There are two Bruce Springsteens. There’s the happy go lucky fellow, goofing around on stage with his best mates from the E Street band, playing a four hour show to a packed stadium. Then there’s the other one, alone with his guitar and a four track recorder, wracked with self doubt and trying to write songs of pain and darkness from the heart.
The original plan was to record these songs with the band, but for various reasons they never quite came together so in the end he released the original demos more or less as is. The result is haunting and deeply personal.
The title track is a proper murder ballad, telling a true story of a spree killer on the run with his girlfriend, coming to a gruesome end in the electric chair. Other songs cover familiar ground of poverty, brushes with the law (from both sides) and used cars, telling authentic stories, accompanied with just an acoustic guitar and occasional harmonica. The one song that stuck with me was Highway Patrolman, with a story about a policeman and his brother Franky who ‘just ain’t no good’. Is blood thicker than water? This song might have the answer.
https://album.link/gb/i/185798980
No comments:
Post a Comment