New Jersey patron saint Bruce Springsteen, affectionately known as "The Boss," is one of the most influential musicians in the past thirty years. Renowned for his talents as both a musician and a singer/songwriter, he is the rare artist who garners both critical acclaim and commercial success throughout a legendary career. Springsteen has made several classic albums over the years, but the one that especially stands out is his 1982 release, Nebraska.
Ditching the catchy rock and pop elements and the big rock 'n roll stadium tours that characterized his previous efforts such as Born to Run, Springsteen chose a bare-bones simplistic approach to this album. Recorded entirely on a four-track recorder in his home in New Jersey - without a back-up band - the album is pure storytelling and songwriting at its finest. Nebraska was a gutsy career move for a man about whom a critic once prophetically declared, "I saw rock 'n roll's future and its name is Bruce Springsteen." The result was one of the darkest acoustic albums ever recorded.
Springsteen, accompanied only by his acoustic guitar and occasional harmonica part, chronicles the lives and problems of working class people through richly-detailed lyrics that gives listeners a clear vision of these people. Clearly influenced by the folk music of Bob Dylan, Woody Guthrie, and Pete Seeger, he even dabbles with some elements of country music.
The songs on the album often tackle moral issues, and feature plenty of saints and sinners. The Boss lets us into the psyche of each character for the duration of the song: the title track about the mass murderer Charles Starkweather; the question in "Atlantic City" about the morality of a criminal career; a quiet sense of despair and envy on the issue of the gap between rich and poor in "Mansion on the Hill."
Throughout the album, Springsteen sticks to the theme in material if not in sound. "Johnny 99," a somber story of an unemployed auto worker's arrest and conviction for murder, is driven by an uncharacteristically upbeat guitar riff that sounds as if it were jacked from an Elvis Presley record.
Morality is brought up again in "Highway Patrolman," a depressing story of two brothers on opposite sides of the law. Springsteen sings, "Man turns his back on his family/And well he just ain't no good." The theme of common working class men seeking some a redemption or deliverance that will never come is touched upon in the songs "State Trooper" and "Open All Night," both of which end with the same lyrics referencing a last prayer and the haunting phrase "deliver me from nowhere."
"Used Cars" dabbles with the idea of wanting a better life through the theme of buying a used car. Springsteen sings, "Now mister the day the lottery I win/I ain't ever gonna ride in no used car again." "My Father's House" again takes on the idea of one man's futile quest for deliverance. The narrator tells of a dream about childhood that makes him want to reconcile with his father, but when he arrives at his childhood home, he finds that he doesn't live there anymore. One can assume that Springsteen's own turbulent relationship with his father growing up (a recurring theme in several of his songs over the years) make this song a clear example of art imitating life. The album's closing number, "Reason to Believe," is the only song that tells the story of several characters and tries to make sense of the wear and tear of their everyday lives ("Still at the end of every hard day people still find some reason to believe").
Nebraska is a true display of Springsteen's talent as a musician and songwriter, his desire to challenge himself, his fans, and his critics, by reinventing his music. This is a rare album devoid of high-tech studio wizardry and traditional rock and pop sensibilities, that still manages to grab the listener's undivided attention through pure musicianship and storytelling. There is a story in each song, and they hold up just as well sitting around a campfire or in front of a capacity crowd at Madison Square Garden. This album is a must for fans of the Boss, one of his true masterpieces.
