Another one that is special to me that I don’t listen to that often. I still clearly remember listening to this in the hospital the morning after my wife was induced so our first son could be born. We were already so tired and went out and looked at the sunrise and had weak hospital coffee in the room while we waited for the next stage.
I love how stark and simple this album is. Feels very Dylanesque with the harmonicas wailing on each track but Bruce’s singing and acoustic are so much warmer than most Dylan tracks. The title track is so so bleak, I never really listened into it that much but it’s about a Natural Born Killers spree killer type couple. Absolutely love this:
They declared me unfit to live, said into that great void my soul’d be hurled
They wanted to know why I did what I did
Well, sir, I guess there’s just a meanness in this world
I really like Atlantic City as well with the echoey backing vocals, and especially this line:
Everything dies baby that’s a fact
And maybe everything that dies some day comes back
Johnny 99, from reading the lyrics, could be a Johnny Cash tune for sure. It’s an outlaw country song at its core, and I could imagine it being on the At Folsom Prison album with the inmates cheering for Johnny and booing at Mean John Brown. Again super simple and sparse instruments, love it.
Well your honor I do believe I’d be better off dead
So if you can take a man’s life for the thoughts that’s in his head
Then won’t you sit back in that chair and think it over judge one more time
And let 'em shave off my hair and put me on that execution line
Highway Patrolman tells the other side of the story, from the patrolman who has a brother that ain’t no good. Super simple with just a glint of hope that Frankie will no longer be the patrolman’s problem after escaping to Canada, but still super sad that he has lost his brother who he loves for all his faults. This one sounded so much like a Cash song too then I found that Cash released this album with a cover of this song and Johnny 99! Going to listen to that next Johnny 99 - Wikipedia.
State Trooper sounds menacing as hell from the get go. Reminds me a bit of Fargo season 1, Billy Bob’s character and his encounter with Colin Hanks’ character. Have to echo what @woweezowee says above, Bruce sounds like a werewolf baying at the moon in this one:
And again with Open All Night, sounds like an Elvis Costello song to me as well. Definitely feels like the most “upbeat” song on the album. My Father’s House is beautiful, sounds like a folk song, with a pretty crushing theme of a son trying to reunite with his father only to find it’s too late. Some things you just can’t fix, and the time to try was many years past.
I walked up the steps and stood on the porch
A woman I didn’t recognize came and spoke to me through a chained door
I told her my story and who I’d come for
She said “I’m sorry son but no one by that name lives here anymore”
Overall this is more of a pure “Springsteen” album, there’s no sign of the E-Street band, it’s really odd to have a record without the big man’s sax. Seems a lot more down in the dumps Bruce on this album, there’s no happiness or hope here. It’s a wish for a better life that’ll never be fulfilled.
Probably a 9 on this one for me. Perfect length and great storytelling though I do miss the band.
