Ben French

The Bridges of Darlington County

“Is it wrong that I love ‘Human Touch’?”

This question was posed to me recently, and it’s the sort of question one can only ask an old, trusted friend. He was referring of course to the title song from Bruce Springsteen’s much-derided 1992 album and he had plenty reason to be embarrassed. The title itself is embarrassing.

If you’ve ever heard it, you will know that, in addition to its adult contemporary theme, it suffers from some pretty cheesy production. Bruce can never seem to get enough of Patti’s breathy backing vocals or the synth chime setting on Roy Bittan’s keyboard. Never.

But even though I feel a tinge of mortification each time I turn it on, I’m somehow won over by its end every damn time.

Why?

I would argue the answer can be found in the song’s bridge:

Oh girl that feeling of safety you prize
Well, it comes at a hard, hard price
You can’t shut off the risk and the pain
Without losin’ the love that remains
We’re all riders on this train

Those are the best lyrics of the song, probably the whole album, and Bruce belts them out with as much gusto as he can muster. That last line may read a bit trite, but it’s delivered well. Perfectly, in fact.

This bridge works the way a bridge is supposed to work: It takes a two dimensional song and makes it 3D. And in a song like this, where the singer is reaching for a higher meaning, it gives him a step up. It doesn’t just set up the solo or drive the listener to the third verse – it gives the song purpose. In five lines, Bruce sells you on the whole song and makes it so you don’t even mind the two-minute outro.  

When one starts to think about it – especially one who is home sick with a fever and can’t bother to think of anything else – one starts to realize Bruce may be the best bridge man in the business. While he continues to make songs with bad titles and production (see: “Queen of the Supermarket” from his last album), he manages to crank out superlative songs, thanks in large part to the power of great song structure.

Below are my votes for Bruce’s top 10 bridges. In committing myself to this ridiculous exercise, I gave myself two rules: The bridge can only come once in the song – most of these songs follow the classic ABABCAB song structure – and I’m only including songs where Bruce is singing actual lyrics (this rule disqualifies, among others, “Tunnel of Love.”) 

Bruce Springsteen’s Top 10 Bridges

10. Human Touch
See above.

9. Born to Run
It’s hard to avoid including this one, despite the line about boys trying to “look so hard.” The last line demands inclusion: I want to die with you Wendy on the streets tonight in an everlasting kiss. HUH. 

8. Brilliant Disguise
Desperate, divorce-era Bruce at its best:

Now look at me baby
struggling to do everything right
And then it all falls apart
when out go the lights
I’m just a lonely pilgrim
I walk this world in wealth
I want to know if it’s you I don’t trust
‘cause I damn sure don’t trust myself

7. Philadelphia
Not Bruce’s best song, but definitely one of his best bridges lyrically:

Ain’t no angel gonna greet me
It’s just you and I my friend
And my clothes don’t fit me no more
I walked a thousand miles
just to slip this skin

6. My Hometown
I don’t like this song. I hate its repetitive chorus. Actually, come to think of it, I don’t care if I never hear it again. But man it’s got a great bridge, one that sums up Reagan-era 1980s in less than 50 words:

Now Main Street’s whitewashed windows and vacant stores
Seems like there ain’t nobody wants to come down here no more
They’re closing down the textile mill across the railroad tracks
Foreman says these jobs are going boys and they ain’t coming back to your hometown

5. Living Proof
This song embodies the “mature,” post-divorce, post-fatherhood Bruce of 1992’s Lucky Town, the better, but still oddly produced twin brother of Human Touch. The bridge helps this song vie for the most underrated song in his catalog:

You shot through my anger and rage
To show me my prison was just an open cage
There were no keys no guards
Just one frightened man and some old shadows for bars

4. Rosalita
Young cocky Bruce bridge:

Now I know your mama she don’t like me ‘cause I play in a rock and  roll band
And I know your daddy he don’t dig me but he never did understand
Papa lowered the boom, he locked you in your room
I’m comin’ to lend a hand
I’m comin’ to liberate you, confiscate you, I want to be your man
Someday we’ll look back on this and it will all seem funny
But now you’re sad, your mama’s mad
And your papa says he knows that I don’t have any money
Tell him this is last chance to get his daughter in a fine romance
Because a record company, Rosie, just gave me a big advance”

3. Atlantic City
By my count, the only bridge on the entire Nebraska album:

Now our luck may have died and our love may be cold but with you forever I’ll stay
We’re goin’ out where the sand’s turnin’ to gold
So put on your stockin’s baby ‘cause the night’s getting cold

2. Thunder Road
Every song on Born to Run except “Meeting Across the River” has a bridge. “Jungleland,” disqualified here because it has, like, six parts and doesn’t follow the structure of the others, was damned hard to exclude. Especially that bridge-ish verse that starts: “In the parking lot the visionaries dress in the latest rage…” Anyway, the album has a whole lotta bridge going on.  But “Thunder Road” and “Backstreets” have the rest beat by a quite a distance. The album’s first track ends its bridge with some of the most romantic lyrics ever written:   

And I know you’re lonely
For words that I ain’t spoken
But tonight we’ll be free
All the promises’ll be broken

1. Backstreets
Without question Springsteen’s best bridge. Angry, sad, desperate, his emotions spill out as he reaches its end:

Blame it on the lies that killed us, blame it on the truth that ran us down.
You can blame it all on me Terry. It don’t matter to me now.
When the breakdown hit at midnight there was nothing left to say.
But I hated him and I hated you when you went away. WAAAAAA! WAAAA-AAAAAAAH!”

Runners Up:
- Something in the Night (“Nothing is forgotten or forgiven…”)
- Tougher Than The Rest (“The road is dark and it’s a thin thin line…”)
- Because The Night (“With love, we sleep, with doubt the vicious circle turns…”
- Spare Parts (“Janey heard about a woman over in Calverton…”)
- Two Hearts (“Sometimes it might seem like it was planned…”)
- Last To Die (“The sun sets in flames as the city burns”)
- Highway 29 (“In a little desert motel, the air was hot and clean…”)
- A Good Man Is Hard To Find (“Well there’s pictures on the table by her bed…”)
- Valentine’s Day (“Is it the sound of the leaves…”)
- Hard To Be A Saint in the City (“And the sages of the subway…”)

UPDATED
After posting this on Twitter, a number of worthwhile suggestions have come in. The first was from Sam Sadomsky, who suggested “Lift Me Up” and “Take Em As They Come” as Runners Up, while my lovely sister Susi threw her weight behind “If I Should Fall Behind.” Secondly, Greasy Lake pointed out rightly that I should have at least mentioned Abrams Bridge (“Darkness on the Edge of Town”).

Mix: Oh, Classic Me

This started out as a dad rock mix - a would-be angry response to all the negative hype around the would-be genre. Then I turned it into a tribute to my older brothers, who are both dads, and who have hipped me to some great and rather dad-ish rock over the years. Then I realized that I am, of course, a dad myself, as well as an older brother. At that point I realized this is just a mix about me. Classic me. Alternate titles include, “Minivan Sensei,” and “Music for the Cabin Down Below.” I think you get the picture.

Here’s the track list:

1. My Baby Gives It Away - Pete Townshend
2. The Brides Have Hit Glass - GBV
3. Reelin’ In The Years - Steely Dan
4. I Hope You’re Happy Now - Elvis Costello
5. Baby Missiles - War on Drugs
6. Do You Think I Really Care - The Rolling Stones
7. The Rabbit, The Bat & The Reindeer - Dr. Dog
8. Coney Island Winter - Garland Jeffreys
9. Children of the Revolution - T. Rex
10. Poor Poor Pitiful Me - Warren Zevon
11. Fitted Shirt - Spoon
12. Lonely Boy - The Black Keys
13. Protection - Graham Parker
14. Senator - Stephen Malkmus
15. California Dreamin’ - Eddie Hazel
16. Dawned On Me - Wilco

Stream on my 8tracks page or via this Spotify playlist.

Mix: 20 Songs from 2011

1. Bizness - Tune-Yards
2. Second Song - TV On The Radio
3. Some Children - Holy Ghost!
4. Mona Lisa - Atlas Sound
5. Spidey’s Curse - The Black Lips
6. Teenage Blood - Apex Minor
7. Paradise Is Not So Bad - Lifeguards
8. You’re Too Weird - Fruit Bats
9. Cheerleader - St. Vincent
10. The Bad In Each Other - Feist
11. Portland - Middle Brother
12. Diamond Way - Jeff the Brotherhood
13. Space Sister - Dear Lions
14. Holocene - Bon Iver
15. Doomsday - Tristen
16. The Afterlife - Paul Simon
17. Street Joy - White Denim
18. County Line - Cass McCombs
19. Holy Holy - Wye Oak
20. Get Right - Megafaun

Stream this playlist on Spotify.