Tuesday 3 April 2012

Bruce Springsteen [Tunnel Of Love]

Brucie's best album, his solo efforts are better than his Band efforts, there's an intimacy and privacy that Springsteen allows to come to the fore, he sings of lost love and regret, and he's one of these lyricists that notice the little yet significant things in life, a certain observation can conjure up a whole mood in his songs, i find the more commercially driven Band songs have you foot stomping, your body gets into the dance of Springsteen, his more personal albums like here, let you into his heart, and what a lovely adventure it is, and it's another long treasured disc that makes its debut in my Blog.

Bruce Springsteen is of course American, almost epitomises the American life, he's now 62 years old, wow! where did the boy go?, he recorded this album in 1987, and it voiced some of his feelings about his marriage to Julianne Phillips, which was coming to an end, and in a way it's his 'break-up' album i guess, the front booklet [and the back of the booklet] shows Springsteen by an open top sports car [photography by Annie Leibovitz], again there's a certain intimacy there.

Well there's 12 songs on the album, and it's almost about 'a year in the life' type of musical journalism, a concept album maybe?, each song represents a month?, i can't exactly work it out if this is what Springsteen had in mind, but there's certainly a sense of an intimate diary going on, the tracks i liked best were 3 & 9, his two musically more sunny songs, and here's a synopsis of each,
3 All That Heaven Will Allow - featuring twangy / strumming acoustic guitar, it's a sunny song 'there ain't a cloud up above', i like the way he talks to the bouncer 'c'mon Slim slip me in man', it's short at under 3 minutes, but a nice musical vignette.
9 Brilliant Disguise - a great little beat made better by the subtle use of the wood blocks, lots of great lyrics throughout the whole song, maybe the ending half verse is the best,

Tonight our bed is cold
I'm lost in the darkness of our love
God have mercy on the man
Who doubts what he's sure of

nice and vague i guess, and the lyrics add another dimension to the music, it's a nice exercise to work it all out and maybe put it into your life.