. This album was released two years before his blockbuster “Born in the USA” album, which sealed his reputation as a superstar. Listening to this album, you feel that Springsteen is sitting in front of you on your living room couch on a cool fall night, with the fire roaring in the fireplace, singing his heart out – singing about hard times, ordinary people and the strength of the human spirit.
Sometimes, there are no easy answers to the horrors of life. The lyrics on this album are evocative, spare and sometimes chilling. On the title song “Nebraska” a murderer is about to executed, and is asked by the judge why he killed innocent people. He says:
“They declared me unfit to live,
Said into that great void my soul be hurled
They wanted to know why I did what I did,
Well, sir, I guess it’s just the meanness in this world”.
Springsteen may not be the best lyricist in the world, but he has always had a gift for capturing the spirit of working-class Middle America and its inhabitants. He builds a very convincing portrait of the quiet desperation that is the highlight of so many people’s lives. Most of his albums talk about hard times and redemption at the end of the road. On this album, he sings (quietly) about the hard times, but also about the fact that redemption is sometimes just not forthcoming. That is what makes this album compelling. Life can be hard, and sometimes, it just gets harder.
But human beings will always look for a reason to believe. And on the last song on the album, “Reason to Believe”, Springsteen is just like the rest of us in our vulnerable, weakest moments. He sings about the cycle of birth and death that is life and our never-ending quest to find meaning in our own lives and how we fit into the larger scheme of things:
“Take a baby to the river,
Kyle William they called him,
Wash the baby in the water,
Take away little Kyle’s sin
In a whitewash shotgun shack,
An old man passes away,
Take the body to the graveyard and over him they pray,
Lord, won’t you tell us,
Tell us what does it mean,
At the end of every hard-earned day,
We can still find some reason to believe”
We are all human, we are all flawed, and sometimes, in our darkest moments, when hope seems so hard to hold on to, we all need reason to believe – believe that life will get better, believe that the hard times and heartbreak will come to an end soon, that there is a grand purpose to our lives. Belief that there is a good future in store for us, belief that a kind hand gently guides our individual destinies. This song is a heartfelt yet ambiguous prayer to a deity that may or may not exist.
This is a beautiful, austere album, written and performed from the heart. Great art is always an unflinching reflection of the truth. The beauty of rock (and folk) music is its simplicity – great ideas, thoughts and ideals can be communicated in a simple way that makes it easy for people to understand, to connect. This is not true of many other art forms – even jazz and classical music are harder to understand, to interpret, to connect to. This is why I feel that rock music and its offshoots (folk music, blues music, even rap) tell stories in a way that are heartfelt and easy to understand.
Springsteen has always had a big heart and something interesting to say. He is not high-brow, he doesn’t try and impress you with his lyrical virtuosity, though his lyrics can be very well-written indeed. Over a long thirty year career, he has not just cranked out rock anthems for the sake of being popular. He believes that there is more to life than just being a superstar. He believes that in this day and age of instant (and often unworthy) fame and celebrity, good music can still make a difference and sometimes, save your soul. He is still willing to take chances and risks with his music, still willing to go out on a limb. He is a man with intelligence, character, grit and a conscience, and cares deeply about the world around him.
How many people in the entertainment business can we say that about?
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