Tunnel of Love (album)

Did You Know?

• Irish filmmaker Meiert Avis directed the music videos for "Brilliant Disguise", "One Step Up", "Tougher Than the Rest", and "Tunnel of Love".
• The video of the title track was nominated for five MTV Video Music Awards, including Video of the Year, and Best Editing.
• The intensely personal "Brilliant Disguise" video broke new ground on MTV, being a single shot without edits.

Background

Bruce Springsteen's 1987 album "Tunnel of Love" marked a shift in his songwriting. Critic Jon Pareles observed that Springsteen had turned his focus inward, crafting songs about love gone wrong as his own marriage to Julianne Phillips was falling apart. Instead of the arena-rock anthems about the working class that had defined his earlier work, most of the tracks here wrestled with the challenges of mature relationships. The music itself leaned toward midtempo ballads and pop-rock hymns. One standout, "Brilliant Disguise," has been described as a heart-wrenching exploration of never truly being able to know another person.

The album's commercial success was significant. It went triple platinum in the United States by April 1988. Three singles charted on the Billboard Hot 100: "Brilliant Disguise" peaked at number five, the title track "Tunnel of Love" reached number nine, and "One Step Up" hit number thirteen. For the 1988 Tunnel of Love Express Tour with the E Street Band, some songs were performed with arrangements by the Miami Horns. A companion EP from that tour included the album track "Tougher Than the Rest," a River outtake called "Be True," an acoustic reworking of "Born to Run," and a cover of Bob Dylan's "Chimes of Freedom."

B-sides on vinyl and cassette singles featured outtakes like "Lucky Man," "Two for the Road," and a 1979 track, "Roulette." The National Amusement Park Historical Association supplied amusement park tunnel of love memorabilia for the single's record sleeve. Years later, in 1995, country band the Mavericks scored a minor hit with a cover of the album's "All That Heaven Will Allow."

Critical reception

Music critic Robert Christgau, writing for Playboy at the time, found Tunnel of Love to be convincing and original, aside from its humorous opener and a clichéd follow-up track. He said the album zeroes in on fear of commitment as a pathology and battles it. In his Village Voice consumer guide, Christgau praised the introspective second half, noting it showed Springsteen’s decency and capacity for self-examination. Rolling Stone’s Steve Pond described the album as a varied, modestly scaled, modern-sounding pop record rather than rock and roll, and compared its unromantic love stories to Springsteen’s earlier socially conscious work about broken promises and American dreams.

The album placed second in the Village Voice’s annual Pazz & Jop critics poll for best album of the year. Christgau, who created the poll, ranked it third on his own personal list. Rolling Stone later placed Tunnel of Love at number 25 on its 1989 list of the 100 Best Albums of the Eighties, and at number 467 on its 2012 list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. In 1998, Q magazine readers voted it the 91st greatest album ever.

Catholic priest and sociologist Andrew Greeley, writing in America Magazine, argued that the album exemplifies the American Catholic imagination. In a 2014 Grantland piece, Steven Hyden called Tunnel of Love Springsteen’s most underrated record among fans, but in his own view, his best lyrically. Hyden wrote that listeners should not be allowed to hear the record until they have been married for a few years, though at that point it might hit too close to home.

He added that if Ingmar Bergman had been born in Freehold and started his artistic career at the Stone Pony, he would have made this album instead of Scenes From a Marriage. Despite its totally 1980s production, Hyden said the album represents the heaviest blues of Springsteen’s career, with songs about flirting, sex, falling in love, marriage, boredom, infidelity, and being stuck in the dark night from the second disc of The River.

Track listing

Springsteen’s previous album reportedly involved over 80 recorded songs, but the Tunnel of Love sessions produced only 19 known tracks, with 12 making the final album. The B-sides “Lucky Man” and “Two For the Road” later appeared on Tracks, alongside outtakes like “The Honeymooners,” “The Wish,” and “When You Need Me.” Another session track, “Part Man, Part Monkey,” was performed live during the Tunnel of Love Express Tour but remained unreleased; it was later re-recorded for a future release. The only other unreleased song, “Walking Through Midnight,” was co-written with Southside Johnny, who recorded it for his 1988 album Slow Dance.