Release Date: 25 October, 1990
Audio CD
Tracks
- Nebraska
- Atlantic City
- Mansion on the Hill
- Johnny 99
- Highway Patrolman
- State Trooper
- Used Cars
- Open All Night
- My Father's House
- Reason to Believe
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Rating 4.5
Mindblowing, stunning songwriting. (From an ex Bruce-hater!)Being 32 years old currently, the only Bruce I (and anyone else from my generation and younger) had ever heard was on MTV. So I'll admit to being very prejudice against the man and his music my whole life. I've always been into deep, dark music, and despised anybody with songs like "Born in the USA" etc. It's a tragedy that millions of others younger people will never hear the "real" Bruce and dismissing him as a pop-hero for "old" people. The only reason I bought this CD was because I'm a big fan of the movies Badlands and The Indian Runner. Sean Penn wrote The Indian Runner based mostly on one song on this album (Highway Patrol Man). Every song on this album instantly makes the listener feel like he has lived the life of each song's charactor. In the 3-4 minutes it takes Bruce to sing his songs, he forces the listener to become the person in the song for those short few minutes. Each song forces the listener to experience the haunting lives of others, each in it's own unique, very personal way. Even if you dont personally relate to the exact problems experienced by the charactors in these songs, you will relate to the sorrow/sad times that everyone of us has gone through. I'll end this with a quote:
"If we could read the secret history of our enemies, we should find in each man's life sorrow and suffering enough to disarm all hostility." -- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Sooo bleak, sooo realWhen I first heard Springsteen as a 9 year old it was all Born In The USA and it was so overexposed that it got old real fast and made me feel a bit "over" the pseudo-celebratory crap it was used to celebrate/promote in the US.Not that the songwriter intended it that way...
Fast forward a few years and my brother picked up Nebraska.It sounded way different but I still wasn't interested.A few years ago I met a guy who raved about Nebraska in a pub in Melbourne and in a moment of alcoholic inspiration bought a copy.
A few years on and I can safely say that it is one of the best purchases I've made.The music is raw, delicate, painful and HUMAN!! A look at the sometimes seemingly pointless grind of our existence from the angles of normal people. Simply one of Bruce's absolute bestThe thing that I find very interesting about Bruce Springsteen is that he is many things to many people. There are people who enjoy coming to his concerts to hear the flat out rocker anthems such as Born in the USA and Born to Run and there are people who come to hear beautiful ballads like Incident on 57th Street, The River, If I Should Fall Behind, etc.
After the huge commercial success of The River, Bruce followed up that album with a sparse and dark record entitled Nebraska. Gone were the pounding bass,drums, and electric guitars prominent in past E Street efforts. This album was bare-bones Bruce. To be sure, this was risky stuff. The Boss could have followed up with another commercial album and cemented his reputation right then and there. But he didn't. Instead, he released this jewel of an album filled with great lyrics and great story telling. This album is so powerful that it just grabs you by the throat and won't let go. Stories of desperation and despair abound. Many of the central characters in these songs have lost their way and have found themselves on the fringes of society. As one other reviewer wrote, this is not great party music and it is not intended to be. It is bleak, introspective and chilling.
There are many great songs on this record to recommend it: Nebraska, Atlantic City, Johnny 99, Highway Patrolman, and Reason to Believe (among others). Unfortunately, it is this writer's opinion that Bruce's later efforts to attempt to duplicate Nebraska such as Tom Joad, and even the newly released Devils and Dust are second rate efforts and don't come close to the power of Nebraska. Why have lesser imitations when you can have the real thing? There will be people reading this review who will be puzzled and wonder what all the fuss is about, but this album is simply a masterpiece and is arguably one of Bruce's all time best. Give it a chance. It grows on you.... |
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