Bruce Springsteen hadn’t really dug too deep into the love-song well in the first 15 years or so of his recording career. Once he did address the topic, he went all-in on the good and bad (mostly bad, as it turns out) of romance on his 1987 album Tunnel of Love.
When you consider some of the dark takes on the subject that adorn the record, perhaps it’s no surprise that Springsteen’s first marriage to actress Julianne Phillips would collapse not all that long after the album’s release. Here are our choices for the five finest songs on Tunnel of Love.
Springsteen has always shown a nice touch for knowing just what the right closer for his more thematic albums should be. At first listen, “Valentine’s Day” might seem an odd choice as it doesn’t really demand your attention, instead kind of ambling about in the same chord pattern for much of the song. But it ends up casting a dreamy spell. That’s apropos, since the narrator seems to be lost in a bit of a reverie himself as he tries to make sense of what it means to be committed to someone for the rest of his life.
In recent years, the connection between Springsteen and country music has become clearer, but that wasn’t always the case. “One Step Up” was one of the first songs of Bruce’s to receive wide exposure that fit into that genre. In fact, it starts out as almost a cliched country song, what with the furnace and the Ford both giving him trouble. But it evolves from there into a deep treatise on how a relationship can deteriorate before your eyes. By the end of the song, the narrator is looking across the bar at potential adultery, summing up his marital status with the following: And me well honey I’m pretending.
Be the first to comment