The Long Whistle: A Journey Through the Bruce Springsteen Discography, Vol. 4
Don't judge a book by it's cover...
Here’s to Our Destruction: Human Touch (1992)
Produced by Bruce Springsteen, Jon Landau, Chuck Plotkin and Roy Bittan
Standout Track: ‘Gloria’s Eyes’
At the height of his career, the Boss stepped feetfirst into the wasteland. The E-Street Band was disassembled, and it would be nearly twenty years until their reunion. Particularly, Bruce’s relationship with longtime collaborator and guitarist Steven Van Zandt was fractured to the point where they parted ways. He was divorced from his first wife, and, by the time of Human Touch, both popular music and rock and roll had moved far past him. The heartland rock of Born in the U.S.A might as well have been the rattling of dinosaur bones to the kids: it had given way to the flashy hair metal of the mid to late 80s, which had subsequently given way to the grunge movement of the early 90s. In the eyes of a new generation of listeners, Bruce was the opposite of cool—a muscle-bound, bandana wearing buffoon from a bygone era that all their dad’s liked, whose seemingly dumb, cheesy song was publicly endorsed by Ronald Reagan. Human Touch did nothing to push back against these claims, recorded with a group of studio musicians in LA where it sat in the oven for years and years. To release an album that sounded like Bon Jovi in a world that sounded like Nirvana was not received well to say the least, and while there isn’t much about Human Touch I will defend, the gall to do that is almost commendable. Widely considered to be his worst record (a claim I will dispute), Human Touch is a nonetheless fascinating relic in the Springsteen discography: a painfully long, overcooked, delightful abomination of 80s rock tropes containing some of his most uninspired and corny writing. (‘Loving you is a man’s job’ holds up as one of his more cringeworthy poetic musings). The Bruce of his heyday succeeded in embodying and externalizing the American conscience in the form of song, but the Bruce of Human Touch seemed more concerned with fantasizing about gambling, ‘feeling like a real man,’ and the passive trials of fishing and flipping through an endless barrage of TV channels. From a safe 21st century, Gen-Z distance, I kind of love it for that.
Tracklist:
1. Human Touch *
2. Soul Driver *
3. 57 Channels (And Nothin’ On)
4. Cross My Heart
5. Gloria’s Eyes
6. With Every Wish
7. Roll of the Dice
8. Real World
9. All Or Nothin’ At All
10. Man’s Job
11. I Wish I Were Blind *
12. The Long Goodbye
13. Real Man
14. Pony Boy
Rich Man in a Poor Man’s Shirt: Lucky Town (1992)
Produced by Bruce Springsteen, Jon Landau, Chuck Plotkin and Roy Bittan
Standout Track: ‘If I Should Fall Behind’
Burnt out during the lengthy sessions for Human Touch, Bruce went on an extended hiatus in the summer of 1991. During this time, the songs of the oft overlooked Lucky Town were written, and he found himself with a completely different album on his hands. While it doesn’t live up to the impossible standard of his impressive initial run, Lucky Town stands as the definitive musical representation of Bruce Springsteen the middle-aged man, dealing with the aftermath of his divorce and his second marriage to Patti Scialfa, as well as the birth of their first son. Despite their joint release and crew (and the hideously similar album covers which imply some sort of cohesion between the two) Human Touch and Lucky Town could not be more different. Lucky Town sidesteps the discount Bon Jovi sound that Human Touch was going for in favor of a rougher edge to the production, as well as far superior writing. Bruce pokes fun at himself on the ironic ‘Local Hero,’ looks to build himself a brighter future on ‘Better Days,’ and provides that biting social commentary and rich storytelling that Human Touch sorely lacked with ‘Souls of the Departed’ and the delta blues ambience of ‘The Big Muddy.’ Lucky Town also contains one of Springsteen’s all time best love ballads, with the beautiful ‘If I Should Fall Behind,’ the duet of which with Scialfa has remained a staple of his live shows. Lucky Town is the ultimate dad-rock album, made by a man who no longer cares what’s cool or where it’s at. Instead of attempting to hide from who he is or the false criticisms many had of him at this time, he boldly embodied those things, and when the lull of an artist’s career is defined by that, it’s a mark of fearlessness and true authenticity.
Tracklist:
1. Better Days *
2. Lucky Town *
3. Local Hero
4. If I Should Fall Behind *
5. Leap of Faith
6. The Big Muddy
7. Living Proof
8. Book of Dreams
9. Souls of the Departed *
10. My Beautiful Reward *
Drifting Off Into Foreign Lands: The Ghost of Tom Joad (1995)
Produced by Bruce Springsteen and Chuck Plotkin
Standout Track: ‘Across the Border’
After the disastrously tone-deaf release of Human Touch and Lucky Town, Bruce Springsteen returned to the very roots of modern songwriting, similar to how he did with Nebraska, but this time with far more intention. The Ghost of Tom Joad stands as perhaps Springsteen’s single most challenging album: the lyrics are dense, to the point where he often sacrifices meter. The sparse melodies of these songs, accompanied solely by droning synth, rustic fiddle and subtle pedal-steel, make Nebraska look like Born to Run in comparison. But, that’s the point. The Ghost of Tom Joad exists in the underbelly of America where nobody cares about your existence, where young lovers turn into running guns and ex criminals have no choice but to slide back into their old ways; where homelessness is a tragedy for which even the most compassionate have little regard and post-racial is an oxymoron only used literally by those gazing down on the rabble from ivory towers. Death lurks around every corner, each turn filled with piles of dirty needles and broken dreams. If you care to pay attention and exist in these songs alongside Bruce, you will happily discover some of his absolute best writing and storytelling: from the tragedy of two brothers wrapped up in the Cartel on ‘Sinaloa Cowboys’ to the post-Vietnam race violence on ‘Galveston Bay,’ among a barrage of others. The title track stands as perhaps his absolute best ‘political’ song; a hushed, folksy dirge about the ever-increasing quantity of the poor in America, all ‘sitting out there in the campfire light, searching for the ghost of Tom Joad.’ It’s dark, despairing, and wholly unfun to listen to, and that’s why it’s one of his absolute best and most important albums to date.
Tracklist:
1. The Ghost of Tom Joad *
2. Straight Time *
3. Highway 29 *
4. Youngstown *
5. Sinaloa Cowboys
6. The Line
7. Balboa Park
8. Dry Lightning *
9. The New Timer
10. Across the Border *
11. Galveston Bay
12. My Best Was Never Good Enough