A number of friends who are also big Bruce Springsteen fans will tell you this is the one that got them hooked and it’s his best album. I wouldn’t go that far but it’s definitely an album I’ve grown to appreciate more over the years. 

Springsteen had got married in 1985 to actress Julianne Phillips and “Tunnel Of Love” lays bare much of his unhappiness during their 3 years together. It’s easy to tag this as his breakup album, but it’s not that. 

We begin almost where “Nebraska” left off. “Ain’t Got You” sounds what I would imagine “Nebraska” might have sounded like had it been recorded professionally. It sees Springsteen delivering vocals and all instruments (as he also does on “Cautious Man”, “Tunnel Of Love” and “Valentine’s Day”), guitar, mandolin, bass, keyboards, harmonica, percussion and programming the drum machine on a song about a man who’s “got all the riches baby any man ever knew” but he doesn’t have THE girl. Whether that is the girl he really desires or a comment on his relationship with his wife is for the listener to choose an answer.

And choices is what much of “Tunnel Of Love” is concerned with, choices and the consequences of those actions. In the sublime “Tougher Than The Rest” Springsteen is asking the girl to choose him, much the same theme as “All That Heaven Will Allow” but that is much more light hearted in tone (“Say hey there mister bouncer now all I wanna do is dance, But I swear I left my wallet back home in my working pants”). 

“Spare Parts” deals with the consequences for Bobby after “Bobby said he’d pull out but Bobby stayed in” it’s also one of the albums darker songs alongside “Cautious Man” (which would have sat perfectly on “Nebraska”), “Two Faces” and the frankly wonderful “Brilliant Disguise”, one of Springsteen’s finest songs. “Walk Like A Man” once more looks at a sons relationship with his father, following on from “Adam Raised A Cain” and “Independence Day” on previous albums, as the son looks back on his wedding day.

As we progress through the record a sense of optimism and change reveals itself.  “One Step Up” is essentially about straying but also starting over again. Side two begins with title song “Tunnel Of Love” which again looks at new starts even though you know the pitfalls that could be involved you still throw yourself in wholeheartedly. It’s one of my favourite Springsteen songs and one I’ve only ever heard him play on this albums tour (two of only three times I’ve set foot in that stadium in B6…the trials we put ourself to for this guy!). “One Step” thematically precedes the title track but appears toward the end of side two. It lays out a relationship falling apart and one of the protagonists starting again.

As the follow up to “Born In The USA” this is not at all what Columbia might have been expecting. His previous album had been a chart topping, single packed hit machine that sold millions globally. “Tunnel Of Love” is a much, much “smaller” record, the feelings and emotions are held close and are more personal than the political chest thumping of “Born In The USA”. Critics praised the songs but at times criticised the musical settings. Although “Tunnel Of Love” is a full band album the full band aren’t on it. All the members of the E Street Band play on the album (except Steve van Zandt who had left in 1984) but the band don’t all play on all the songs. They wouldn’t play together on a Springsteen album again until “The Rising”, which was advertised as the first album featuring the E Street Band since “Born To Run”.

“Tunnel Of Love” might sound a bit ’80’s in places but it features some truly wonderful songs. As I said earlier, I’m not sure it’s his best but it’s right up there with them.

Tunnel Of Love - https://youtu.be/M4K7XZGeHTE?si=Q7R1v4-mfaOezCXD

An album of questionable provenance (I bought it in Home Bargains !) that presents part of Springsteen and the E Street Bands set at the final show of the Amnesty International Human Rights Now tour.

Before the E Street Band set started Springsteen joined Sting for a version of “Every Breath You Take”. At the close of their set Bruce and the E Street Band performed Bob Marley’s “Get Up Stand Up”. Of course none of that interesting stuff is included on this record !

What you do get is 6 songs from “Born In The USA”, “The River” and covers of Edwin Starr’s “War” and Bob Dylan’s “Chimes Of Freedom” (along with Sting, Peter Gabriel, Youssou N'Dour & Tracy Chapman) and for some reason none of it in the order it was actually played on the night. The most disturbing thing about this recording is that “The River” appears to feature a verse sung by Sting…oh the horror ! A nice historical document with some interesting bits missing.

Chimes Of Freedom - https://youtu.be/19vEO4GGkac?si=kr_z4UGieMAoVF4n

A 5 LP box set that does exactly what it says on the box. It compiles performances from small clubs to huge stadiums from New Jersey to California.

Although the E Street Band (in one form or another) have been playing behind Bruce Springsteen from the beginning of his recording career this was the first album release to credit the band. But it makes sense to credit them here because on stage is where the E Street Band prove themselves to be, as The Boss often describes them at the end of shows “The heart-stopping, pants-dropping, earth-shocking, hard rocking, booty-shaking, earth-quaking, love-making, Viaaaagra-taking, history-making, legendary E! Street! Band!”.

All the “hits” are here, everything you’d expect of a Springsteen show in those first ten years. The only thing that is conspicuously absent is “Jungleland”, who knows why. There are also a handful of (to me) previously unheard songs and cover versions. “Paradise By The C” is an instrumental introduced on the “Darkness On the Edge Of Town” tour to kick off the second half of the show and features the Big Man; “Seeds” is a song that has been around since “Born In the USA” but this is it’s only official release. The covers are Eddie Floyd’s “Raise Your Hand”, Edwin Starr’s “War” (which I saw him play live with Edwin at V*ll* Park on the “Tunnel Of Love Express” tour), a beautiful version of Woody Guthrie’s “This Land Is Your Land” and finally Tom Waits “Jersey Girl” (recorded at the Meadowlands in New Jersey) to which Bruce added a final verse that fits so perfectly it’s almost like he wrote the whole song himself. 

Some high-spots for me are “4th July Asbury Park (Sandy)” recorded at the Roxy in LA in 1978, a superb performance highlighting Danny Federici’s accordion playing, and from the same show a great version of “Growin Up”. Springsteen goes off on one his extended stories mid-song about the time he had to go to court after he was involved in a motorcycle accident. After it’s all over his Dad is telling him he should become a lawyer and “get a little something for yourself”. But his Mom is telling him he should become an author “it’s a nice life and you can get a little something for yourself”. They’re both in the audience and from the stage he tells them he wants it all and “tonight yous’ll just have to settle for rock ’n’ roll”…and right on cue the E Street Band kicks back in and it’s just about one of the most thrilling things you could hear. There’s a performance of “Born In The USA” so full of righteous fury that, as on the tour this was recorded on it was the 1st song in the set every night, it makes you wonder what he was doing before going onstage to conjure that up. Side 5’s juxtaposition of a raging “Darkness On The Edge Of Town” followed by my great favourite “Racing In The Street” has been close to bringing me to tears more than once.

“Live/1975-85” is as close as you’ll get to a Springsteen gig in a box.

This Land Is Your Land - https://youtu.be/oxSPEgqsaec?si=6aCdc2WCEu6JaFWF