If you ask most Bruce Springsteen fans what their favorite Bruce album is, you will very rarely hear them answer “Nebraska.” Ok, maybe today, decades after its release, just a few die-hards might claim Nebraska to be their favorite Bruce album, but almost always only in hindsight, after they have come to realize its historical significance in the Springsteen catalogue. Many fans (especially the casual ones) would answer “Born in the USA.” But as we learn in Deliver Me From Nowhere: The Making of Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska by author Warren Zanes, without the Nebraska album , Born in the USA would probably not exist.
Released in September 1982 with very little hype or marketing, the Nebraska album was almost the direct opposite of what most Bruce fans were expecting as the follow-up album to the 1980 album The River. The River captured Bruce and the E Street Band in full rock-and-roll mode along with some quieter songs to round things out, and the album’s lead single, “Hungry Heart,” became Bruce’s first single to land on the Billboard Hot 100 chart (peaking at #5). How would Bruce follow up this commercial success that had been gaining momentum with albums like Born to Run, Darkness on the Edge of Town, and The River? By isolating himself in a small, rented house in New Jersey, not an E Street Band member in sight, and recording a batch of songs with a simple, consumer-grade 4-track cassette recorder with just his voice, a guitar, and a harmonica (ok, there was also a glockenspiel, but the point is, this album was just Bruce, all by himself). I should note that Bruce didn’t know he was recording an album at the time. He thought he was capturing a group of demos with the purpose of taking those songs into the studio to record them with the E Street Band. So how did this low-fidelity cassette of often dark songs wind up being released as his next album? I could give you the answer, but I promise it is much more compelling to hear author Warren Zanes tell the story.
Zanes, the New York Times bestselling author of Petty: The Biography, is also a musician and a Grammy-nominated producer. He also happens to be a major fan of Bruce Springsteen’s album Nebraska. Recognizing the crucial role the Nebraska album played leading up to the creation of the juggernaut success of Bruce’s Born in the USA album, Zanes wanted to dive into the full story behind Nebraska and tell the complete, fascinating tale of how the album came to be regarded as one of the most important albums of Bruce’s career. How would he learn the complete truth behind this album? He spoke with with those in the know such as Bruce’s manager Jon Landau, recording engineer Chuck Plotkin, and even the man himself, Bruce Springsteen. Zanes combines their stories with interviews from other musicians explaining what the Nebraska album means to them and why, and presents for the first time an authoritative, heartfelt, insightful, and complete analysis of the Nebraska album’s creation. Zanes tells the story through the eyes of a passionate fan of the work, while maintaining a scholarly, inquisitive approach throughout. This book is truly a revelation. You can purchase it via the link below.
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/647205/deliver-me-from-nowhere-by-warren-zanes/
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