Top 25 Springsteen Songs: Tunnel of Love and Beyond
Five of my favorite Springsteen Tracks to be released after Born In The USA, including three from the immediate follow-up.
We’re finally moving into my actual Top 25 list of Bruce Springsteen songs, which will start with 5 songs the Boss put out beginning with 1987’s Tunnel of Love. Let’s get rolling with some of these songs from later on in Springsteen’s career.
"Tunnel of Love"
On some days, I feel like putting “Brilliant Disguise” in this spot, but I find myself really fixating on the "dark ride” as an extended metaphor for long-lasting commitment.
As will be a theme on all the songs off of this album, it’s making the point that real adult long-lasting relationships are not always easy, like what you get this in lyrics like these.
Then the lights go out and it's just the three of us
You, me and all that stuff we're so scared of
Gotta ride down, baby, into this tunnel of love
I also hear the guitar solo that anticipates the coming sonic change of the “Other Band” era and getting away from the more R&B-inflected sound of Born To Run and The River.
I really enjoyed the way, during the Tunnel of Love Express tour, he’d use it as the opening song of the show with this extended organ introduction to emphasize the carnival/shore metaphor the song draws upon.
Also, on this live version, you get some Clarence Clemons saxophone as well as the Horns of Love, who joined up with the E Street Band for this tour. The problem with the sound of this era, really in all pop music, that features so much synth and electronic flourishes, is that in the live setting the songs feel a bit lacking. Not surprisingly, Springsteen and the E Street Band find a way to take a song and tweak it just enough so it’s right in the live setting.
"Tougher Than The Rest"
One of my absolute favorite, proper love songs in the history of popular music because it’s both very romantic but not in a cloying or unrealistic way as it all feels very earned and, thus, quite real. The bridge, in particular, is one that’s always stood out to me in that regard.
The road is dark and it's a thin thin line
But I want you to know I'll walk it for you any time
Maybe your other boyfriends couldn't pass the test
Well, if you're rough and ready for love
Honey, I'm tougher than the rest
It’s not denying that things are and will be tough; rather, he’s saying that even in spite of every challenge and obstacle, this love is worth it.
Most of Springsteen’s songs are filled with romance, but in terms of writing actual “love songs” there aren’t all that many, or there aren’t that many that are all that great. There’s a smallness to “Tougher,” as it’s about the reality and not how things feel (which can be a lot bigger) and that makes it all the more resonant. This is also probably the best example and that’s probably why it’s become a chance to highlight the onstage interplay between Springsteen and his wife, Patti Scialfa.
The more intimate performances where the two perform together highlight this, as you could hear during the Springsteen on Broadway run.
The songs on Tunnel of Love, and this one in particular, have only grown in my estimation as I’ve gotten older.
"Valentine's Day”
While I’ve talked about two of the best-known songs on Tunnel of Love, this is one that flies under the radar but it’s an absolute gem.
There’s an interesting sub-category of Springsteen songs that have the feeling of something that would be on Nebraska but don’t have quite the same sparse production value.
“Valentine’s Day” falls into that category.
Is it the sound of the leaves left blown by the wayside
That's got me out here on this spooky old highway tonight?
Is it the cry of the river with the moonlight shining through?
That ain't what scares me, baby, what scares me is losin' you
“Spooky old highway” and the moonlight, that all seems like something right out of Nebraska. Even the instrumentation, while obviously sounding better produced than what you heard on Nebraska, does have a stripped down quality that calls to mind the sound of that 1982 album.
But what differentiates this from what we get on Nebraska is the possibility of hope, the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel.
And God's light came shinin' on through
I woke up in the darkness scared and breathin' and born anew
It wasn't the cold river bottom I felt rushing over me
It wasn't the bitterness of a dream that didn't come true
It wasn't the wind in the grey fields I felt rushing through my arms
No, no, baby
Baby, it was you
There’s more of that on songs like “Valentine’s Day.” Again, like I said with “Tougher than the Rest,” it’s not something that’s easy or simple but it is there.
"The Rising"
It’s often been said that the Boss produced maybe the best piece of culture to come out of the 9/11 attacks. While it’s very affirming in the face of great tragedy and pain, it’s certainly not jingoistic or simple blind patriotism. The title track from 2002’s The Rising certainly achieves that balance. The lyrics craft a narrative of a firefighter who went into the wreckage of the World Trade Center to try to save people that day.
Can't see nothing in front of me
Can't see nothing coming up behind
Make my way through this darkness
I can't feel nothing but this chain that binds me
Left the house this morning
Bells were ringing and filled the air
I was wearing the cross of my calling
On wheels of fire, I come rolling down here
The use of the Soozie Tyrell’s violin gives the song a spiritual element, and the quiet-loud dynamics between the verses and the chorus make this a forceful one.
But even though it tells that story, it’s not a topical song that solely functions in that context, which gives it a longer life as a piece of art. The idea of “the rising” or this uplift has so many potential implications, which is why it’s a song that’s appeared in different contexts.
It’s also worth noting that the song, and the album to come with it, was the first new material from Springsteen with the E Street Band in quite a long time. Though they’d obviously reunited with the Reunion tour in 1999, you didn’t know if new work was going to come out of it.
It’s also one of my favorite songs to hear live from the post-Reunion tour material. For some reason, I remember watching Bruce and the E-Street guys performing this song at the Grammys and this performance sticking with me.
I’m also a big fan of Bruce’s solo performance of this song, backed with a choir, at President Obama’s inauguration in January 2009.
"Livin' in the Future"
For my money, the best work Springsteen has done post-Reunion with the E Street Band is Magic. It’s a fascinating display of how one can take songs that are fun and catchy and imbue them with weighty lyrics that reflect real concern with the present reality. Magic does that with second-term George W. Bush’s America, and “Livin’ in the Future” is the best example.
On first listen, you wouldn’t know this is a song about the ways in which the American ideals had been so badly subverted and diminished really post-9/11 but especially following the War in Iraq. But when you dig into the lyrics, it feels hard to miss.
Woke up election day
Sky's gunpowder and shades of grey
Beneath the dirty sun
I whistle my time away
Then just about sundown
You come walking through town
Your boot heels clicking like
The barrel of a pistol spinning round
When he’d perform the song in concert, Springsteen would provide an introduction that would make these things crystal clear.
It’s got a great, catchy tune (and some strong backing vocals and Clarence Clemons saxophone work) and some of the Boss’ best lyrics from this second half of his career.
My faith's been torn asunder
Tell me is that rolling thunder
Or just the sinking sound
Of something righteous going under
The allusion/reference to “rolling thunder” and using righteous in a non-ironic way, those are little turns I’ve always enjoyed.
It’s a song of an album that I really love. I really wish it could make its way into the live performances a bit more, but sadly the tracks on Magic don’t seem to get any consideration. But they will here at least.
I know I bring it up every time, but "Tunnel of Love" is my favorite LP of his. Numbers 2-5 might change around, depending on my mood, but none of them ever dislodge this from the top spot.
The title track is my favorite, and like you, I love the live version. A few months ago, I went down a deep rabbit hole, where I binged as many as I could find- the longer the intro, the more I liked it.
Valentine's day is one of those songs that just makes one puff their cheeks and stare off into the distance. It's spare, beautiful, and almost too much.
Lastly, I don't often use "stirring" to describe songs, but for "The Rising," it fits. This country was reeling in the aftermath of 9/11, and that went triple for aviation-and anyone working in it. This was a small ray of light in a really dark time, and even now, all these years later, that's my first thought when I hear it.
Could not agree more on Magic. In fact, I put Magic and some of The Rising right there with everything he did prior. Lyrically and musically, he just went to another level. I think working with Brendan O'Brien was key.