Bruce Springsteen 6: Nebraska

To plan for his next album, Bruce began the practice of preparing demos of his new songs for the E Street Band to study from, rather than teaching them to the guys in the studio while the meter ticked. This time, however, the songs he wrote demanded to be heard as stark sketches rather than big productions, and that’s how Nebraska happened.

Allegedly the band tried full arrangements of all the songs, and all would be performed on future tours. “Open All Night” is a breathless rockabilly tune begging for a rhythm section, and “Johnny 99” chugs along amiably. “Atlantic City” got some local airplay and even a Bruce-less video; beyond those, it’s easy to see the appeal in these simple recordings with their simple acoustics and subtle overdubs. (Also, being first drafts, the lyrics have yet to get the polish they’d likely gain from multiple studio takes.)

Many of the songs are character-driven, an extension of the stories he began to tell on The River. As has come to be expected, a lot of the narrators are driving, from the serial killer in the title track to the unhinged individual trying to avoid the “State Trooper”. That song follows the tale narrated by a “Highway Patrolman”, caught between family honor and civic duty.

Some of the more interesting songs suggest a look back at his childhood. The starry-eyed vision of the “Mansion On The Hill” makes an excellent balance for “My Father’s House”, where things apparently aren’t so opulent. The dichotomy of the class system portrayed in “Used Cars” gives some perspective on where his automotive fascination may have stemmed.

While each of his albums thus far boasted some kind of “epic”, here we only have “Reason To Believe” to sum up the program. Its suggestion of a rhythm supports snapshots of struggling individuals, giving a more universal spin to a title borrowed from Tim Hardin by way of Rod Stewart and countless others. (In a pointed example of programming, the sides aren’t balanced time-wise; the first six songs make side one 25 minutes long, while the last four equal 15 minutes.)

Nebraska wasn’t a huge hit, seeing as the songs weren’t exactly radio-friendly. It’s an album that demands attention, sometimes getting so quiet you can barely hear it, only to leap out of the speakers with a whoop and scare you to death. It’s tempting to give it a higher rating for its daring step outside what was then considered his standard sound. But it certainly helped him gain some credibility as a guy who put art before commerce, and boy, would he need it going forward.

For decades afterwards, there were rumblings of an Electric Nebraska, or versions of the songs recorded with the E Street Band that were shelved in favor of the demos that made the album. After more than forty years and two box sets that yielded no such thing, Bruce magically happened to find tape reels that fit the category, enabling the compilation of Nebraska ‘82: Expanded Edition. (It also conveniently appeared alongside a major motion picture biopic about this era.)

The first disc contained a half-hour’s worth of outtakes from the demo sessions, including the previously released acoustic “Born In The U.S.A.” and the B-side “The Big Payback”. The haunted “Losin’ Kind” is part of the throughline from “Stolen Car” to “State Trooper”, while “Child Bride” is an early, not at all raucous version of “Working On The Highway” without that chorus; a version of the latter song is very close to its eventual album version. “Downtown Train” had yet to develop a melody or more than two chord changes, and “Pink Cadillac” is a slow blues, the polar opposite of its boomy studio version, whereas “On The Prowl” is upbeat, half-finished rockabilly, and “Gun In Every Home” is a paranoid glimpse of suburbia.

The second disc consisted of another half-hour of music, presented as the fabled Electric Nebraska. Six songs from the album appear in alternate versions; the title track and “Mansion On The Hill” have the barest accompaniment, keeping them close to the solo takes, and “Open All Night” gains a rhythm section. “Downbound Train” still doesn’t have a melody or changes, but he also yells it near the top of his register. “Born In The U.S.A.” is powerful and angry, still closer to the acoustic version and more direct. “Atlantic City”, “Johnny 99”, and “Reason To Believe” are familiar from the arrangements in the live box set.

Nice as they are to have, this music could easily have been combined on one disc, but Bruce stopped offering fans value for a value once he became eligible for Medicare. Tape logs prove that there was more where this came from, but this is all he was willing to share. Instead, a 2025 live performance of the album with Larry Cambell and Charlie Giordano—but without an audience—made up the third disc, with the visuals on a Blu-ray, and the remastered album took up a fourth.

Bruce Springsteen Nebraska (1982)—3½
2025 Nebraska ‘82: Expanded Edition: same as 1982, plus 27 extra tracks