Written by Bill Foster
Bruce Springsteen’s “Nebraska,” released in 1982, was one of the greatest left turns in the history of modern music – and perhaps in all of art. This month, we see both a movie about it, “Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere,” starring Jeremy Allen White in the lead role and Jeremy Strong as music producer Jon Landau, and the release of a four-CD box set including the fabled and previously thought-to-be-nonexistent “Electric Nebraska.”
Springsteen was famously on the covers of Time and Newsweek magazines at the same time, but he had no money and was engaged in a lawsuit with his former manager. He spent what he had keeping things going through another album and tour and then recorded “The River.” That record contained his first top-five single, and the tour sold out everywhere.
We have all seen artists at this point: Springsteen is famous for exuberant, marathon rock ‘n’ roll shows, for wall-of-sound production and for his equally famous band. We have watched him grow and grow, and everyone, especially the record company, feels like his next album will be a monster. It’s U2 a year before “The Joshua Tree” or R.E.M. before “Automatic for the People.” The label wants his next record, and instead he turns in a cassette tape of dour, folk songs recorded in his bedroom and tells the company, “No band, no photos of me, no press.”
You can understand the label’s consternation. Half of “Born in the U.S.A.” was recorded, and they had heard it. But he insisted that this was what he felt at the time and what he wanted to do. It was one of the ballsiest moves ever, and it paid off hugely. “Nebraska” made Springsteen an artist. It showed his authenticity at a time when that was becoming important. You could argue it is his most influential album and that it is the atomic bomb that launched Americana. And that it set the stage for “Born in the U.S.A.” to make Bruce a one-name star and the biggest musician in the world.
This is the story that the biopic (based on the excellent Warren Zanes book with some elements from Springsteen’s autobiography) sets out to tell. It’s excellent, but it’s probably a lot drearier than you are expecting. It depicts black-and-white scenes of Springsteen’s childhood (lots of Easter eggs here if you are familiar with the story) alternating with the making of “Nebraska.”
Springsteen was battling severe depression at the time. He had just completed a sold-out nationwide tour, culminating in a legendary set of shows at Madison Square Garden. He had real money for the first time in his life. He rented a house and bought a car. He knew he was on the verge of something even bigger, but he was scared to get there and didn’t know if he wanted to or who he was offstage.
The movie starts here, with a scene from his childhood cutting to a color version of the E-Street Band performing “Born to Run” at MSG. This is the only scene you really get of the band onstage and of the joy of the shows, but it’s a doozie. Everyone in the band looks and moves perfectly. The movie goes through his recording of “Nebraska,” trying and failing to make an electric version with the full band and his decision to just go with the cassette. There is a relationship – probably a composite, actually – that fails, but at its heart, this is a story of male friendship, specifically the one between Springsteen and Landeau. It could have used a bit more of the friendship with Little Steven, who was producer and not in favor of the decision to release the stark demo.
The thing is, in the end, the record company knew it had to support Springsteen, so the major conflict in the movie wasn’t really a conflict in real life. It did provide my favorite scene, though. In it, Landau tells the label that there will be no press and no tour, and the representative, Al, says, “I don’t know what to do with this.” “Whether or not you believe in this particular album,” Landau replies, “In this office – my office – we believe in Bruce Springsteen.” Cue the chills.
All in all, I loved the film. The Stony Pony looks as it should, and New Jersey looks great. The period details are all perfect, and the acting is uniformly strong. I am, of course, a superfan, so I can’t say how someone unfamiliar with it all will respond, but as long as you know what you are in for, I think you will enjoy it.
Released on the same day, “Nebraska 82: Expanded Edition” is a five-disc box set collecting everything associated with the recording: a disc of outtakes, the electric takes that they tried and never released, the original album and a live recording of Bruce performing the work alone in a small theater, on both CD and Blu-Ray. Most people will be interested in the first two.
The outtakes disc has a couple real gems in “Losin’ Kind” and “Gun in Every Home,” which I had never even heard of in my 75 discs or so of bootlegs. “Child Bride” is here, as is the slow, slightly creepy precursor to the recorded version of “Working on the Highway.” “Born in the USA,” “Downbound Train” and a quite different version of “Pink Cadillac” are here, as well.
Everyone was waiting for “Electric Nebraska.” Springsteen just released seven complete, unreleased albums with the “Tracks II” box set, and when the long-rumored electric version wasn’t part of that, most folk assumed it really didn’t exist. It does indeed, but mostly it just confirms that Springsteen made the right decision in 1981. This version is intriguing, but it’s not better than the original, and it is missing the atmosphere that made it so special. Still, there is a snarling “Born in the USA” (and I thought I had heard every possible arrangement). All these versions feature stripped-down versions of the E-Street Band. I’d rather hear an electric version that is composed of live recordings over the years.
The solo recordings performed in the theater are excellent. They embody Springsteen’s years of experience and the gravitas of the decades that have passed, but they aren’t essential. Ultimately, that’s where I would place this box set. If you’re interested in the details of Springsteen’s process or if you’re as fanatical about this album as I am, it’s a great edition. It’s definitely not for everyone, though.
