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 Turned this punk into a Boss fan Jan 05, 2010
Springsteen was always implanted in my head as a near mock artist when I was young. The 80's and my parents obsession, along with his top hits of the time "Born in the USA" and "Dancing in the Dark" were of no interest to me as a teenager.
A few years ago, someone handed me Nebraska. I put it in the car for a long road trip, and within 2 months, had scrambled to collect all the Boss I could. The early stuff is amazing. AH. MAZ. ING.
Do not leave this masterpiece of American living and tremendous songwriting out of your collection.
True grit Nov 30, 2009
A record produced during my childhood, a collection of silly songs, was called "Dumb Ditties." Bruce Springsteen's "Nebraska" is the polar opposite. A hot, dark, steaming platter of American wreckage stew is what The Boss serves up in "Nebraska." These songs are True Gritties.
Economic and social decay are the backdrop for this 1982 classic. None of the songs corporate radio considers Springsteen's "greatest hits" are on "Nebraska," making it all the more interesting for music fans and social critics.
The title track will never be played at a Cornhusker halftime show. Neoconservatives tried to impress "Born in the USA" into their perpetual warfare state, annoying Bruce, but there's no way that could happen with "Nebraska." Gov./Sen. Bob Kerrey might appreciate the song but chamber of commerce types are sure to drive on by.
"Nebraska" the song's final line - "Well sir I guess there's just a meanness in this world" - attracted me to the CD and I'm pleased, though disturbed, that I stopped.
"Atlantic City" brims with earth and recession. The gambler's mindset and the desire to get it all back at once pour forth. "Well I guess everything dies baby that's a fact. But maybe everything that dies some day comes back. Put your makeup on fix your hair up pretty and meet me tonight in Atlantic City."
The winners and losers of "Atlantic City" linger in the haunting "Mansion on the Hill." The starkness jars us as Bruce sings "In the day you can see the children playing on the road that leads to those gates of hardened steel." And how's this for contrast? - "Tonight down here in Linden Town I watch the cars rushin' by home from the mill. There's a beautiful moon rising above the mansion on the hill." Damn good, I say.
"Johnny 99" reminds us of the interconnectedness of everything and with that the inevitable limits of the criminal justice system. For more on interconnectedness notice the lack of punctuation in the CD's jacket notes. Our artist is telling us that nothing is ever truly separated off from other occurrences.
"Highway Patrolman" is poignant poetry about the thin blue line. In "State Trooper," Springsteen makes a clever introduction of electric guitar in creating the accelerating bodily functions (pulse/heartbeat) of a nighttime motor vehicle stop. He does the trick again in "Used Cars," using opening guitar chords that remind us of "Pink Cadillac" and "Cadillac Ranch."
"Nebraska" the CD is much about Springsteen's native New Jersey. But with his choice of title the artist is telling us this collection is more than just about his home state. It's hard Americana with no brand or ZIP code.
Springsteen is thoroughly in the universal with "My Father's House." This comparison of religious idealism with the organized version du jour is arguably the CD's best piece (it's my favorite, any way). This individual soul wandering foreshadows the couple version of "Secret Garden." Bruce well summarizes the challenge of faith - "My father's house shines hard and bright. It stands like a beacon calling me in the night. Calling and calling so cold and alone. Shining across this dark highway where our sins lie unatoned."
The artist detours back to Jersey to close the CD with "Reason to Believe." But like the Kansas of "The Wizard of Oz" the map names aren't what's important. What's crucial is one's mental and spiritual state. Springsteen gets as close to boosterism as he's ever likely to get in his music when marveling at the ability of people to have faith against reason. The Boss should know that the biblical patriarch Abraham, through nearly sacrificing son Isaac (Muslims say Ishmael was the offering), became the father of faith in this way. It's a gift to the human race that the race is still unwrapping. Springsteen is understandably anxious as the wrapping paper remains mostly in place centuries later - "Tell us what does it mean. At the end of every hard earned day people find some reason to believe."
One of the Boss's best Oct 05, 2009
This album can only be described as excellent. Outrageously different than anything he did before, this album proved that he could deliver a lyric as good or better without a band accompanying him. Many of his greatest songs are on this album, including "Atlantic City" (my favorite "Boss" song), "Highway Patrolman", and "State Trooper". And this is for gary mack, some dude who gave this album a ONE STAR REVIEW. Springsteen sings these songs similar to the way he sang "Sandy" on the The Wild, The Innocent and the E Street Shuffle, to get as much emotion from the songs as possible. This, along with the great lyrics makes this a landmark Springsteen album.
P.S. gary, "Mary Queen Of Arkansas" is from his first album "Greeting From Asbury Park, NJ", and is a very good song!
Masterpiece Oct 03, 2009
Nebraska -- an acoustic album with subtle electric touches. Existential heaviness dominates as the characters search for some kind of deliverance, be it returning to a girlfriend or facing execution. The songs, like the cover photo, are black and white desolation and starkness. The performances have the same intimacy and loneliness of old Folkways recordings. Through it all, a sense of honesty, integrity, and beauty resonates.
Nebraska may be Bruce Springsteen's best album. It is certainly one of the best I have ever heard.
IT IS BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN Jun 05, 2009
This CD was purchased for the original versions of "Open All Night" and "Reason To Believe".
I am not fond of Springsteen CD's without the E Street Band but this CD displays some of his best lyrical work.
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