Tonight (October 26th) on the world famous Classic Album at Midnight on Radio Nova we’re playing Bruce Springsteen’s Tunnel of Love.
The album is presented in full with no commercials or interruptions.
Across the seven albums that preceded 1987’s Tunnel of Love, Springsteen had established himself as a chronicler of blue-collar America. He had rarely indulged in that most popular musical form, the love song. As Springsteen super-fan Sarfraz Manzoor put it, “his songs were more likely to deal with losing your job than losing your heart.”
That changed with Tunnel of Love. Many have speculated that Springsteen’s failing marriage to model/actress Julianne Phillips inspired the introspective, heartbroken tone of the album. The couple would divorce a year after its release.
The songs on Tunnel of Love see Springsteen display a vulnerable uncertainty when it comes to affairs of the heart. This is exemplified by the lyric from Cautious Man that goes “on his right hand he had tattooed the word love and on his left hand was the word fear/and in which hand he held his fate was never clear.” A cynicism towards matrimony is evident in Walk Like a Man, where Springsteen asks of a couple on their wedding day, “Would they ever look so happy again the handsome groom and his bride?”
In keeping with the melancholic direction his songwriting was taking, musically Tunnel of Love sees Springsteen move away from the stadium rock of preceding albums. In the studio Springsteen recorded most of the album himself, playing guitars, mandolin, bass guitar, keyboards, harmonica, percussion and programming a drum machine.
While E-Street Band members Roy Bittan (piano), Clarence Clemons (backing vocals), Danny Federici (Hammond organ), Nils Lofgren (guitar, backing vocals), Patti Scialfa (backing vocals), Garry Tallent (bass guitar) and Max Weinberg (drums) all contribute to the album, the band never recorded as a collective on Tunnel of Love. As such, it’s not considered an E-Street Band album. Springsteen wouldn’t record an official E-Street album again until 2002’s The Rising.
Tunnel of Love features 12 tracks. On Side A are Ain’t Got You; Tougher Than the Rest; All That Heaven Will Allow; Spare Parts; Cautious Man; and Walk Like a Man. On Side B are Tunnel of Love; Two Faces; Brilliant Disguise; One Step Up; When You’re Alone; and Valentine’s Day.
Tunnel of Love was released on October 9th 1987 and topped both the US and UK album chart. Five singles – Brilliant Disguise, Tunnel of Love, One Step Up, Tougher Than the Rest and Spare Parts – were released, with Brilliant Disguise becoming one of Springsteen’s biggest ever hits. At this time Springsteen was embracing the music video format. Four of the singles had music promos directed by the acclaimed Irish filmmaker Meiert Avis. His video for Brilliant Disguise was distinctive in being presented as a single, unbroken shot.
Critics warmed to Springsteen’s new introspective record, which finished second on the Village Voice’s list of the best albums of the year. Springsteen-obsessed writer Sarfraz Manzoor, author of the book Greetings from Bury Park (which was filmed as 2019’s Blinded by the Light), has called Tunnel of Love his favourite album.
You can listen to Springsteen pour his heart out at midnight tonight on Radio Nova.
