DELIVER ME FROM NOWHERE

An exhaustive immersion into the most surprising album of Bruce Springsteen’s career.

In 1982, Springsteen released Nebraska, which, writes Zanes, “had something of a time-release quality. It revealed its strange power over the years, a thing people found in their own way and on their own time. It was passed around like a rumor.” Following his triumphant success and tour with its two-disc predecessor, The River, which had given him his first hit single in “Hungry Heart,” Springsteen had returned home depleted—though not really home, because he didn’t have one. He had broken up with his girlfriend and spent so much time on the road with his band that now he was alone, in a rented house, where he began writing songs and recording them to bring to the band. The songs were spare, and the recordings were raw. They made Jon Landau, Springsteen’s manager and friend, worry about the artist’s mood and mental condition. When Springsteen and the band regrouped in the studio, nothing he recorded, either with full backing or on his own, approached the power of the home demo tapes. Consequently, the demos that he had never intended as an album became the next album. The book features an illuminating interview with Springsteen (who granted no interviews to promote Nebraska at the time), full cooperation from others involved (including Landau), and testimonials from musical acolytes profoundly inspired by the release, and Zanes builds a strong case for the album’s singularity, achievement, and influence. With a well-received Tom Petty biography and his own experience in the Boston band the Del Fuegos, the author was able to earn the trust of everyone he needed. Zanes is especially good at showing how connected and intertwined Nebraska was with its legendary follow-up, Born in the U.S.A., much of which was recorded during the same period.

Even those who aren’t convinced that Nebraska is Springsteen at his best will hear it with fresh ears.