150. Bruce Springsteen, "Nebraska"

 

"Stark" doesn't begin to describe this bleak and beautiful album, which starts off with a song about Charles Starkweather and Caril Ann Fugate, who killed 11 people over an eight-day spree in Nebraska and Wyoming in late 1957 and early 1958.  The song, told from Starkweather's perspective, ends with him strapped into the electric chair, wishing Fugate could be with him as he died.  (Starkweather was, as the song relates, executed in 1959; Fugate, who was 14 years old at the time of the crimes, was later paroled and is still alive.)  And it pretty much goes downhill from there.

Springsteen recorded this as demos, using a four-track, in his house, mostly in one day in 1982.  And it sounds like it; most of the songs feature nothing more than guitar, some harmonica, and Springsteen's voice.  It's as simple and unforgiving as the cover image, suited to the subject matter, mostly about lowlifes and people in trouble and facing a crossroads.  In "Johnny 99," track four, a guy loses his job at the auto plant in Mahwah and holds up a store and kills the clerk.  This is followed by "Highway Patrolman," in which the title character lets his no-good brother escape to Canada:

Well, I chased him through them county roads
Till a sign said "Canadian border, five miles from here"
I pulled over on the side of the highway
And watched his taillights disappear

Me and Frankie laughing and drinking
Nothing feels better than blood on blood
Taking turns dancing with Maria
As the band played "Night of the Johnstown Flood"
I catch him when he's straying
Like any brother would
A man turns his back on his family
Well, he just ain't no good

The sound of the album is perfect for the themes; the simple reverb calls back to the sound of the 50's, when a lot of the stories could take place, Sun Studios meets Flannery O'Connor (whose short stories, which I urge you to read if you haven't, Springsteen cited as an influence).  

The only single from the album was "Atlantic City," which starts with the enigmatic lines "Well, they blew up the chicken man in Philly last night/And they blew up his house, too," which I had wondered about for years and years and years until I finally found out from my pal the Internet that it refers to a real person, a gangster named Philip Testa who was called the Chicken Man because of scars from chicken pox and who was killed by a bomb under his front porch, likely by a rival crime family.  In the song, a couple moves to Atlantic City where the narrator intends to get a job in the - you're not going to believe this - crime field.  It's a great song, with a nice singalong chorus, despite its grim and foreboding theme:

Now I been looking for a job, but it's hard to find
Down here, it's just winners and losers and "Don't get caught on the wrong side of that line"
Well, I'm tired of coming out on the losing end
So, honey, last night, I met this guy, and I'm gonna do a little favor for him

Well, now, everything dies, baby, that's a fact
But maybe everything that dies someday comes back
Put your makeup on, fix your hair up pretty
And meet me tonight in Atlantic City

Among all this distress, there is one bright spot, "Open All Night": set to Bruce's signature Telecaster instead of the acoustic guitar that makes the rest of the album sound so somber, it's about a guy on his way home to his girl, reminiscing about the good times they've had.  You think it's about to go wrong when he mentions a trooper but thank GOD no one gets killed and our man presumably makes it home alive.  Thanks for tossing us a crumb, Bruce.

Does this album deserve to be in the Top 500? I would lose my middle-aged man card if I didn't say yes, but I'd say yes anyway.  What a great album.