Pantagruel's Full Review: Tunnel of Love by Bruce Springsteen
I remember the anticipation surrounding Bruce Springsteen's proper follow up to his mammoth Born in the U.S.A. album. The 5 LP Live 1975-1985 was a satisfying stop gap for more Springsteen material (not to mention probably a profitable product filler for Columbia Records), but Springsteen fans new (like myself) and old wondered how The Boss was going to outdo himself after becoming a national icon over the previous three years. It was already well known that Springsteen had ditched the E Street Band before making the record (though individual members would appear separately on various tracks). The last time he went out alone, he recorded the stark, acoustic Nebraska "which sucked" said certain outspoken friends of mine. It carried no weight with them to know that while awaiting his next release I had been collecting Springsteen's back catalog and thought that Nebraska was one of his career highlights.
Anyway, the program manager at my college radio station pulled some strings with the Sacramento rock station where he interned over the summer (the now defunct KZAP) to obtain an advance copy of "Brilliant Disguise," the lead single off Tunnel of Love, and I must have played it 3 times during my two-hour DJ shift.
After the initial euphoria of the song wore off, I started thinking about it. Over a baion bass line that could have been swiped from an early Drifters' hit, Springsteen was singing about a marriage that was falling apart, mainly because the spouses were keeping things hidden from each other. There were magazine articles second-guessing Springsteen's decision to marry actress Julianne Phillips, a woman more than ten years his junior and whom he met during his Born in the U.S.A. tour, in 1985. Could Springsteen be singing about his own marriage?
Now you play the loving woman I'll play the faithful man But just don't look too close Into the palm of my hand When we stood at the altar The gypsy swore our future was bright But come the wee wee hours Maybe baby the gypsy lied
Whether or not it's about his marriage, the topic of matrimony permeates Tunnel of Love. On the cover, Springsteen looks into the camera as he leans against a vintage convertible, as if waiting for a passenger. The scene is reminiscent of the moment in "Thunder Road" where he sings "my car's out back if you're ready to take that la-ah-ah-ong walk." But now he appears to be looking for a life-long rider, now just a good time. He's cleaned himself up, too, dressed in a suit and sporting a bolo tie like he had been hanging out in the Joshua Tree National Monument with the boys from U2. (Indeed, the director of the Tunnel of Love videos, Meiert Avis, was U2's long time video director.)
The album opens with events leading up to the big wedding day. Against a shuffle beat in "Ain't Got You," Springsteen brags (tongue-in-cheek, I hope) about all the riches his new-found celebrity has given him, but that all the money in the world can't buy happiness. On the next song he offers matter-of-factly, "If you're rough enough for love/Baby I'm tougher than the rest." Following that is the commitment-ready "All That Heaven Will Allow," which turns out to be the most optimistic number on the album. And the touching "Walk Like a Man" which closes Side 1 contains this observation:
Would they ever look so happy again The handsome groom and his bride As they stepped into that long black limousine For their mystery ride
The above songs are sung in the first person and seem to give off the impression that marriage, despite all the anxiety and apprehension, is worth it. But also on the album's first side are two story songs that prepare the listener for what's to come on Side 2. "Spare Parts," the hardest-rocking song on an otherwise adult-rock sounding album, opens with the brash (for Springsteen) "Bobby said he'd pull out/Bobby stayed in/Janey had a baby/It wasn't any sin." The two planned to marry but the idea of becoming a father scared Bobby out of town. The rest of the song focuses on Janey's struggle to accept raising her baby alone.
"Cautious Man," which wouldn't sound out of place on Nebraska, tells of a man named Bill Horton who, Night of the Hunter-style, has the words "love" and "fear" tattooed across his hands. He married, built his bride a house, and prayed for strength. Though an honest man, at songs end it hints that he has been unfaithful to his wife.
Just like it is hard to tell how well a relationship is going by just looking at the surface, the meat of Tunnel of Love is on the other side. Again, I don't know if Springsteen was commenting about his own marriage, but this is a guy who seems to make his emotions public. Witness his sudden turn to "happy music" in the early '90s after he had settled with his Patti Scialfa, his current wife.
"When the lights go out it's just the three of us/You me and all that stuff we're so scared of," he sings on the title track, using a carnival ride as a metaphor for marriage. Like a carnival ride, you have your highs and lows, your ups and downs. And if you can get to an equilibrium, or in relationship-talk, compromise, the ride becomes smoother:
Well it ought to be easy ought to be simple enough Man meets woman and they fall in love But the house is haunted and the ride gets rough And you've got to learn to live with what you can't rise above If you want to ride on down in through this tunnel of love
"Brilliant Disguise" then ups the ante by bringing suspicion, that most thorny of feelings, into the mix. "God have mercy on the man who doubts what he's sure of" Springsteen murmurs at the end of the song, after he turns his mistrust for his wife inward, doubting his own motives.
Two songs continue that theme. In "Two Faces" Springsteen battles a dual personality, sort of a good boy, bad boy, that threatens to topple his marriage. The heartbreaking "One Step Up" finds him away from home, possibly separated, and confronting a hard truth:
When I look at myself I don't see The man I wanted to be Somewhere along the line I slipped off track Movin' one step up and two steps back
"When You're Alone" recounts what is obvious to many--the end of a relationship doesn't bring you freedom so much as loneliness. Which gives the finale, "Valentine's Day" a bittersweet conclusion. Here Springsteen is driving back home to reconcile with his lover, admitting that a relationship full of patches is better than no relationship at all.
The album is not without its shortcomings. The lack of the E Street Band means that the songs are dialed down, more in the "I'm on Fire" and "My Hometown" vein than "Born in the U.S.A." or "Glory Days." While that may be appropriate for a guy who has settled into a committed relationship, the songs share a repetitive sameness. Sometimes the tracks suffer from curious production, like the cheesy organ that closes "Two Faces," thus denying it a stronger impact.
However, Springsteen compensates lyrically by commissioning his most personal collection of songs. The result is one of his finer statements on life, even if that means there are no easy solutions. Tunnel of Love is an album that I liked when I was 20, but it took me years (and a lot of growing up) to appreciate the life's lessons contained therein. Marriage isn't easy; a lot of work is involved just to make it palpable. But it is in that work that we come to learn who we are and what we will accept, not just from others but from ourselves.
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