Bruce Springsteen | NebraskaEmpty Bottle Evenings

Mar142015March 14, 2015March 14, 20151 Commentby Bake

Bruce Springsteen | Nebraska

Posted in Music

Anyone who knows anything about music admits that whether they like Springsteen or not, they love his 6th album Nebraska. Released in 1982, critics still talk about this album as one of the greatest of all time. Other artists rave about how this album influenced them to be better songwriters. Casual music listeners talk about how this album changed their opinions entirely of The Boss due to its primarily dark lyrics and its simplistic structure of mainly Springsteen’s voice, his harmonica, and his acoustic guitar. Trust these people, if there is one thing to listen to before you die, it should be Nebraska. If only they weren’t all full of crap.

Now before you start throwing tomatoes or feces or what have you I don’t actually hate Nebraska. The album. The state can go fuck itself. I agree that there are some great songs that came from this album. Hell, “Atlantic City” is arguably my favorite song from the man. But…these aren’t really songs. They are just fucking demos. This isn’t a secret; as the story goes he recorded the demos then when he recorded the real album with the E Street Band they decided the songs worked better as the unfinished versions. So while everyone hears this haunting minimalistic masterpiece, I’m still hearing a work in progress. Does anyone really prefer demos? Most of the time they are found on box-sets, b-side compilations, or more commonly now, leaked online, and I’m pretty sure everyone does the same thing: We listen once, note how the song used to be constructed differently and then never listen to them again. But not Nebraska, to be part of the music lovers club you need to celebrate these tracks. Goddamn demos.

How does this not bother anyone else? “State Trooper” has a great howling section, nearly to the point of being comical, but the song fades out anti-climatically mid howl. “Johnny 99” seems like it would be a great song, even Johnny Cash thought so but I can’t help feel that it would be better not sounding like it was recorded in my basement. And my basement is a creepy place. You thought Home Alone was bad? I think several Kevin McCallister’s were actually brutally murdered in my basement. I don’t want to listen to an album recorded there. You shouldn’t either.

Sure, some of the songs like “Highway Patrolman” or “Nebraska” wouldn’t be too much different with a full band and studio production other than sounding a little smoother. But a rock song like “Open All Night” deserves better. So does Nebraska’s closer “Reason to Believe”; I can imagine it with just a more little production and it being pretty damn powerful. But I’m alone on this. I don’t have any music critic cred. I understand the rules. But fuck it. This album doesn’t make me weep. It doesn’t inspire me. I just want to hear these songs fleshed-out. Or at least completed. Good thing Springsteen can’t just fade out live.