Bruce Springsteen - Tunnel of Love - Classic or What?

Song writer extraordinare. I've really started to buy up his albums since last year and listened to tunnel of love, and then, the one side, kept it on and listened ot it through the night.

It's fantastic.

As the evening sky turned to black....

What a great lyric.

In a self defeating apathetic indie world we need bruce. And yes, it was badly drawn boy and alan mcgee to first get me into bruce.

He is the BOSS!

Tunnel of Love and E-Street Shuffle are the only 2 Springsteen albums I can listen to all the way through.

Born in the USA, Born to Run, Greetings..., god, so many, Nebraska, I can listen to Bruce all day long...

The rest of the album isn't quite as eventful to me as many of Springsteen's other records are - "Tougher Than The Rest" (which I recommend to guys putting together a mix tape for their sweeties), "Brilliant Disguise" and "One Step Up" are all top-notch, and touching, but some of the more low-key songs are just sort of there, pleasant and honest, but that's it.

BTW, I'm a bit baffled by the assertion that Tunnel Of Love is a better album because it's more pop. To me, Born In The USA has always felt more like the every-song-a-radio-smash album, and most of Tunnel Of Love is more in the introspective-singer-songwriter ballpark compared to his previous records.

In fact that's true of the LP as a whole. It always amazes me how good it is. Come to think of it, it probably has to be my favourite Boss LP of all, Nebraska or no Nebraska. On ToL the Boss manages to be so utterly Boss-like, so much himself, and so darned endlessly entertaining with it.

still somehow, he makes me feel like he really is working class fellow.

I really love that album.

From "Tunnel Of Love" onwards, he has sounded a bit old and tired, seemingly not any more willing to rock like he did on "Born In The USA".

roffles

It's hard for me to imagine a best Bruce album that doesn't include the line "well they blew up the chicken man in philly last night, and they blew up his house too," but this is the one I return to most consistently.

Ty is correct - one side is definitely better than the other, and it ain't Side One, though "Tougher Than The Rest" is all-time.

But my favorite is still Born In The USA. The songs on that album have spent way too many hours lodged in my head to pick anything else.

Bruce Springsteen, "One Step Up," C or D

Let us discuss the greatness of "Two Faces."

Whoa, I pulled this thread up to write about how the guitar solo on "Two Faces" sounds like it was lifted from a Ween song, and here I am, commanded to discuss that very song. So anyway, the solo sounds like it was lifted from a Ween song.

Side two of this record, wow.

I know people talk about the musical influence of Lou Christie on Bruce, just occured to me that Two Faces and Brilliant Disguise both feature lyrical nods to Lou.

I have actually changed my mind somewhat about this album. I still prefer Bruce Springsteen when he rocks, but at least some of the songs on this album are quite good. There are 2-3 exaggaratedly bluesy ones that I don't like at all, but tracks like "One Step Up" and "Where You're Alone" are really beautiful.

My favorite Springsteen album.

I played this album on the night before my wedding, much to the consternation of my groomsmen.

i'm with alfred.

'brilliant disguise': the best song elvis never recorded. if only.

The second side = oof.

The second side is devastatingly good, I assume you (correctly) mean. "Tougher Than The Rest" and "All That Heaven Will Allow" are incredible too (though it took me years of listening to the Mavericks' cover of the latter to come to love Bruce's version).

oof?

jesus do I really have to agree with Alfred on everything? really?

Probably my favourite Boss LP, which is saying something.

could listen to last minute of "tunnel of love" on loop forever

na na na na na na na na o-oh

"walk like a man" is so pretty

this is the best album ever to be marred by two sucky songs. i just skip those. you know which ones they are.

One's the first track, correct? At least I always start on "tougher than the rest" when I play this album. iirc, i love the other tracks, though.

could listen to last minute of "tunnel of love" on loop forever

Yeah I only count one sucky song and I don't really mind that one even.

not sure what're the sucky two: "Ain't Got You" and "Spare Parts"? The latter's awesome for the "pulled out" line, cos Bruce is rarely so frank.

In sequence "Spare Parts" is loud and squally. I would have loved hearing it on Tracks though.

It certainly doesn't "fit in".

spare parts and cautious man duh

GAH SIDE TWO

Side Two indeed.

Still his most successful (that is, not boring) "mature" work. A stark line of catalog demarcation, at the least.

This has slowly turned into my favorite of his. It's either ToL or BitUSA.

Even "Shoot Out the Lights" is subtle compared to this album's heavy themes.

I don't follow you...?

When I saw Springsteen do a solo concert in October 2005, he redeemed "When You're Alone" (def the low point of Tunnel of Love).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0Ta56aW8zI

The only song I skip are "Cautious Man" and "Spare Parts."

*songs

(Just realized I told that same story in the other ToL thread. Felt deja vu while typing it.)

xpost What I meant to say (before I was dragged away from the computer) is that "Shoot Out the Lights," despite being one of the most famous marriage-in-crisis albums, is very much of a piece of just about any other Richard Thompson album, and had he and Linda not imploded right after its making I don't think anyone would have interpreted the album as unique in Thompson's catalog. Whereas "Tunnel of Love" is rife with an emotional fear and distress unlike anything else in Springsteen's catalog. It's no shock that his marriage fell apart soon after, and also no shock that he rarely plays these songs live, despite the fact that it sold millions, had several hits, etc. It's an intensely clear, lonely snapshot of a marriage - not just a relationship, but a marriage - falling apart that was also a massive hit. Kind of ironic.

The only song I skip are "Cautious Man" and "Spare Parts."

― lumber up, limbaugh down (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, October 7, 2011 8:20 AM (10 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

*songs

― lumber up, limbaugh down (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, October 7, 2011 8:20 AM (10 hours ago) Bookmark

me too.

I always like when an artist or band follows up a blockbuster album with one that's entirely different, yet still great. This is one of those albums...

i like spare parts a lot; how good an opening line is BOBBY SAID HE'D PULL OUT / BOBBY STAYED IN

favorites here are "brilliant disguise" and "tougher than the rest" though.

The title track, after all these years, still kills me.

and "two faces" and "one step up" and

This album has some of my favorite synth parts ever.

And, on "Two Faces," a good example of a guitar that sounds like a synth. Or maybe it's a guitar and a synth doing the solo together?

"Brilliant Disguise" video is classic:

http://www.vevo.com/watch/bruce-springsteen/brilliant-disguise/USSM20100485

Yeah, it's great and so is the song. Love it so much.

I want him to come play in my kitchen. He's been busking in weird places lately so I figure I could probably make this happen.

His best album for guitar solos, if that says anything

i like spare parts a lot; how good an opening line is BOBBY SAID HE'D PULL OUT / BOBBY STAYED IN

underrated and great song on springsteen's best album.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3x5GPUTm48&feature=related

this album is great. tougher than the rest 4 all time.

It really is. Great, I mean.

some girls they want a handsome Dan
or some good-lookin’ Joe,
on their arm some girls like a sweet-talkin’ Romeo

tougher than the rest is my favorite springsteen song of all time rn

I'm such a fan of Lou Christie, I'll have to give "Tunnel of Love" another go!!

some girls they want a handsome Dan
or some good-lookin’ Joe,
on their arm some girls like a sweet-talkin’ Romeo

― horseshoe, Saturday, October 8, 2011 3:56 AM (3 hours ago) Bookmark

WELL ROUND HERE BABY
I'VE LEARNED YOU GET WHAT YOU CAN GET

i like that "round here" is a state of mind/stage of life rather than, like, a blue-collar town

or at least can be

i like that "round here" is a state of mind/stage of life rather than, like, a blue-collar town

so is "good-looking joe"

Would've been great if that was the lip-synced song in The Crying Game.

I've listened the hell outta that remix of "Tougher Than The Rest" that got posted here a few months ago.

once again, SIDE TWO

Then Play Long on Tunnel of Love, Tom Waits, Blackpool and much else: http://nobilliards.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/bruce-springsteen-tunnel-of-love.html

Very intriguing parallels to Joy Division I'd never considered.

Probably because they're way off beam.

I heard Bruce was listening to nothing but Joy Division and New Order when he recorded this. I know he covered "BLT" pretty much every night of the tour in the middle of the Roy Orbison medley.

there are at least five reasons why Brilliant Disguise is a fun karaoke selection, ranging from musical reasons at the beginning to jokey-but-still-real reasons at the end of the list:

1) narrative, vocals and lyrics driven song, few instrumental breaks
2) it's got all the classic springsteen stuff you've come to expect from the boss - it's got the edge of town, it's got a cold night, it's got betrayal, and it's got 7 different mentions of "baby"
3) the musical accompaniment, even on the Tunnel of Love recording, sounds like karaoke, so no matter what kind of machine/youtube you're using, it sounds authentically thin
4) opportunity to explore some of the turmoil of your relationships in a safe setting with supportive friends
5) you can draw something awful on your sweaty palm using a sharpie beforehand, and then reveal it during "But just don't look too close / Into the palm of my hand"

6) check out this acoustic version from 1990. i love this version, especially the different spin he puts on the melody in various parts. also love how he politely asks people in the audience to NOT clap along, haha
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qdiVSrcjm1M

also some of the best closing lines in the history of music

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