Nebreska: Bruce Springsteen's Primal Scream

To Listen to Nebraska Click HERE

1. Introduction

“Maybe you got a kid, maybe you got a pretty wife, the only thing that I’ve got, been bothering me my whole life”

‘State Trooper’

“My Daddy worked his whole life for nothing but the pain, now he stalks these empty rooms looking for something to blame.”

‘Adam Raised a Cain’

My interpretation of Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska is as his expression of depression.  Up to 1982 Springsteen’s fears, doubts and depressive traits bubbled under his typically epic romantic rock n roll.  One does not need to look no further than song such as Hungry Heart, Stolen Car, Adam Raised a Cain to see the trouble brewing underneath.  It was on Nebraska that this tension reached a boiling point.

Famously Springsteen recorded the album in isolation, on a 4 track Teac recorder in his bedroom.  The album encapsulates feelings of isolation, losing control, constant doubt, violence, drastic measures, bitterness and disappointment. 

Personally my favourite album,  on Nebreska Springsteen is emotionally invested in his characters his mental state indelibly entwined in their sordid tales.  The music on the album is uniform, folky, and strongly self-referential to the point of being incestuous. 

The time I was listening to Nebraska was a mentally draining time for me.  Halfway through a law degree and suffering from clinical depression, the album struck a raw nerve.  Throughout it’s complete 40 minutes Springsteen explores the outer depths of his personal despair, one which I could relate to.   Accordingly the lens through which I view Nebraska, today remains one of personal despair.  Nebraska also touches on other social economic themes tied closely with Reagon era economics, however it through the issue of personal despair, distress and depression which I most closely identify the album with, and with which I will examine it.  

2. Less Than Glory Days

Nebraska can be construed as the ‘punk’ Springsteen album reflecting the fact that the bleak sound, characters and lyrical themes confront both traditional rock and roll, including the earlier romantic work of Springsteen.

Despite being character driven and reflectively confrontational, Nebraska is intimately personal.  Peter Carlin’s revealing biography “Bruce” reflects that the “guy in Nebraska isn’t Charlie Starkweather (more about him later), its him.”  This statement comes from earlier biographer Dave Marsh, whose earlier extensive biography deliberately glossed over the details of Springsteen’s fragile mental state at the time.  

Since “Bruce” was released further details are known about Springsteen’s lifelong battle with depression.  It was something Brice felt “as part of his DNA” a “body cycle.”

Bruce’s father Doug was a lifelong bipolar depressive prone to rages often aimed at his son.  Springsteen would often include live monologues where he talked about his father sitting in his kitchen after work.  Doug would turn off all the lights, and ritually smoke and finish a six pack.  “Pretty soon he’d ask me what I thought I was doing with myself.  We’d end up screaming at each other.”

During 1982, Springsteen become a lone wolf “questing why all his relationships had become a series of drive-bys.”  At this time Springsteen obsessively would drive from New Jersey to California and back again.   Additionally “[f]or an unhealthy number of years, he would leave his house late at night, get in his car and drive over to his parent’s old home in Freehold, New Jersey, where he would sit outside.”

This strange obsessive behavior is apparent throughout the album, with characters often reflecting on their upbringing.  This reflection is often undertaken from the point of view of a child narrator.  Taken as a whole the album has an outlet through which Springsteen expresses his own dispair. 

3.  The Songs

Nebraska

With a simmering harmonic Springsteen opens the album with a sick twist on his usual guy riding with a girl line. 

“…me and her went for a ride sir, and ten innocent people died.”

Nebraska explores the infamous murders committed by  Carl Starkweather whom Springsteen learnt about through watching the film Badlands.   

The self titled song is factually detailed as a result of Springsteen’s conversation with a then news reporter.   However, Springsteen delves beyond the facts in the psyche of Starkweather, and his sick romantic vision of having his “little baby” sitting on his lap, while he his on the electric chair.  The characters finally concludes by  justifying his violence:

“They want to know why I did what I did? Sir I guess there’s just a meanness in this world.”

The final line of the first track sets up the rest of the album.  It signifies the lack of control, isolation and anger each character feels for the circumstances they are in. The line is inspired by  from Flannar O'Connors "A Goodman Is Hard to Find" where murderer 'The Misfit' ignores a victims plea for him to pray to God for forgiveness, angrily replying "There's no pleasure but meanness." It operates within a harshly pragmatic, spiritless moral view where the only pleasure is eruptions of violet emotion to fight back against such meaness. 

This meaness is vague concept.  It could refer to one's economic or social standing, their luck or even their mental genetics.  Whatever it is, as Anthony Curtis puts it, throughout Nebreska this “meanness finds itself in you, then explodes.”

Atlantic City

Atlantic City is my favourite song.  Urgent and overstated it tells the tale of a doomed down and outer looking for escape.  His only idea is to gamble or to do a “little favour” for his mafia friends.

Chaotically it opens up with mafia drama, each line almost overlapping as the nervous narrator spouts them out.  It continues to a snappy chorus:

“Well know, everything dies baby that’s a fact, maybe everything that dies someday comes back, put your makeup on, put your hair up pretty and meet me tonight in Atlantic City.”

Before explaining the deeds the narrator intends, he gives another gravely pragmatic justification for his action “that everything dies.”  Rather than contemplate the future or the odds, he begs for his baby to look pretty and accompany him. 

The narrator outlines the lack of employment opportunities (off having “debts no honest man can pay”) leading to this crisis before explaining “down here it’s just winners and losers, and don’t come out on the wrong side of that line, well I’m tired of coming out on the losing end, so last night I met a guy and I’m going to  do a little favour for him.”

In contrast to Springsteen's earlier mob songs (e.g. 'Meeting Across The River') the narrator offers no glory in the opportunity, only a desperate need to escape.  Atlantic City's lyrical punch is immense.  Again it draws on the state of mind of being unable to control your circumstances, having debts no honest man can pay, of reacting to this situation by denial and drastic irrational measures.  The melodic couplet chorus becomes a melodic , the promise mantra which Springsteen repeats to end.

David Burke is his extensive “Heart’s of Darkness” critically examines Atlantic City inch perfect structure.  The frantic initial verses set up the victims, violence and gang backdrop to “conjure up a nightmarish tableau- the New Jersey shore as the abyss.”  Burke views the chorus as a desperate offer of reincarnation, the promise of the Atlantic City casino.  But following this, it becomes clear that this promise is broke.  The narrator tries to reassure her that everything will work out, but soon realises that things aren’t won't work out, and he will need to do a dirty favour in order to survive. 

“He’s the guy with a film of sweat where a moustache should be, jelly legs walking the plank, clutching his wife’s arm for support, their life savings in the handbag slung form her exposed bony shoulder.  And then you hear him, in the bridge of the song, trying to assure her, trying to assure himself; things may be bad now, but things will get better.  But suddenly we’re plunged into the resignation of the final verse….You get the feeling that even the money he drew from the Central Trust, his gambling loot, has been gambled away.  The promise of Atlantic City, like the promise of American, is a broken one.  There is nothing down for him if he plays it straight, so he’s not going to play it straight any more.”

Melodically poppy and lyrically sparse Atlantic City standsup and one of Nebraska's strongest songs, equally suited to a sparse acoustic arrangement (as per the album) or frantic rock n roll (see the Hold Steady's excellent cover). 

Mansion on the Hill

At it’s heart Mansion on the Hill deals with materialist envy, a voyeustic tale of the have not’s looking up at something they will never have.  Written from the perspective of a child, critically it is the narrator's father who instigates the family trip to admire the mansions of the rich.

The childish narrator observe this out of reach material with glumness.  The family do not reject this material possessions for physical or family affection but rather feel embarrassed and isolated because of their circumstances.   

Johnny 99

A howl opens Johnny 99 which again features a comically tragic criminal.  Here Johnny is a down and outer who shoots a store clerk after “mixing Tanqueray and wine.”  This random act of violence is linked to the character's economic circumstances and dwindling self esteem - “More than this, that put that gun in my hand,  "I had debts no honest man can pay, the bank was closing my mortgage they were going to take my house away.”

After the Judge “Mean John Brown” puts him away for “an even Johnny 99” years, Springsteen enters the mind of Johnny who only wishes for deliverance – “If you can take a man’s life for the thought’s that are in his head, won’t you sit back in that chair just one more time, let them shave off my hair and put me on that killing line.”

Johnny doesn’t seek pity or redemption, but darkly accepts defeat, asking to be killed.  From a psychological point of view the sickly dark depressive humour and defiance is prevalent. 

Highway Patrolman 

The highpoint of Nebraska’s storytelling Highway Patrolmen is an detailed account of a Joe Roberts, a patrolmen and his brother Frankie “who just ain’t no good.”  Reflecting upon their relationship, we soon learn that Frankie has down something bad, and is being chased by Joe.

Once Frankie reaches the border, Joe lets him go.  Again Joe’s uses a weak justification that a man who “turn’s his back on his family, well he just ain’t no good.”  Typical for the characters in the album, this justification is extensively (from a mind in despair) pragmatic and does not answer to any higher common goods, such as justice.  Rather these isolated characters feel outed, and have lost any feeling of communal responsibility even a patrolmen.  

Joe, feel’s that just like Frankie had no choice in “being no good,” he has no choice but to let him go, as without any community connection the only thing he can relate to is him family ties.  The choice is a classic doing bad for the purpose of good.  But rather than looking semenitmenal this family bond feels like another excuse of a desperate man in denial.

State Trooper

I can still remember being memorised by State Trooper the first time I listened to Nebraska, lying on the floor with a beer in the dark memorised by the spooky nature of the song.  Twin minor chords quietly thump in the background and Springsteen’s whispers out the lyrics.

The first verse sets up the scene of a dangerous man driving down the New Jersey turnpike.  Critically the details of what he has down is left open, but we know that “licence and registration I ain’t got none, but I got a clear conscience bout the things that I’ve done.”

A simple yet effective chorus permits the narrator to beg “Mr State Trooper please don’t stop me, please don’t stop me, please don’t stop me.”  It is unclear whether this is a plea for the narrator to not have to deal out more violence or as David Burke suggests a literal “cry for help.”

An obvious influence to State Trooper is punk duo Suicide's Frankie Teardrop.  Frankie Teardrop, is Suicide's most haunting work, a relentless 10 minute eerie synth story about a Vietnam veteran coming back and struggling - and then shooting his wife, daughter and finally himself.  Each death is marked with a terrifying scream (more softley imitated by Springsteen on State Trooper).  Several stylistic characteristic of 'Frankie Teardrop;' a minimal eerie backdrop, the urgent delivery and the blood curling howls are reused by Springsteen throughout State Trooper.

The urgency increases in the second verse with the immortal line  “maybe you got a kid, maybe you got a pretty wife, the only thing that I’ve got, been bothering me my whole life.”  The narrator becomes more random ranting about “talk show stations” and “losing his patience” before repeating the plea, and letting out a blood curling Alan Vega like scream and demanding.

State Trooper is explicit sign of Springsteen’s personal distress, David Burke considering it to be “the sound of suicide” and “unbearably desolate.”  In contrast to the earlier characters the thing bothering the character isn’t obvious:

“This could be anything, but it’s not anything good.  Charles Bukowski wrote a poem about the hole in the heart that would never be filled, a certain lack of something, an emotional deficiency that meant true bliss would always be denied to him.”  

New York Professor of Law Samuel J Levine, who examines Nebraska from a criminality point of view considers that “The driver’s lonely desperation stems neither from external pressures nor from financial hardship, but instead from a deeper existential angst borne out of a lifetime of suffering, apparently beyond remedy or repair.”

This reading of State Trooper is also consistent with it’s apt inclusion as the final song of the final episode of the Soprano’s in Season1. Played over the climatic family dinner where Tony tells him family to “remember the good times” (dialogue retold by his son AJ in the show’s final episode), State Trooper starts up undermining such optimistic sentiment, quietly anticipating future bleakness in the series. 

 Fundamentally State Troopers the character in State Trooper is connecting to the character of Tony, who is often windsweft by volatile violent rages, gluts of happiness and depressive extremes.  Furthermore, Tony’s character also has a parall with Springsteen’s depressive father.  In a later episode Tony speaks with his therapist about his son AJ, who has just attempted sucide.  Just like the character in State Trooper, Tony complains about his inherent depressive DNA, a flaw that will bother not only him, but his son, for the duration of their lifes:

Tony Soprano: It's in his blood, this miserable fuckin' existence. My rotten, fuckin' putrid genes have infected my kid's soul. That's my gift to my son.

Used Car

The next two songs provide respite.  Despite it's cyncial child narrator, Springsteen's delicate vocals and subtle glockenspiels make 'Used Car' refreshingly gorgeous. 

Used Car is essentially a warped homework tale of a 6 year old child going out with his family to buy a "new used car."  In the past Springsteen's character usually found a simple beatuey or pureness in their working class struggle, however in Used Car's the child feels embarrassed.

The narrator notes the salesman looking at his father's hands, which give away the family's class status.  This frustration becomes apparent later "My Dad he sweats the same job, mornin to morn, Me, I walk home on the same dirty streets where I was born."

Driving home with his family, the narrator wishes for an escape "Now, mister the day the lottery I win, I ain't ever gonna ride in no used car again."  Again, the prevailing sense of revolt and desperateness is apparent (e.g. the only way out is luck - winning the lottery).  Finally our innocent narrator muses, that when this happens he'll tell his neighbours to "kiss our asses goodbye."

  

Open All Night

Open All Night is another despite from the bleakness, a Chuck Berry rocker which provides the sole rock n roll reversion.  Open All Night shares several lines with State Trooper;

 “Your eyes get itchy in the wee wee hours sun's just a red ball risin' over them refinery towers Radio's jammed up with gospel stations lost souls callin' long distance salvation”

It could even be playing on that character’s radio.  Yet Open All Night concerns “mischief instead of misery.”  Lyrically it’s the most optimistic, a simple tale of speeding through the night to see your girlfriend (in a live intro Springsteen explains through a story that ‘Open All Night’ comes from a the state trooper who catches him speeding).   

‘Open All Night’ is welcome relief while maintaining its fit with the rest of the album through it’s frantic delivery and shared language.   

My Father's House

My Father’s House is the most autobiographical story.  It reflects Springsteen’s obsessive habit of visiting his old family home, a “beacon that call’s him in the night.”

After dreaming of visiting the house, Springsteen awakes “imagined the hard things that pulled us apart.”  The narrator then visits the actual house, to be told that new owner “that no-one lives here anymore.”  Springsteen’s recent insight seem to suggest that visiting the new owner (Springsteen obviously knew his father no longer lived there) is an invitation to let go of the grief connected with his father-son relationship.

In the New York times Springsteen recalls his therapist interpreting these visits:

“What you’re doing is that something bad happened, and you’re going back, thinking that you can make it right again.  Something went wrong, and you keep going back to see if you can fix it or somehow make it right.”

In Heart’s of Darkness David Burke reflects this songs as Springsteen overcoming or growing out of his the fears of his childhood “as children we are systematically indoctrinated into a certain belief ..and consequently accept it unconditionally.” As an adult you start challenging these beliefs, but there foundations and parental influences are often difficult burdens to release.

 

Reasons to Believe 

Reason to Believe observes desperate people in dire, embarrassing situations; an old man trying to revive his dead dog by poking it with a stick, a lover abandoned by her boyfriend, and finally a groom left waiting on his Wedding Day.

David Burke considers that the final image is “possibly the overriding image on Nebraska.  It compresses the album’s many themes into a single dominant theme: namely, that faith, like suffering, is a solitary thing.” 

In each circumstances each is looking for a reason to carry on.  They don’t find no miracle only pragmatic realisation.  But Springsteen observes that they must believe in something personally, or at least have a tiny hint of “hope” that things will get better.  No promises are made, only a realisation that one needs this spirit hope to continue  (whether it exists/only a delusion is beside the point).  Springsteen observes almost comically, black comedy at how people can continue/potential infallible (e.g. the old man who thinks "the dog will get up and run") but it’s still keeps them going, for better or worse they have some “Reasons to Believe.” 

  

 4.  Nebraksa As Complete Document 

As Robert Chrisgau observes Nebraska does not provide any hero’s “no in defeat you achieved transcendence” rather it’s “your defeated and that sucks, what are you going to do about it?”

In the same critical review (see bibliography) Larry David Smith builds upon this, by presenting his theory of the order of presentation of Nebraska.  As a linear tale, Smith argues that the album’s true opener is ‘Open All Night’ which directly connect to Springsteen’s previous works, another song ‘about racing in your car to see your baby.’ 

Smith then breaks the next division into the songs of materialism.  Songs, where the narrator is obsessed with the fantasy of material possessions, and a bitterness of not having such possession.  Rather than working hard, these characters feel isolated and run down and consider that ‘favours’ of violence or chance and their only way to these means.

Finally, Smith construes the rest of the songs are eruptions either by denial or murder and mayhem “they just lose it.”  Although this theory takes a few liberties (what about the final two tracks?). Smith’s theory is useful for the purpose of my analysis.

  

Supporting my focus of Nebraska as Springsteen’s outlet of personal torment, Anthony DeCurtis views each character as Springsteen’s “search of self.”  The definite parallels to Springsteen’s family struggles, as well as the album’s obsessive lyrically self-referential nature also supports this common theme. 

As Springsteen says himself during an MTV set you must “find out what you have in common with the character.”  At that time Springsteen, apparently was in a clinically depressed state.  Although there might not be an great unsolved Springsteen murders, such a mind state can make you feel like on.  These are the source of the ‘eruptions’ on Nebraska. 

A depressed mind-set is often severely irrational, a mindset of distorted thinking.  Former All Black Sir John Kirwan in his brave, honest and simply written ‘All Blacks Don’t Cry’ described his experience as “like having a mirror clamped in front of your face, so that wherever you are, whatever situation you’re in, all you can see if yourself.” 

He also experienced exaggerated and  “terrible fears of violence and insanity that flooded my mind when I was in the grip of anxiety attacks…My biggest fear was that I was going to murder someone.  I think it was just what I perceived as the worst possible thing a human being could do. …It was so bizarre and yet so real that there was absolutely no way, when I was unwell, that I would have been able to say to anyone, ‘This is what I’m thinking.’  No one would have taken it seriously.

This is a convenient personal link to Springsteen’s Nebraska and his expression of this mind-set throughout each character.  He might not personally know what it’s like to murder someone but perception is a powerful tool.  He too understands that sometimes “there’s just a meaness in this world.”

 

5. Biblography

Dave Marsh - Glory Days

Irish Times - Fear and Loathing and Bruce Springsteen 

New York Times - We Are Alive: Bruce Springsteen At 62 

Bruce Springsteen - Under Review 1978-1982 Tales of A Working Man (interviews include Larry David Smith, Anthony DeCurtis and Robert Christgau).

David Burke - Hearts of Darkness: Bruce Springteen's Nebraska