Tunnel of Love (album)
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| Tunnel of Love | |||||
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| Studio album by Bruce Springsteen | |||||
| Released | October 9, 1987 | ||||
| Recorded | January - July 1987 | ||||
| Genre | Rock | ||||
| Length | 46:25 | ||||
| Label | Columbia | ||||
| Producer | Bruce Springsteen, Jon Landau, Chuck Plotkin | ||||
| Professional reviews | |||||
| Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band chronology | |||||
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Tunnel of Love is the eighth studio album by Bruce Springsteen released in 1987 (see 1987 in music).
In 1998, Q magazine readers voted Tunnel of Love the 91st greatest album of all time. In 1989, it was ranked #25 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 100 greatest albums of the 1980s. In 2003, the album was ranked number 475 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.
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[edit] History
After the tremendous success of the big, brash and anthemic Born in the U.S.A., Springsteen took his foot off the throttle quite a bit on Tunnel of Love. The deeply conflicted songs - "Brilliant Disguise," "Two Faces," "Tunnel of Love," "One Step Up" - seem to have been written as reflections of Springsteen's failing marriage to Julianne Phillips. In the same vein, the opening "Ain't Got You" is his rare personal, self-conscious look at being a famous rock star, while the closing "Valentine's Day" inverts the chords of "My Funny Valentine" to produce a death-haunted narrative full of the nature imagery he would pursue further in the early 1990s. Ironically, "Walk Like a Man", another chapter in Springsteen's long obsession with his relationship with his father, seems like a relief compared to the rest of the record.
The New York Times' Jon Pareles wrote that Tunnel of Love "turned inward, pondering love gone wrong. His first marriage, to the actress Julianne Phillips fell apart; he also decided to part ways with the E Street Band."[1] "Brilliant Disguise" has been called "a heart wrenching song about never being really able to know someone,"[2] and "a song about the doubts and struggles of married life."[3]
Members of the E Street Band were used sparingly on the album; Springsteen recorded most of the parts himself, often with drum machines and synthesizers. Although the album's liner notes list the E Street Band members under that name, it is very doubtful whether Tunnel of Love should be considered an E Street Band album. Indeed, Shore Fire Media, Springsteen's public relations firm, does not count it as an E Street Band album [4] and The Rising was advertised as "his first studio album with the E Street Band since 'Born in the USA'".
Commercially the album went triple platinum in the U.S., with "Brilliant Disguise" being one of his biggest hit singles, peaking at #5 on the Billboard Hot 100, "Tunnel of Love" also making the Top 10, reaching #9, and "One Step Up" just falling short.
The 1988 Springsteen and E Street Band Tunnel of Love Express tour would showcase the album's songs, sometimes in more confrontational arrangements courtesy of The Miami Horns. Once Springsteen remarried to Patti Scialfa and started a family, however, he seemed to have a harder time relating to Tunnel of Love's songs, and they appeared only rarely in his concerts during the late 1990s and 2000s.
[edit] Music Videos
Irish filmmaker Meiert Avis directed the music videos for "Brilliant Disguise", "One Step Up", "Tougher Than the Rest", and "Tunnel of Love". The videos were shot on locations in New Jersey, including Asbury Park. The intensely personal "Brilliant Disguise" video broke new ground on MTV, being a single shot without edits, and also using live vocals for the first time on an MTV music video. The video was nominated for four MTV Awards, including Video of the Year and, paradoxically, Best Editing.
[edit] Track listing
All songs written by Bruce Springsteen.
- "Ain't Got You" – 2:11
- "Tougher Than the Rest" – 4:35
- "All That Heaven Will Allow" – 2:39
- "Spare Parts" – 3:44
- "Cautious Man" – 3:58
- "Walk Like a Man" – 3:45
- "Tunnel of Love" – 5:12
- "Two Faces" – 3:03
- "Brilliant Disguise" – 4:17
- "One Step Up" – 4:22
- "When You're Alone" – 3:24
- "Valentine's Day" – 5:10
[edit] Personnel
[edit] The E Street Band
- Roy Bittan – piano on "Brilliant Disguise", synthesizers on "Tunnel of Love"
- Clarence Clemons – vocals on "When You're Alone"
- Danny Federici – organ on "Tougher Than the Rest", "Spare Parts", "Two Faces", and "Brilliant Disguise"
- Nils Lofgren – solo guitar on "Tunnel of Love", vocals on "When You're Alone"
- Patti Scialfa – vocals on "Tunnel of Love", "One Step Up" and "When You're Alone"
- Bruce Springsteen – lead vocals, guitar, bass guitar, keyboards, sound effects, harmonica
- Garry Tallent – bass on "Spare Parts"
- Max Weinberg – drums on "All That Heaven Will Allow", "Two Faces", and "When You're Alone"; percussion on "Tougher Than the Rest", "Spare Parts", "Walk Like a Man", "Tunnel of Love", "Brilliant Disguise"
[edit] Additional musician
- James Wood – harmonica on "Spare Parts"
[edit] Production
- Bob Clearmountain – mixing
- Jay Healy – mixing assistant
- Bob Ludwig – mastering
- Mark McKenna – mixing assistant
- Roger Talkov – engineer
[edit] Sample
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Brilliant Disguise Brilliant Disguise (1987) - Problems playing the files? See media help.
[edit] Chart positions
| Year | Chart | Position |
|---|---|---|
| 1987 | The Billboard 200 | 1 |
[edit] References
- ^ Holden, Stephen. "POP MUSIC; When the Boss Fell to Earth, He Hit Paradise", The New York Times, The New York Times Company, 8 August 1992. Retrieved on 2007-11-01.
- ^ Pareles, Jon. "MUSIC; His Kind of Heroes, His Kind of Songs", The New York Times, The New York Times Company, 14 July 2002. Retrieved on 2007-11-01.
- ^ Cavicchi, Daniel (1998). Tramps Like Us: Music and Meaning Among Springsteen Fans. New York, Oxford: Oxford University Press, via Google Books limited preview, 32. ISBN 0-1951-1833-2.
- ^ "Bruce Springsteen's 'The Rising' Set for July 30 release on Columbia Records", Shore Fire Media, 2002-06-03. Retrieved on 2007-12-13.
[edit] External links
| Preceded by Bad by Michael Jackson |
Billboard 200 number-one album November 7 - November 13, 1987 |
Succeeded by Dirty Dancing (soundtrack) by Various artists |
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