Me, A Year Ago: You’re not serious dude. You’re calling a Bruce Springsteen album a classic? What have you become? He’s such a knobhead, with his soul patch, singlets and predilection for denim. And he writes huge, bombastic songs like Born In The USA, with patently awful production. He claims to represent the working-class whilst raking in the cash from an army of misled but unfortunately loyal fans. What are you doing?! Me, Now: Dude, seriously, wait until you hear Nebraska. If you’re me a year ago, then I suppose you’ll hear it soon enough. You’ll hear Atlantic City played in a pub, and it’s chorus – ‘everything dies baby that’s a fact / maybe everything that dies some day comes back’ – will haunt you for hours. No, days. Weeks.
Me, A Year Ago: That’s actually not going to happen. I will never willingly listen to a Bruce Springsteen song, because he’s a total knobhead. I’m not sure of that many things in life – fuck, I’m tossing up between journalism, politics and astronomy – but I’m sure of The Boss being a toss.
Me, Now: Firstly, you never wanted to get into astronomy, like, ever. Remember that I am you, just one year in the future. So I know that you’re not interested in astrononomy. And secondly, you will hear Atlantic City and it’ll make you want to openly weep into your beer. And a few days after hearing it in that inner-city pub, you’ll buy Nebraska. You’ll see it in a shop and be instantly desperate to be it, your interested piqued by the enigmatic black, white and red cover showing a desolate landscape in the American Midwest.
Me, A Year Ago: No, it’s not true. I’ll be happy listening to Chris Isaak, Rage Against The Machine and Portishead. And no Bruce Springsteen.
Me, Now: Don’t worry. You still like those bands. Especially Chris Isaak – he really is great isn’t he? But you just need to accept that you will very soon adore Nebraska like you should. Like everyone should. You’ll be amazed that it’s a passionate, intense record with all the hallmarks of a lo-fi emo record before lo-fi emo records existed. It’s like a Bright Eyes record without the affectations and self-consciousness. It’s just Bruce Springsteen, his slightly-mistuned acoustic guitar, a harmonica, and a four-track. It’s Bruce singing about death and destruction and love and family and everything that means something.
Me, A Year Ago: Seriously?
Me, Now: Completely. Your blood will run cold when listening to the chilling title track, with its stark portrayal of innocence and murder. It’s opening line – ‘I saw her standing on the front lawn / just twirlin’ her baton’ – a beautiful thematic non-sequitur on an album filled with hate, greed, menace and murder. Your heart will sink listening to Highway Patrolman; the story of a policeman caught between his duty to the world around him and his duty to his brother. You’ll be strangled by the surging menace of State Trooper, with its simple acoustic guitar riff lulling you into a world where you might die on a wet highway, your family shattered, just because you did your job. My Father’s House will strike you as one of the most moving evocations of hope and loss ever recorded; the tale of a man searching for himself in a forest full of ugly secrets. You’ll be stunned every time you hear Atlantic City, a stunning portrait of a man trying to deal with a world full of death and terrible madness.
And you’ll realise, after listening to the album just once, that it’s one of the best albums of all time – a stunning testament to an artist who is too often caricatured as nothing more than a token musical concession to the aspirations of the American working class. An artist who, with Nebraska, surprised everyone, and showed us how powerful one man with a guitar can be.
Me, A Year Ago: Dude. I’m kind of looking forward to hearing Atlantic City in that pub now. Can you, like, tell me which pub it is?
Me, Now: Dude, no. That’ll fuck with the space / time continuum or something, and I’ll end up as a rabbi or a pony or something, and my parents will never meet, and Harold Holt won’t go missing and people will drink bathwater just for fun. Haven’t you seen any of the Back To The Future movies? Anyway, you’ll hear it soon enough. And when you do, you’ll be blown away.
Me, A Year Ago: You know I’ve seen all three and love them.
Me, Now: Oh yeah, right.
(Originally published at fasterlouder.com.au in the Replay/Rewind section).
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