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Caveat: I'm not a midlife-crisis "Brooce guy."
But every so often I return to his four-track, almost-demo LP "Nebraska" like it's a prayer.
To call this a "shock" when it was released in 1982 is a huge understatement.
"The River" (the LP just before it) had been a huge hit and he was poised for superstardom, which would come on the NEXT album, "Born in the USA."
In between -- Bruce discovered the TEAC 144, a four-track home recording device that nobody was using at the time and disintermediated the studio process. He had originally thought this version of these songs would be presented to the E Street Band as demos, they'd learn 'em, and record them in the good ol' E Street way.
But they didn't. They went out just like this -- spare, skeletal, almost entirely acoustic solo sketches of desperate American lives poised on the brink of disaster and cataclysmic change. The title track is about a convicted murderer awaiting the electric chair (based on the all-too-real spree killer, Charles Starkweather). The rest of the album is equally as dark, which is a near-complete contrast with the energy and optimism Bruce and the band were known for previously.
In one night -- January 3, 1982, in a rented ranch house in Colts Neck, NJ -- Springsteen recorded "Starkweather" (later, "Nebraska"), "Atlantic City," "Mansion on the Hill," "Johnny 99," "Highway Patrolman," "State Trooper", "Used Cars," "Wanda," "Open All Night," "Reason to Believe," "Born in the U.S.A." (acoustic), "Downbound Train," "Child Bride," "Losin' Kind," "My Father's House" and "Pink Cadillac" for a total of 16 songs, 10 of which ended up on "Nebraska."
It remains punk AF and I can't imagine being someone of Bruce's artistic and commercial stature at that point just lobbing this home-recorded thing out into the world and then not even touring behind it but moving on to the next thing.... which was the album that turned him into a Michael Jackson, Prince, Madonna, Bowie-level entertainer. (It remains one of the top-selling albums of all time while "Nebraska" may be one of his least-selling records despite having made it to number 3 on the Billboard charts).
When I think about our country -- the good, the bad, the ugly -- this is the album I turn to.
And I know for fact that so many artists who would (much later) record albums at home or in their basements or closets -- Elliott Smith, Lou Barlow, Neutral Milk Hotel, Mary Lou Lord, Cat Power, anyone who ever traded in "alt country" like Wilco or Son Volt or Drive-By Truckers, etc -- were almost totally obsessed with this album as a starting point for their songwriting craft.
If you haven't heard it yet, it's here in its entirety. It's not only the best thing I think Springsteen will ever do, it's one of the best LPs ever recorded. There have been months at a time ever since where I listened to almost nothing BUT "Nebraska."
Apr 25, 2024
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my favorite album front to back. just⊠haunting. the eponymous song is my favorite singer songwriter track ever recorded. closing verse on âopen all nightâ some of the dirtiest bars ever spit
the range between existential hope and practical despair is what i am most attracted to here
i do my heaviest weight lifting in my nebraska crop top
for fans of the album, have you read âheart of darknessâ by david burke? details the albumâs place in greater folk history/bruceâs arc
Feb 25, 2024
Feb 16, 2024
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If you live anywhere from the rust belt to Nebraska, you will about one thing per minute that speaks to the Midwest/forgotten American town experience on this album. K-Mart parking lots, dirty spring snow piles, family mini-vans with 200,000 miles.
Such an underrated band!
Jan 30, 2024
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Hey tyler hopefully this doesnât violate some PI.FYI golden rule
But after nearly two years of writing, editing and arguing, my book about the EP is coming out in May and can be preordered here:
https://hozacrecords.com/product/aifl/
The book is about the origins, history and cultural impact of the EP since these little objects first started coming out in the 50s.
Over 50 of my music biz friends then helped me shape the list and review the top 200 ever released, according to us (ha).
For those of you who are into this kind of geekery/snobbery, I canât wait to hear what you think. A labor of love, as all books are! â€ïž
Mar 27, 2024
âSongs Of a Lost Worldâ coming to a goth listening station near you Nov 1 đ€
The fr FW Me Friday the 13th the world was looking for
Sep 14, 2024
I will fail to explain just how much this band meant to me in the 90s.
So I will borrow from AV Club who did a fine job of distilling it:
âUnwound is the best band of the â90s. Not just because of how prolific, consistent, and uncompromising it was, but because of how perfectly Unwound nested in a unique space between some of the most vital forms of music that decade: punk, post-rock, indie rock, post-hardcore, slow-core, and experimental noise. That jumble of subgenres doesnât say much; in fact, it falls far short of what Unwound truly synthesized and stood for. Unwound stood for Unwound. But in a decade where most bands were either stridently earnest or stridently ironic, Unwound wasnât stridently anything. It was only itself. In one sense Unwound was the quietest band of the â90s, skulking around like a nerdy terror cell. In another sense it was the loudest, sculpting raw noise into contorted visions of inner turmoil and frustration.â
R.I.P. Vern Rumsey.
This is their finest song, from their finest album.
I really canât say enough about the sheer bloody minded genius of this group. đ€
Mar 23, 2024