 Bruce
Springsteen
Tunnel
of Love (1987)
review
by: Mike Webb
Date:
6/5/02
Taken
From Bruce's personal diary circa late 1987:
A
cliché. A fucking cliché. That's all I was.
Can you imagine that? I was the heir to Bob Dylan. I could
write about Mr. Everyman in a way that every man, woman,
child and puppy could relate to. Broken hearts, broken
dreams, broken cars, broken cops, broken cities &
seaside resorts - I could mend them all with a song.
Then
Julianne came along. Yeah, I knew she was just some harlequin
Hollywood honey, but I fell for her hard. I was the biggest
rock star on the planet and it was my divine destiny to
start dating an actress - a bad, not all together attractive
actress at that. But what bugs me is that I really didn't
forget who I was. Everybody thought I went Hollywood,
but I could still slug down beers with my buddy Everyman.
Ok - I admit I lost some of my ambition. It's hard to
write 10 minute sonatas all the time and a make it mean
something.
But
I remember when I could write those 10 minute sonatas.
Beautiful, lingering, emotional music that took twists
and turns just like life. I always thought they should've
made a ballet out of one of my records, but I digress.
Anway - I decided to try and get more to the point, so
I got out of the operatic numbers business and wrote a
bunch of short songs that were about the desperation I
still saw in America. Of course that bonehead Ronald Reagan
mistook my meaning, but then I got rich when grandmas
and grade schoolers bought Born In The USA. And then I
got stuck. I just couldn't write a song outside of the
verse-chorus-verse formula.
So
I tried to figure out how to get out of that habit. I
got a wife. I cut off my friends (namely my band) and
I went it alone. I'd gone solo before when I did my brilliant
(ha ha) Nebraska album. So I kinda tried to make an album
that was a cross between the folk and pop of the last
2 albums. I went for it with my buddies Chuck "I
don't know any other way to produce a record than to overproduce
it" Plotkin, and my manager Jon "Can you believe
I wrote one good review about this guy and now I get 15%"
Landau. Mix in mixer Bobby "Clear Channel" Clearmountain,
and you've got an album that's guaranteed to be all shine
and no substance. But even though I was stuck with those
guys while making Tunnel Of Love, I don't think it's total
crap. I mean I was going through some pretty tough stuff
with my marriage to Juli falling apart and me realizing
I didn't really love her.
I
should've just told everyone to just fuck off and made
this album sound like Nebraska - dark and forsaken - just
like the love in my life at the time. But it bothers me
that people just kind of write this album off as part
of my sucky-post The River phase. This shit was personal
and it's got more me in it than anything else I ever released.
Like that "Tunnel Of Love" song just popped
into my head when Juli refused to ride that seaside roller
coaster with me. I was kinda bummed that my most trusted
friend didn't trust me enough to know that she'd survive
the ride if she just stayed by my side. But she refused,
and slowly my fuse began to fade out. And "Brilliant
Disguise" spilled out when I realized that Hollywood
producers had just as good a shot of sleeping with Jules
as I ever had of keeping her heart true to me. It just
wasn't going to happen. And maybe I'm a bonehead for believing
that it was possible, but that's life baby.
But
it's all there in the lyrics - I still had my way with
words - I mean 'God have mercy on the man who doubts what
he's sure of ' - pure poetry man. Maybe an unsure heart
helps you focus and say it straight, but I feel like I
hit the nail right on the head. Only problem was it was
a coffin it was going into.
But
I'm surviving. I know you can't start a fire worrying
about your little world falling apart. So I'm taking aim
at a new refrain - and that Patty Scialfa sure it looking
pretty good tonight…
 Bruce
Springsteen
The
Wild, The Innocent & The E Street Shuffle (1973)
review
by: Glenn
Pfeifer
Date:
11/5/01
I'm
so glad someone else wrote a review of this disc before
I got a chance to...and that that someone else was not
from New Jersey! I am from New Jersey and I'm mostly proud
of it. However Bon Jovi and much of Bruce Springsteen's
work aren't exactly what I'd refer to as my musical heroes....but
I must admit that The Boss...the early Boss Desiree describes
in such perfect detail here...was an incredible songwriter
(and inspiration to me) in his day. Des has done a great
job quoting the many outstanding lyrics on this album
(and Greetings below).
Bruce
abandoned everything I loved about his music around the
time that "Darkness on the Edge of Town" hit
it big. The River followed.... (ugh)...now his work of
art was behind him, and he rambled though some very weak
albums, and unfortunately they only made him bigger and
bigger with the public! This culminated with what I think
is one of his worst albums..Born in the USA. A pop shell
of this once great songwriter...it pained me to see him
dancing in the dark on MTV. Aside from the ballsy Nebraska
and the surprising Tunnel Of Love...there really is no
reason to buy anything later than Born To Run from The
Boss' catalog. Maybe Desiree can lend her finely tuned
ear to a review of that disc. While his sound and his
gruff voice have been imitated and mocked to the point
that some of his singing now sounds a little silly....it's
great to listen to an era when songwriting actually counted
for something, instead of the hook, verse, chorus formula
we're doomed to now hear on the radio forever. Thank you
Desiree for making me break out some great old tunes...
"The
rangers had a homecoming/ in Harlem late last night.
And the magic rat drove his sleek machine/ over the Jersey
state line.
Barefoot girl sitting on the hood of a Dodge/
drinking warm beer in the soft summer rain.
The rat pulls into town, rolls up his pants/
and together they take a stab at romance and disappear
down Flamingo Lane."
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