Deliver Me from Nowhere

March 15, 2023
An exhaustive immersion into the most surprising album of Bruce Springsteen's career. In 1982, Springsteen released Nebraska, which, writes Zanes, "had something of a time-release quality. It revealed its strange power over the years, a thing people found in their own way and on their own time. It was passed around like a rumor." Following his triumphant success and tour with its two-disc predecessor, The River, which had given him his first hit single in "Hungry Heart," Springsteen had returned home depleted--though not really home, because he didn't have one. He had broken up with his girlfriend and spent so much time on the road with his band that now he was alone, in a rented house, where he began writing songs and recording them to bring to the band. The songs were spare, and the recordings were raw. They made Jon Landau, Springsteen's manager and friend, worry about the artist's mood and mental condition. When Springsteen and the band regrouped in the studio, nothing he recorded, either with full backing or on his own, approached the power of the home demo tapes. Consequently, the demos that he had never intended as an album became the next album. The book features an illuminating interview with Springsteen (who granted no interviews to promote Nebraska at the time), full cooperation from others involved (including Landau), and testimonials from musical acolytes profoundly inspired by the release, and Zanes builds a strong case for the album's singularity, achievement, and influence. With a well-received Tom Petty biography and his own experience in the Boston band the Del Fuegos, the author was able to earn the trust of everyone he needed. Zanes is especially good at showing how connected and intertwined Nebraska was with its legendary follow-up, Born in the U.S.A., much of which was recorded during the same period. Even those who aren't convinced that Nebraska is Springsteen at his best will hear it with fresh ears.

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March 27, 2023
In this intimate retelling of how Bruce Springsteen’s most introspective album came to be, musician Zanes (Petty) unpacks the psyche, pathos, and music industry machinery that made it so surprising and stirring. Before Springsteen’s hit-packed 1984 album Born in the U.S.A., there was Nebraska—an album Zanes lovingly compares to “a cave painting in the age of photography.” Despite the fact that it was laid down on a cassette recorder in a room with wall-to-wall shag carpet at a New Jersey rental house, Zanes calls Nebraska the Boss’s most important work, an “album that was cutting deals with no one” and stripped away so much of what seemed required for commercial success (“clean and clear fidelity, perfect performances”) that “all that was left was the grunt of art.” In interviews with Springsteen, Zanes details how the artist recorded Nebraska during one of his “loner periods”—a time of deep soul-searching during which he probed his childhood in songs such as “Mansion on the Hill” and “My Father’s House.” Early chapters fill in backstory to the record’s creation and later ones break down the album song by song. Zanes traces how the album’s punk rock spirit pushed back against the industry’s preferred polished sound to become a chart-topping success, and delivers the narrative in energetic prose that makes his enthusiasm for his subject palpable. Rock ’n’ roll fans will want to crank this up to 11.

April 15, 2023
Nebraska is considered Springsteen's masterpiece even though it was not a huge commercial success. In this "biography" of the album, Zanes observes that it addresses 1980s America, was initially "passed around like a rumor," and has tremendous staying power, remaining vital and relevant. Artists from Patty Griffin and Rosanne Cash to Richard Thompson and Steve Earle have sung its praises. Perhaps Matt Berninger of the band the National said it best: "I think Nebraska was the big bang of . . . indie rock." Zanes explores the mental state Springsteen was in when he famously recorded the album in his bedroom ("a little lost"). He examines the numerous influences that went into the writing of the songs, from Flannery O'Connor's short stories to Terrence Malick's film Badlands to Springsteen's own childhood. It was also made during a time when Springsteen was at a crossroads in his career. Music lovers who admire Springsteen in particular and the broader Americana musical genre in general should appreciate this heartfelt examination of one of the most important albums in American musical history.

COPYRIGHT(2023) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.