U Talkin’ U2 To Me? - U Springin' Springsteen On My Bean? - Nebraska

Episode Date: October 31, 2023

Scott and Scott go track-by-track through Nebraska—Da Boss's sixth studio album and the only album he produced by himself. Plus, they discuss Adam doing a bit with Jeff Tweedy on Late Night with Seth Meyers, how politics is like a circus, and launch their new Who's The Boss? recap podcast, "Youse Talkin' Who's the Bossin'."

from born in the usa to death to my hometown this is you springing springsteen on my bean the comprehensive and encyclopedic compendium of all things Bruce. This is good rock and roll. Music. You like the new theme song? No. What's going on? I switched the theme song to Cadillac Ranch.

Oh, because I did not like it. I'm the one in charge of the theme song. I get to make it whatever I want. The one song so far that I've actively disliked. It's the theme song now. Okay. Kind of a dick move. I don't think so. I think it's a Sigma move. Yeah, I guess you're right. Sigma dick move.

I got Sigma dick. Hey, welcome to the show. This is you springing Springsteen on my bean. And new era for us with the new theme song. Yeah. Do you think now that we've officially had two eras, we could go on an eras tour? I hope so. God, do you think we could play SoFi Stadium, you and me? Probably.

Probably. How much would we have to pay them? I don't know if that's the right question to ask scott what do you think the right question to ask is how much are they paying us maybe all right boom boom um beige beige i wonder what the beige beige have you ever been to sofi stadium i went for for Beyonce. Yeah, I saw Taylor Swift, the Aaron's tour. That's right, yes. Cool Up went to that and did not invite me. Didn't get

an invitation. Didn't get an invite. With your wife. No, what happened was she was talking about, oh, I really want to go, I really want to go, and then one of her friends said, I can't go anymore, I have two tickets. And she went, yes! and immediately called her friend and said do you want to go to taylor sift i was taylor sift well that's part of the

problem i don't even know her name yeah that's an issue uh were you bummed out i would have gone although she probably had more fun going without me right you. You know what I mean? I think anyone has more fun going to anything without me. That's not true. Although I did see Wilco the other day. Oh, how was that? Thanks for the invite. No, that was, my friend actually went with me. And we, you know where we were, buddy.

Front row center. Oh, yeah. You gotta be. Was that at the Wiltern that was at the eights hotel oh the ace hotel right they did a few nights right they did they did three nights there they're doing two nights why in the world did i not go see wilco if they were in town i don't know have you ever seen wilco many times so and i was on uh seth myers with them just this past spring and i was like are you guys uh touring gonna be coming through la at all this and they said oh we'll

let you know adam we'll definitely we'll hook you up they said yeah we're this fall we should be coming through there and i just didn't keep an eye out. I do not expect them to remember that, but I should keep an eye out. It sounds like you made this Seth Meyers bond much the same way that I did with the guy who plays Ronan in The Avengers. Is that his name?

Ronan the Destroyer? in the Avengers his name Ronan the Destroyer Ronan the Accuser in the Marvel Universe of course I'm talking about a little fellow by the name of Lee Pace we're Seth Meyers buddies

obviously I knew I think someone else had told me they were coming so i should have gotten you know went and grabbed a few tits man i could have got and i completely forgot about it i could have gotten three instead i uh love wilco and i love that new record it's fantastic and i loved cruel country a few years ago that was fantastic they were wonderful and uh i i missed you i really wanted to see you there and you were not there apparently you did not know it was happening um we did kind of a fun bit um that on seth meyers where even did it now lee pace and i did not do a bit oh you didn't lee pace is a great actorace is a great actor. He's a great actor.

I went into his dressing room before the show, and I said, how you doing? He went, nervous. He did? Yeah. And I was like, oh, yeah, this is like actors are not used to going out on a stage in front of a bunch of people. And doing and speaking. Yeah. Yeah.

What was your bit? Tell us. We break it down. speaking yeah yeah what was your bit tell we break it down before the show i went and talked to uh jeff tweedy and the guys in the band and i was like i'm such you know i'm so and you i had met jeff tweedy before because he was on parks and rec once and you have so many bonds with this guy what isn't he like throwing ticks your way someone came up with the idea to have a bit where I talk about what a huge Wilco fan I am out with Seth. And we talk about Wilco for a bit. And then when Jeff Tweedy comes on later, Seth Meyers can ask him about me.

And we have him pretend like he has no idea who I am. Pretend. Yeah. Or play it real um and then we did it and then jeff came out and did his part but he played it so well and so real that it was like a bummer for the audience like it wasn't like a comedy yeah it just felt like oh they're gonna edit that out of the show which made it so much better i don't i doubt comedy yeah it just felt like oh they're gonna edit that out of the show which made it so much better i don't i doubt they edited it i thought it was way better it would have been really funny if you had talked about what how huge a wilco fan you were and then

they start playing and it cuts to you and you're on your phone and you're taking a nap or i just say oh no sorry no, sorry, wrong band, and walk out. And flip him off. Yeah, well, anyway, that's... Was that an episode of Show Business Stories? No, no, we gotta call it... You gotta shoot your shot. You gotta call it before it happens.

Gotta shoot my shot? Yeah, you gotta shoot your shot. Is this an episode of shooting your shot? I guess it is. Hey, everyone, welcome to shooting your shot this is scott and this is scott and today we're shooting our scots because the two scots are shooting their shots that's right scots and shots go together like scoots and toots they certainly do and that is of course uh what we've always said on every episode of this show. Every single ep. We go up and down with the scoots, the toots, the scots, and the shots.

That's right. From side to side as well. Side to side, up and down, scots, shots, scoots, and toots. I got a question. Yeah. What shots are you shooting this week? Scoots and toots. Bye.

Bye. Bye. That's why I say, hey man, nice shot. I don't know. Bye. Bye. I don't know. Hmm. I don't know. I, I, I,

I, I just don't know. It doesn't, I agree with it. It doesn't seem to have a future, but anyone can get better. I've heard worse. I have to say.

Yeah. Yeah. Totally. Uh, uh, I mean, I've heard worse i have to say yeah yeah totally uh uh i mean i've heard worse on this show so who am i to yeah that's what i was talking about i've never heard any other podcast oh you've never heard another podcast no oh you gotta listen to uh this guy he's a really good podcaster. He has a he's actually a musician. He has an album Darkness on Fedge of Town.

Hmm. Michael Babario? I don't think it's Michael Babario unless that's is that like a Robert Zimmerman Bob Dylan

kind of thing where it's Robert Babario. No, Michael Babario. Robert Michael Babario. No, Michael Babario. Robert Michael Babario. Oh, yeah. Maybe that's who it is.

Anyway, you should listen to a podcast. They're really fun. All right. What are you drinking today? You don't have taupe. I have taupe right here. Oh, geez. Man, I should have looked slightly to my left. You're right. Sorry, I'll turnaupe right here. Oh, geez, man.

I should have looked slightly to my left. You're right. Sorry, I'll turn the label towards you. There it is, Topo Chico. That's where the camera is, right? So we can do a plug in. Yeah. Camera three, zoom in on that.

Yeah. Tighter. Tighter. We just want one quarter of tighter. Come on. Label. Even tighter. We just want one quarter of the label. Even tighter. No, when I say tight, I don't mean like 1%. I mean like give me like 95% tighter.

When Scott says tight, tight, tight, tight, tighter. That means tightest. Tightest as tight as you can go. As tight as I don't even want to see it. And then I have this beverage as well. Okay, zoom out. Okay, aerial shot. Check this out.

Drone shot. Get our... It's the drone. Get our heads. Get the top of our heads. Hey! Wave to the drone. Get us waving.

Wave to our fans. And now tight. Tighter. Tighter! Tighter! Okay, now really far away. I want aerial. I want like like you're you're at 10 000 feet should i take a sip of course you should take a sip what is that by the way

by the way adams never drank anything in any of these episodes that is how he drinks after every sip i like to enjoy whatever i'm drinking i go to restaurants with him occasionally it's so embarrassing but that's what he sounds like what is it like what are the uh what are the specials tonight even when someone says something appetizing anytime there's something that either sounds or looks like it would be delicious, that's the sound I make. So watching TV, commercials. Name something delicious that would be in a commercial.

Pizza pie! I'm going to ask you one last time. What is in that can? It's a mini can. I wouldn't even say it's a half can. What is that, a third can? How many ounces is that? Tell me how many ounces before you tell me what it is.

Throw my peepers on here. Yeah. How many ounces? Eight fluid ounces. So that's more than half a can if you're going by the 12 fluid ounce can. That's true. Why does it look so goddamn small?

Because it's in my giant hand. Oh, that's true. Why does it look so goddamn small? Because it's in my giant hand. Oh, that's right. I forgot you have one giant hand. And one of my hands is huge. They modeled the foam fingers after you, didn't they? Yeah, that's where I get the majority of my money. And you're a man of leisure. See, look.

Does this look familiar? He's holding it up. Holding up my index finger. By the way, the other fingers are glued to your thumb i'm yeah yeah yeah well i i have to do so many casts that it becomes time consuming so you just have them surgically glued so that you don't have to waste the time yeah waste the time of of going like that what a time. Oh, think about the time we just saved on the podcast of me not going like that.

Well, what have you done with all that extra time? Made this podcast. So we have the foam finger, surgical glue to thank for that. Wow. If I had to waste my time, just by the way, it's 100% visual. I think people know what you're saying.

Oh, okay. If I hadn't saved that time, this podcast wouldn't exist. Now, you can't bend the pointer finger either, I'm noticing. No, I grafted a steel rod in there and removed my bones. Removed your bones? Yeah. What'd you do with those bones? I made a little dinosaur, took the bones, split them up, sucked out the marrow, put that into a pill.

Made a tiny dinosaur? Swallowed the pill, but then took the bones and made a little dinosaur, like a museum of natural history style that's amazing are all dinosaur bones just like human bones that someone arranged to look like a dinosaur finger bones that have been removed uh by humans who need to have their hand cast or foam fingers for their local teams you notice i had i was getting that surgery done but i couldn't afford the steel rod so it's just like yeah it's just just all bent over like a balloon with no air in it. It's drooping. Yeah.

Oh, well. Should we welcome the Bruce Springsteen fans? What's in your can, my good man? You haven't even told me. Oh, it's a little coffee. It's coffee. Coffee in a can? Yeah.

Don't you taste the aluminum? I don't taste the aluminum. You know why? Why? I don't know what aluminum tastes like. Here, let me give you some. Here's a can full of aluminum. Nom, nom, nom, nom.

Wonderful callback. Yes, let's welcome all the Bruce Springsteen fans. Fans of the boss. The boss, of course. By the way, speaking of Topo Chico, I wanted to say, do you think he's going to bring us some when he does the eventual... By the way, okay, we figured out what's been going on we've been doing this

this is episode one two three seven D four five six seven this is maybe episode seven or something like that

yep seven and we've been bemoaning the fact that da boss da boss has not hit us up as of yet. What do you mean by hit us up? Just like reached out? Yeah.

Yeah, yeah. Said hello. Just reached out. Yeah. You know what I mean? And has not asked us regarding our schedules, has not tried to schedule this two to three hour. I was thinking about this. Yeah.

I'm sure him knowing that we're in the entertainment business and show business, he's nervous. Well, I think he might be a little nervous. I think also he probably just assumed that since we were in the middle of a strike he doesn't want to cross the picket line this podcast is being picketed as we're doing it there's approximately 350 people yeah they're right outside um we have to cross the picket line every time we do it even though uh we are not a wga nor no sag uh i think it's sag isn't it is that what people

mean when they're saying sag they're referring to sag no not when they're talking about their titties what about your finger my finger is sag that's the one part of my body this so i i do a lot of finger work in sag movies and television shows. Sag movies. Movies. Like sagging. Like anything. Movies.

Yes. With like. Any movie that has anything sagging in it. You do your finger work. Interesting. But okay. So here's what happened. Yeah.

So Bruce, this is what we heard. Okay. Because we're Hollywood insiders. Yeah. We got word passed to us through the higher ups, as they say in the music biz. And Bruce heard about the show. and uh bruce heard about the show he really wanted to do our sit down two hours all chit chat one minute of salient info that we do either at the beginning or the end yep whichever whichever either dealer's choice get it out of the way yeah or a lot of tension leading up to it

so he really wanted to do it but because we're both in show business he got too nervous Get it out of the way or a lot of tension leading up to it. So he really wanted to do it, but because we're both in show business, he got too nervous and he's like, oh, yeah. And then he said, Spaghetti-O. And it was the first time he'd ever said, oh, Spaghetti-O. That can't be true. It's honestly true. Who was keeping track of that? There was an arbiter and an auditor.

An arbiter and an auditor. They joined forces and they shadowed him. Well, when you're an important person like Bruce Springsteen, you have to have an auditor uh and or an arbiter sounds like he kind of had the one guy he chose it and instead of um you have to have someone with you at all times at all times just to document what's

going on that's right and the minute he said that they were underneath the bed and they popped up and they looked at each other and their eyes got wide and they went fuck yes spaghetti because they both both those guys love spaghetti they are uh portly gentlemen let us just say yeah uh speaking of fitting under the bed i feel like it was a bit of a tight squeeze for these spaghettiO fans. These SpaghettiO heads. But I don't blame them because SpaghettiOs are so good. Full disclosure, we are sponsored by SpaghettiOs. Well, yeah. Of course we are. You tried doing a podcast and loving SpaghettiOs like the way we do and not having them be sponsors. By the way, I'm so

sick of all the SpaghettiOs ads on podcasts these days. All the time. And I know, yes, we're sorry. We're doing SpaghettiOs ads. And we love SpaghettiOs. But the thing is, is we love SpaghettiOs. Yeah. They're the only food.

I don't know if you knew this, Adam. What's that? The only round food that have a hole in the middle. Well, wait a second. What about a donut donut they're not round they're not no it's an optical illusion what shape are they actually they're actually flat and square you're just looking at them from the side anytime you look at them oh and so if you look at it from the side it looks round with a hole in the middle yeah it's totally an optical illusion that's fucking

crazy it's crazy and then all you have to do is like slightly turn your body clockwise or counterclockwise but usually you don't bother doing that because the donut looks so good you just and you eat it yeah before you turn your body and see that it's actually a flat square. There is a song that instructs you how to see a donut. And it's like, you look at the donut, you think it's round. You take two steps to the left. You see it's not round. Keep going. You take two steps to the right again it looks round

you take two more steps to the right you see it's not round that's that's just the first half of one verse whoa and there's so many more instructions i never knew that song was about looking at a donut and seeing what shape it was i know it's so easy to just not really hear the lyrics you know it's that uh i think it's about something completely different yeah it's like that song about tony danza you know yeah which one is that you know elton john goodbye yellow brick road no happy birthday tony danza when he sang Which one is that? You know, Elton John... Goodbye, Yellow Brick Road? No, Happy Birthday, Tony Danza, when he sang it to him at his 50th birthday party.

Wait, that's about Tony Danza? That's about Tony Danza. In what sense? In the sense of, I guess, he was trying to communicate that Tony Danza should enjoy his birthday, his big milestone 50th birthday party? Wow.

That Elton John played and did a five-hour concert at? So, Happy Birthday, Tony Danza is about Tony Danza. About the Tony Danza. We're talking about the boss? He first asked, who is the boss? Right. Right. Oh, fuck. who is the boss right right oh fuck is this podcast now kind of about tony danza i honestly

i didn't want to say it when we started but i think it kind of should be a who's the boss recap podcast yeah i think i think it already is i think this is the first episode. I think you're right. The boss is back. Hey, everyone. Welcome to You's Talking Who's the Bossin'. This is Scott. And this is Scott.

And this is the comprehensive and encyclopedic Compendium of All Things, Who's the Boss? And today we're talking about, this is the first episode, we're talking about episode one. Yeah. Season one. Season one, episode one. And it's got a really interesting title. And it has to do with, of course, we all know the characters. We got Tone. Oh, yeah, Tony.

Now, here's the interesting thing. Tony Danza is playing the character. But the name of the character is Tony. Tony Stanza. Yeah. Tony Costanza. Tony Stanza. Yeah. Tony Costanza. Tony Costanza. He's the father of George Costanza from Seinfeld.

Oh, I never even linked that together, but that makes sense. Yeah. The shows are very similar. He, in an early, early episode, and we'll get to it in one of our future episodes, he has sex with George's mother in just a torrid affair. Oh, wow. he has sex with George's mother in a, just a torrid affair. No. Wow.

And he looks into the camera and he's like, I think that one took and, and the eighties were different. It's were different. But, um, this episode, Tony stands,

uh, uh, it's called pilot. And that's because of his job as a pilot oh wow so that was his occupation he was also the housekeeper he did that on the

side for fun he didn't even get paid you hear a lot of this in the first episode I see and of course you got Samantha yeah Judith dark Judith dark And of course you got Samantha. Yeah. Judith Dark. Judith Dark.

Some Antha. Yeah. So by a recap podcast, we sit and we watch the episode. We just play the episode. So the audience can hear it. Can hear it, yeah, yeah. And it's kind of like they're recapping it for us. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Because they're just doing the episode. That's cool. Do you want to play it? Yeah. There is more to life than what's your limit. So take a chance and face the wind. Hey, everybody. My name's Tony Steads.

And welcome to my show. Hey, who's this? Hey. Hey, Tony. Come over here. Who the fuck are you? This is my neighbor. Come here.

Neighbor? Mwah, mwah, mwah. Mwah, mwah, mwah. This is my neighbor. Come here. Neighbor? You haven't even met the people who live in this house. Why am I... No, no, no. Bye. Okay, I gotta stop this. What is this show? This is...

This is not how I remember this show. Tony Danza playing Tony Stanza welcomes the audience to the show. I guess so, like breaking the fourth wall. And then suddenly the beautiful neighbor comes in. They make out. Who has the voice of a troll from New Jersey. You know what?

I don't like this show. Me neither. Let's not recap this show anymore. I don't think it's held up. Okay, bye. Bye. Good app. Yeah, that was great.

That was great. It reminded me, sort of nostalgic in a way. It reminded me about a lot of things that I forgot about. Who's the boss? Yeah, I really liked that show as a kid. I watched it every week. I loved the when I would watch, I would love the neighbor character. Oh, yeah.

The the the horny neighbor. Jersey housewife. Yeah. Who showed up. I remember very clearly showing up in episode one. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Came over and just wouldn't stop kissing Tony. I loved that character when I was a kid.

So it was great to hear about the, sort of the inception of that character. Yeah, and the behind the scenes kind of intrigue. No, that was, when you watch it, I know you could only hear it on the recap podcast, but when you watch it, you see the behind the scenes because there's a door that's open and you see into the writer's room. Yeah. And they're typing everything as the show is going on.

It's really fascinating. Yeah, they wrote that show while it was airing. Yeah, and they typed it into the teleprompter and just made everyone say whatever. Yeah, that's why it worked so well. That's where the magic came from. That really, really is. Wow.

An incredible, incredible first episode of that show. Yeah. Can't wait to hear more from them. Many more. They didn't say they weren't going to do any more, but I think that's all hype. I don't buy it.

I don't buy it for a second. All right. I bought it for one second. Okay. Yeah. I mean, a few seconds. For a couple seconds?

Sure. Maybe a full minute. That's a good press story. 60 seconds. Unless it gets you for a few. All right, maybe 120. Okay. You know, three hours.

Three hours I maybe sat around bemoaning the fact that this wasn't going to continue. Sure. Fine. You. Fine. You got me. Egg on my face, Mr. Humpty Dumpty. I guess I'm too close to your wall. Yeah. How many times have I said that?

Constantly. Yeah. What's up, Adam great great yeah it was great it was great it was great stuff um this is the the bruce springsteen show yeah um if you're confused by the way this is not bruce springsteen's podcast that he does with Obama. Well, I mean, not technically the same, but they have a few things in common, I would say. Yeah, I mean,

it's our sister show. We certainly could show that. Our sister show. If you're interested in that show, you're probably interested in this show. It's like how Beverly Hills and Cannes are sister cities. Exactly.

It'd be interesting to do an Obama recap podcast. Like recapping his presidency? Yeah, like every day. Just talk about what he did. You know what I would be really looking forward to are those first hundred days, the honeymoon phase. Oh boy.

And then that first S-O-T-U. State of the Union. Sometimes I feel like the S-O-T-U is more like the S-F-T-U. You know what I mean? What does that stand for? Shut the fuck up. Oh, man. You said it.

You know what I mean? Because it's like politics these days. I was saying this the other day. It's kind of like, you know, the Ringling Brothers. Yeah. And Barnum. Sure. And Bailey Circus.

It's kind of like they were passing through town one day. The circus. Yeah. The circus. Yeah. The circus. They put down stakes. Mm-hmm. The big top. All the trappings.

Sure. You know what I mean? Popcorn, candy. A lion. One lion. Popcorn. Candy. Two lions.

Two lions, a monkey. Popcorn. Candy. Popcorn. Three lions. Popcorn. Candy. Two lions. Two lions, a monkey. Popcorn. Candy. Popcorn. Three lions. Popcorn. Candy. Four lions.

It's crazy how popcorn makes lions multiply. It attracts them. And then suddenly the circus the next day pulled up stakes and they went on to the other town. Yeah. But they forgot the clowns. Yeah. So you're saying. The clowns looked around.

They're like, what town is this? We're strapped in for the rest of our lives. You're saying politics, modern politics is full of clowns. Hold on. It was a little town called Washington, D.C. Yeah. I totally get it. Yeah.

And those clowns were like, you know what? We can't be clowns anymore. Let's wash our makeup off. But you know what we should do is storm the Capitol and take over. Oh, so this is like a January 6th parable. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I see. Yeah.

Anyway. Politics. Oh, so this is like a January 6th. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I see. Yeah. Anyway, politics. Oh, politics. Yeah. Obama recap. Recap show. Yeah. Or we could just do a whole podcast on the tan suit.

Oh, man. My favorite color and my favorite piece of menswear. Favorite president. Favorite president. Favorite president. Those three things combined, I was so stoked that day. Me too. And then everyone was like, tan suit. And I was like, well, you just wait till there's a podcast about all this. Yeah.

Just wait. We'll get the last laugh. Just wait. And everyone was waiting. And they've been waiting. It was like, what, 14 years? Yeah, I think so. Yeah. A lot of people waiting. And they've been waiting. It was like, what, 14 years? Yeah, I think so. Yeah, a lot of people waiting.

At this point, yeah. Sorry to all those people. We'll get it out. We'll get it out at some point. Adam, are you excited to talk about the gentleman known as Bruce Springsteen today? The old Nebraska? The old Nebraska. We're going to talk about it we're going to dare i say break it down um but we have to take a break yeah because uh we tried to get to it before we had to take a break but we have to take a break now okay do we need to take a break, but we have to take a break now. Okay.

Do we need to take a break? We need to take a break. So we're going to take a break. When we come back, we're going to talk about the album Nebraska on You Spring and Springsteen on My Bean. We'll be right back. You spring and spring soon on my bean i love how they count one two three four and that's part of the genius of max weinberg if he didn't count they'd still be doing that intro to this day if he didn't count none of us would know how to count that's right max weinberg i'm gonna play this song for my little baby girl so that she learns how to count yep that's how all our children learned how to count um i'm excited to yeah that album too for the rise

that's coming up if we ever get to it, we might be a little sidetracked with our Who's the Boss podcast. Oh yeah, and the Who's the Boss podcast. Now we are talking about an album this week called Nebraska, not Braska. called Nebraska. Not Braska.

And let's do the stats. What do you say, Adam? Yeah. Let's figure out the stats. Okay, released September 30th, 1982. So just 24 hours before spooky season starts. Oh, man, that is such a scary time to release an album. It really, really is. You know what?

This album does remind me of fall in a lot of ways. So I think it's a good- Oh really? Why, Scott? Because in every song you hear someone falling down in the background. Oh my God, you're right. I don't know what was going on there. I don't know. What's with all the toad,'re right i don't know what's your what's i don't know what's all

that what's with all the toad bro i don't know that's a lot of toad wait is this an episode of what's with all the toad bro yep hey everyone welcome to what's with all The Tude Bro. This is Scott. And this is Scott. My dude bro with the tude bro. What's with all the tude bro? Nothing. Seriously, is everything alright?

Yeah, um, I'm fine. What's going on? It seems like you have a lot of anger inside of you. I feel like I just... Like you're lashing out. Like something hurts. Yeah. Like there's something, when you say stuff,

it hurts, and I feel like I have to bite back, if that makes sense. Am I... Is it hurting because I'm saying something that's insulting you?

Because I... Oh, yeah, Scott. You insult me so well. You cut so deep. I know. I'm truly sorry. Oh, oh, thanks thanks that makes everything okay just heals the wounds thank you so much thank you though uh sincerely does that does that yeah no

that's great i'm yeah i apologize you're a great friend of mine absolutely no problem i you know what i was overreacting. Okay. I understand. It's hard to break those patterns. I know. It's neural pathways that you have to sort of. Yeah. And we still can change them the older we get. We can change.

I really do. If you work on it, you really can change. Oh, yeah. You just work on it and everything's okay. I mean, it's not okay, but I think that you can make steps to get better. Oh, you can take steps? Yeah. Like you're walking up to get better. Oh, you can take steps? Yeah. Like you're walking up a flight of stairs?

Fuck you. Hey, what's with all the toot, bro? I apologize. Everything. Things, you know what? Everything all right at home? Things are great. Are things okay at home?

Everything is great. You have a lot to be thankful for, honestly. I know that your career, like you're on, I mean, yeah, you're on kind of an upswing, although the strike sort of- The strike, mother, you know what? Just kind of like just sidelined you for months and months and months. But you know what? I got to look inward. I think that's really what happened is the town got to just slow down for a second.

Yeah. A lot like COVID made us really appreciate it. Yeah. And you have so much to be thankful for. I mean, you have a wonderful family. Thank you. You have somehow made money off doing something that you're not really great at. Yeah.

I can't even begin to count my blessings. There are so many. And I know that you haven't gotten everything that you want. You don't have any awards. But you know what? That's what life is. You know what? Yeah.

That stuff is just meaningless. yeah that stuff is is just meaningless you know and i know that industry rumors are that you're going to be fired from your show soon again who cares you have so much to be thankful for other than that i know that there's talk gossip around in social circles that your wife is leaving you what wait are you serious yeah i mean it's just talk it's like gossip you know like idle it's fine it's yeah fine but you have so much to be thankful for yeah you keep saying that i know that many times your doctor got you and me confused and sent me your test results and you're gonna die within the next you saw those yes yeah you're gonna die within the next uh 30 minutes but you're saying i thought i thought it said 30 years oh no

no no everyone's gonna die in the next 30 years you're gonna die in the next 30 minutes 30 minutes yeah wait how long ago did he send that about 29 minutes ago so wait wait, hold on. Do you have a calculator on your phone? Because I'm not. Yeah, here. You got to unlock it with a code, though. I don't think you can get it. What's your code? Okay, it's 6.

6. 9. 9. 6. 6. 9. Oh, 6, 9, 6, 9, 6, 9, bro. Okay, hold okay hold on i gotta stay focused here yeah uh okay okay uh 30 minutes and how long sorry how long ago was that 29 minutes 30 seconds wait 20 30

minus maybe it's easier to do seconds so there's do do 30 times 60 30 times uh that's 1800 30 times six to 30 times 1800 uh 60 equals 1800 yeah um times no why are you timesing something well that's 1800 uh yeah seconds yeah oh in 30 minutes yeah okay and he and he contacted me about 17 89 seconds ago okay 17 so 1800 minus 1789 89 equals 11 11 what what? 11 seconds. 11 seconds. Yeah, the math checks out there. Well, if that's the case, then according to my calculations... Hold on. Let me do CPR.

Clear! Clear! Clear! Clear! Clear! Saved your life, bro. What? What just happened?

You were dead. You were medically... I pronounced you dead. You pronounced me dead. Yeah. I legally, since we're recording on a boat... Okay, Dr. Ackerman. Since we're on a boat, I, due to maritime law, I'm allowed to legally pronounce you dead.

And I did. And then I saved your life. And then you also, what's this marriage certificate? That's right, yeah. I'm also able to marry people. Who did I marry? You're looking at him, bro. While I was passed away, we got

married? Well, you died, which means you get an automatic divorce. Okay. And you're a free man, and I know how much money you have. And you couldn't sign a prenup. And due to maritime law, I was able to marry you. Yes. Fantastic. Dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun.

Bye. Bye. fantastic bye what was that podcast what's with all the toad bro pretty interesting inaugural episode pretty interesting it went so many different places um okay so nebraska yes nebraska september 30th 1982 this is two years after his previous album which we really covered extensively uh the river and uh almost two years to the day about 17 days shy of being two years to the day. And Columbia, of course, is the label. Produced now, a lot of his other records produced by a collection of people. This is produced solely by Bruce Springsteen.

And we'll talk about why very soon. Doesn't surprise me the track he was on. Doesn't surprise me that he would want to take over the reins a little bit more. That's right. You know what? And you know what? I'm glad he did.

I'm glad he did. Although I do believe that it's just for this record and he's back to multiple producers for the next one. But we'll talk about why. OK, so Nebraska, two years after the river, what's going on with him? Okay, so he gets off of the river tour, which probably lasts a year or so, right? Mm-hmm. He has a top 10 hit with Hungry Heart. Yeah, he's huge now.

He's a big star. He has money for the first time because he laid out all that money to buy his contract um back bucco dolores so he's got bucco dolores in his pocket so uh what does he do he should be out there like on amazon prime yeah just like buy an ipad after ipad after ipad i mean i'm sure he's a prime member at the very it's got to be a Prime member. It's so cheap. It's like, what, $40 a year? Yeah, and then you get the-

Free shipping? Don't you get the video service free or the streaming app free? I think you do. If you're a Prime member. If you're a Prime member. It's so much, such a better deal than Apple. It's a great deal.

And then they have Prime days. Apple TV Plus. Yeah. Such a better deal. great deal apple and then they have prime apple tv plus yeah such a better deal because with apple tv plus you like get like three shows no there's a bunch of shows they they're they have this catalog of of movies plus you get it's like catalog of movies they have like three movies yeah you that's a catalog are you saying that's not a catalog of movies come on movies by the way you know how like a murder of crows uh a murder describes the group of crows i think murder of movies i think a catalog of movies like

anytime you're describing more than one movie it's a catalog yeah in any, so Springsteen gets off the road. He starts renting a farm in the middle of New Jersey. Yeah. Like a rural farm. Yeah. He doesn't tell anyone where he's at. Max Weinberg talks about the fact that no one knew where he was. And he just like dropped off the face of the earth.

Was it just like trying to decompress from this huge arena tour and yeah a lot of people say that it was because he like he he admits that he puts up a big front when he's performing of like how good of a time he's having and he does have a good time performing but he's normally a very insular, you know, we talked about his depression before, you know, kind of outsider guy. Yeah. And so I think. Introvert. Introvert.

He moves away. Some people say it's because he had this top 10 hit and he got a taste of what the fame was like and could sense that it was just going to get bigger yeah and so he just wanted to drop off the face of the earth for a while so he's in the middle of um new jersey and is thinking about okay what do i do for my new album and he thinks about the other the last few albums that we covered he has so many songs written for it i think we talked about the river he had 80 i think even in the documentary he had over a hundred maybe they were talking about songs and he was working them all out in the studio like he arrived with half an idea sometimes and then they would just work on it and that's my friend expensive yeah and so

they spent a lot of money in the studio and this is this before people were kind of just building their own home studios unless you were like yeah paul mccartney people weren't really doing that yeah like even paul mccartney like they built abbey road not at home yeah it you know they built it to their specifications the equipment was enormous and you needed a facility rather than just being able yeah yeah so he um he would when he made all those other albums they rented studios for a year you know at a time at least or at most i'm not quite sure um but definitely not one year to the day right i like maybe 363 days sure or 367 i can only imagine bruce springsteen on day

365 he had signed a year lease he's like pack it up boys let's get out we gotta get the fuck out of here um but so he's in the middle of new jersey and he thinks to himself you know what for the next album i don't want to go in in there and just find it in the studio because it's so time-consuming and it's so expensive. So I want to work out the songs before I go in there. buys him uh i think it's called the uh the tiak 144 which is the first four track recorder so they just so technology just finally puts out something that you can record when you say a four track recorder what that means is and i used to have one when i was in high school is it's like a little tape recorder thing with four different inputs where you could record yourself playing guitar on one track and really work that out and then you press record on the next track and you sing along with the previous guitar and you you

basically can mix yourself doing four different things on tape like or like three instruments and vocals yeah exactly and before before this anytime he wanted to record any songs he would do it just press record and play on a boom box right and get shitty sound that way but this is the first time that he had ever had one of these so and how big was this piece of equipment in 1982 like two city blocks yeah okay so you know fairly big fairly i mean it's not as big as like three city blocks three city blocks yeah but bigger than one definitely yeah two yeah so um so for the first time in his life, he's, he's able to sort of like work on different parts to the songs and really perfect the songs. And, um, he records these four tracks and then he mixes them all down through a boom box using an effects pedal, which is what gives it sort of, uh uh the echo and this sort of haunting feeling you know so he mixes it through an effects pedal into just like a boombox tape right after it's all recorded he mixes it through mixes so i i'm not like mixes what the guitar through the effects

or all of it the uh he takes the four-track recorder with everything yeah hooks it through a guitar pedal like with delay oh that's cool and then makes a different tape of that on a boombox right oh cool that's what that's what i'm guessing is what and he just did this by himself by himself on his farm yes with the intention of i'm going to bring this into the studio and we're going to work out. We're going to figure it out. We're going to work out, you know, what we do with this, these albums. Full band versions. Full band versions. And so he's, by the way.

FPVs. He's, yes, FPVs, definitely. He's carrying around this tape, which is the only tape he has of it, by the way, which he doesn't intend to do anything with it, in his jacket pocket for weeks not months by the way like not being careful with it and just you're like oh this is my demo like a like a regular cassette yeah just a cassette right so um and it's very hard to talk about this record without talking about the next record um born in the usa because they're they're linked and will and i did not know this by the way until i was doing research on the i did not know that i did not know that johnny carson i did not know my name was johnny carson that's pretty good ed mcmahon to my right you know what

i found on youtube yesterday what was what are you doing johnny carson and david letterman having a dispute and judge wapner uh mediating that's fantastic uh okay go ahead um so yeah so he's just he just has this cassette and he's just wandering around with it um listening to it every once in a while going like oh that's a bop uh-huh um what is that's a bop that meaning that this song is good it's a quality song um so he then takes it into this dude um oh he sends it to john lando his sure producer. And he, along with a note saying like, hey, this breaks a little ground for me, I think. This is like a new way of writing. Yeah. It's very sparse.

It's just him and an acoustic guitar. Occasionally, I think there's one song with an electric. Occasionally, he'll do a couple other instruments. But no drums. No drums. On the whole record, right? No drums. Because Max, who, by the the way i didn't get to mention

on the river episode max almost got fired during the river oh really because he couldn't what i'm guessing is he couldn't keep time well enough and uh because he was a live drummer and he always just kind of played to the feel of whatever bruce was doing and then they had to take him aside and bruce was like hey man you gotta get your shit together you mean like in a live setting he wasn't keeping time well enough no in a live setting he was fine because in the studio the time can speed up or slow down and it doesn't really matter but in the studio he wasn't able to like lay down the track that they all base everything yeah whoa and he was just doing it like he was live and in spring scene was like you got

to get your shit together and he sort of like rose to the challenge a little bit did he have to just start using a click track or something i don't think so i think he just like got better at it like it forced him to sort of like get better figure it out yeah um i meant to say that on a previous i think i teased like well let's cut that out and drop it into the previous uh episode just like let's cut this whole episode out and drop it into the previous episode done so um so he brings it he sends it to john lando then he brings it into the studio and this is what's really interesting and i i never knew this about it until i i started doing research for it and i don't know if you knew about it because this was the first record you bought right the first springsteen record it's i don't know if you knew about it because this was the first record you bought right the first springsteen record it's i don't know if it's the first one i owned but it's the first one that i got really connected to and kind of uh dove into bruce springsteen it's my conduit

into the world of the bruce springsteen so they these these songs that are on this record, Nebraska, and there are 10 of them. Yes. There were also probably another, I don't know, another 10 or another 20 or whatever. He had this demo tape of these 20 songs, 20, 30 songs. Where are those so here's here's what happened he had the intention of recording them all with the whole band and they did fbvs the fbvs yes so they did do that they did do it so they have they have full band versions it's called electric nebraska it's referred to as electric not called officially but they have full band versions of every single one of these nebraska songs in the style of born in the usa and a lot of these songs that were on

this demo tape became born in the usa so those full band versions there there are Nebraska versions of like Glory Days and Cover Me and all these songs. Where the fuck are they? No Surrender? Yeah. So all of the Born in the USA stuff, other than like Dancing in the Dark, I think it was, which was written at the very end. There's all these like Nebraska versions, very sparse versions that sound like nebraska and conversely there are born in the usa type versions of all of the nebraska songs fbvs fbvs of course you know exactly what i'm saying now where are all of these they haven't put these out they haven't put these out there the one they've put out is the wtf stfu I'm saying this to you right now. I will stop.

I promise. You don't have to. I love this. But yeah, they've talked about, there are rumors that next year on the 40th anniversary of Born in the USA. Can you get all that shit? They're going to put out a full box set of all the Nebraska stuff as well as all of the born in the usa stuff spring scene even considered putting it out as a double album with one record being the nebraska acoustic stuff and one record being born in the usa because correct me if i'm wrong but the 40th

anniversary of nebraska they didn't put anything nothing out yeah so next year is the 40th of Born in the USA, and there's talk that they're going to put out a box set. There's chatter? A little chit-chat, a little chatter. That would be amazing. And he might do the tour, much like the River Tour, where he does the full Born in the USA and maybe even Nebraska stuff. That would be amazing if it's Nebraska by himself and come out and do Born in the USA. Yeah. And takes a long

intermission, like... Four hours. Four hours, just so you can get lunch, you can go back home, take a shit. Take a nippy nap and take a shit. It's like, I don't want to shit in the fucking Coliseum bathroom. No one wants to shit at the fucking

SoFi or whatever. Yeah, exactly. I mean, great venue. Great venue. Who wants to shit? All bands should take a break every 20 minutes of about four hours. So everyone can go home and take a shit. Oh, boy.

So what happens is they work on these electric versions of all the songs. Yeah. And John Lando. And then he's like, no thanks, guys. Well, John Lando, he says like, okay, maybe just drum with brushes. He's trying to capture the magic of this tape. This just cassette tape that Bruce has in his jacket pocket.

They're trying to capture. Still in his jacket pocket? He never took off his jacket. Is it in his jacket pocket. They're trying to capture. Still in his jacket pocket. He never took off his jacket. Is it in his jacket pocket as we sit here? Yes, that's right. Oh my God. Um,

and, and they do it with some of the songs, you know, they're, they're able to do cut good versions of glory days and all this kind of stuff. No surrender. Cover me.

Those are great. Born in the USA. He's able to. So I have a question. Yeah. Um, yes. Uh in the USA. He's able to cover. So I have a question. Yeah. Yes. Let me call on, yes, Adam in the back. Thank you.

Adam Scott, long-time listener, first-time caller. Oh, okay. Why haven't you called before? I just, I had never had a phone. But I love. Did your parents not allow you to have a phone? Parents didn't allow me to have a phone. And then I became a grown-up, did not know how to had a phone, but I loved- Did your parents not allow you to have a phone? Parents didn't allow me to have a phone, and then I became a grownup, did not know how to get a phone,

but I listened to your show. I love your show. What do you listen to it on? My phone. My question is, and I'll take my answer off the air. My question is, the FBVs of the Nebraska songs that ended up on Born in the USA, are those literally the FBVs they recorded at the time off these demos? Or did they regroup a year or so later and record Born in the USA as its own thing?

Or is that album, as we hear it today, as we sit here today, is that the actual versions they made off those original demos? Again, I'll take my answer off the air. I'll answer you off the air. Thank you for having me. Yeah. All right. Bye. Thank you.

Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Of course I can't answer that because that would leave us with nothing to talk about for the next episode. Thank you very much. But I'll answer you off air. But what we do have is they were

working on these sort of like soft band, full band versions of a lot of the songs that ended up on Nebraska and they just felt like it was losing the magic somehow. Like they were stripping away everything that made them sort of eerie and cool.

Special. Special. And then Little Steven was like, hey, before I jet off to star in The Sopranos. In 15 years. Yeah. What if you just put out these songs as an album? Because this might just be the album. This was Little Steven's idea? Yeah.

He has all the best ideas. He has great, or at least they, I bet he also has 30 horrible ones sure like you never hear about street bands was he gone by this point no no he's still there um he's um we'll talk about that next episode but um so uh a lot of material for the next episode. Um, so they, they gather these 10 songs that they aren't able to replicate in any other form. And they're just like, I guess this is the record, but they're all just kind of shittily recorded on a cassette. Yeah. on a cassette yeah and they can't even transfer it to vinyl because the vinyl won't recognize it for some reason getting very technical here but the vinyl because there's so much hiss or something

the vinyl won't recognize it and so they can't even make records out of it and so they have to then go to a facility to sort of like again i don't know the technical stuff but but there a facility made it able to actually be able to put this stuff out with like noise reduction or something like yeah whatever the room noise or whatever was making it impossible to put it on vinyl yeah something something to that effect so they had to they had to go through a very laborious process of saving this tape that he didn't even know he was ever going to use um in order to put it out and but they were able to and that's what we have is the nebraska album and so we have 10 songs they're all very primitively recorded they're all just performed by bruce springsteen that's why he

produced it technically but it's him just like recording on a four track and then putting echo on it yeah so it is the most sparse thing he ever put out it's something that no one expected him to ever put out um and yet it is it's become this. Yeah. And that was part of what kind of hooked me into him at the time was I knew Bruce Springsteen just kind of casually as this big superstar. Born in the USA was this big, slick, mainstream thing. So when I discovered Nebraska and how rough it sounded, I couldn't believe that this guy made this right album this sounded like even rougher than like early bob dylan it was just it's so homemade and it sounds like music from another world yes in a way because there is no album that really sounds anything i like the more modern kind of analogy you could say is it's like early iron and

wine kind of yeah albums where it's like those are all demos and they have the hiss totally and and and they have a quality that once he started making full band stuff a lot of people miss yeah and and i think also it reminds me of like the Elvis Son Studio demos. It's kind of like that too. Yeah. So it's just this eerie album and then add to it the subject matter of a lot of the songs. And Bruce Springsteen is again in sort of a depression and writing about things he's never written about before.

So it's a very interesting album. We need to take a break. When we come back, we will listen to the album we're talking about and track by track. And you'll hear Nebraska. We'll be right back with more. You spring and spring scene on my bean after this. Welcome back. You spring and spring scene on my bean. I bought a booze in my house in Hollywood Hills.

You spring and spring scene on my bean. And we're here talking about Nebraska. You know, another thing about Nebraska that's super interesting is when he's kind of gone and made. If you say this is super interesting and it's not interesting, I'm going to spank you. Okay. Then I will. Can spank you. Okay. Then I will... Can I redress? Sure.

Something that is possibly interesting. Okay, even possibly interesting and it's not interesting, I'm going to spank you. There's still a bit of a promise in there, isn't there? You know, something that's super boring about Nebraska, just as far as my observation goes... Now, if this is not super boring, I'm going to spank you. Okay. I'm

willing to keep going forward. Is that when he's tried to make other records in that similar vein, like Tom Joad and Devils in Dust to a certain extent, it's never quite captured that same magic. Even though those are awesome records

in their own way there it's never been quite the same i gotta say it started off interesting and i was ready to spank you but it became pretty boring right trailed off and made it boring by the end so good on you um okay so let's hear the songs of Nebraska. You'll hear exactly the quality of the songs when we play the first one. The first one is called Nebraska. It's the titular song off Nebraska. It is based on a serial killer.

So we're kind of starting out on a really happy note. Yes, exactly. He'd been watching movies like Badlands. I think the movie Badlands is based on the same serial killer. Charlie Sheen and Sissy Spacek. Martin Sheen, by the way, is not a serial killer. We want to make sure that everyone knows that. He did, we all know, murder Rob Lowe during the West Wing.

And Rob Lowe's clone went on to star in Parks and Rec. That's right. He told you that story, right, about how, but he's only murdered one person. That's right. Yeah. So that we know of. And we know this because you starred in Parks and Rec with Rob Lowe's clone. Clone.

Yeah. Rob Clone is what is. You just put a C before his name and an N at the end of it. Rob Clone. Rob Clone. And no one knew what was going on. No one. I mean, the opening credits of Parks and Rec.

It says Rob Clone. But no one. And no one picked up. No credits of parks and rec says rob clung but no one picked up no one noticed it's crazy um so uh yeah charlie starkweather is the uh is the killer that he was singing about and um nice guy not so nice guy but uh springsteen is sort of talking about being isolated and where the kind of isolation that he was going through sort of can lead you if you start thinking that all of society's rules

kind of don't apply to you and are kind of bullshit. Anyway, this is the first song off Nebraska. This is Nebraska by Bruce Springsteen. ¶¶ I saw her standing on her front lawn Just a twirl in her baton Me and her went for a ride soon And ten innocent people died From the town of Lincoln, Nebraska

Where they sawed off 14 on my lap Through the bad lines of wine on me I killed everything in my path I can't say that I'm sorry for the things that we've done At least for a little while Me and her, had a some fun now the joy brought in

guilty verdict killed ten people and the judge this is sort of it starts

when he sees his teenage girlfriend uh that uh he killed the people with after he's

and then says then ten people died. Yeah. Very different. Yeah. So that's the guy that Badlands is based on. Oh, interesting. Springsteen was also sort of, he was reading a lot of the writer Flannery O'Connor at the time.

And so he was like trying to use the economy of language that Flannery O'Connor did as well and not being as verbose. I mean, this is such a different, uh, writing style then, you know, remember blinded by the light and everything on the first album that had rhyme upon rhyme, you know,

and all the, all very verbose. It's like a syllable Palooza. Oh God. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

I mean, just even the word syllable has three of them in i know it's already overdoing it funny it's like what if what if we called syllables just like flarbs i know it would make more sense right i mean it wouldn't make sense because there's only one flarb in the word it wouldn't make that's why syllable is so great there's three syllables in there yeah just enough yeah i know um so yeah uh nebraska definitely a different kind of thing that spring scene is doing here such a beautiful catchy melody yes in the midst of also also very simply written in terms musically it's just kind of like two or three. A lot of these songs are just two or three chords. And you like it.

Love it. I love it very much. Nebraska. Not my favorite song on the album. But I love it very much. But you love it very much. Okay. So let's then go.

Do you have a fave? Yeah. Okay. Let's go to track two on side one this is uh the song atlantic city and this is maybe i would say them i think it's the most well-known track but what do you think yeah probably this is the first single as well this is my first the first one that really caught my ear as a teen so you played the first song and then you were like not catching this ear i'm a teen i'm a teen i need catchy pop earworms this this uh this is probably the most well-known song it's atlantic city here we go well they blew up the chicken man in philly last night

now they blew up his house too Down on the boardwalk They're getting ready for a fight Gonna see what them racket boys can do Now there's trouble busting in From out of state And the D.A. can't get no relief Gonna be a rumble out on the promenade

And the gambling commission's hanging on by the skin of its tooth Well now, everything dies, baby, that's a fact Maybe everything that dies someday comes back Put your makeup on, fix your hair pretty And meet me tonight in Atlantic City Well, I got a job and tried to put my money away But I got debts that no honest man can pay So I drew what I had from the central trust

And I bought us two tickets on that close city bus Baby, everything dies, maybe that's a bet And maybe everything that dies will someday come back. Put your makeup on. Put your hair up pretty. And meet me at night in Atlantic City. Atlantic City, if I was making you a mixtape in high school, that would be on it.

If you now were making, and you're making a mixtape for someone who's in high school currently? No. No, but that was, yeah. I mean, that was like one of my go-tos. And, you know, people in high school, or at least my high school, no one knew this song at all. There's no way. And so I was like, anyway.

So it's about Atlantic City. It's about the sort of organized crime. They say they blew up the Chicken Man, and that's Phil the Chicken Man Testa, who was killed by a gangster who planted a nail bomb in his row house in 1981. It's all about legalizing gambling and how unsure everyone was about that a little bit. It also sounds like someone who's desperate.

Desperate and going to do in linux city to bet their all their savings on you know yeah he's he talks this is also the one of the more political songs on the record a reaction to reagan uh policies he's talking about debts that no man should be able to pay uh and uh there are a couple songs on this that are real reactions to what was going on politically at the time that trickled down economics yes heard of it

I believe I have okay so this song also like when they do it in concert it's a big full band thing and it's what's the next song after the one we're talking about mansion on the hill the oh you mean atlantic city atlantic city yes yes when they do it when they do it live it's yeah but mansion on the hill's coming up are you happy i am no i i thought you meant mansion

on the hill but um yeah no no this song this song they do it they they do and and the covers like the hold steady when they do it it's a big um big full band thing yeah so this is one that very easily could have been on born in the usa and i kind of really want to hear the full band version of it um because when he plays it with a full band in in concert it's amazing it just brings down the house um what do we think of atlantic so obviously you like it because you're uh putting it on mixtapes yeah i love it it was my early uh early favorite it's definitely one that i love it it's on like the best ofs like yeah uh and it doesn't sound out of place when you listen to it just sounds like oh yeah that's a bruce springsteen song but then when you listen to it. It just sounds like, oh yeah, that's a Bruce Springsteen song.

But then when you know that it's just on a four track, like you can hear, I hear even one like sort of like pop on the mic, like he hits it or something. And his backing vocal is so haunting and rough. And it also, it almost sounds like there's keyboards in there, but I think it's just him putting it through that pedal and making the sound, you know, kind of filling it up with these sounds. Yeah. Occasionally, he will play a glockenspiel. Oh, a mandolin is on it. I think you can hear a mandolin on it. On that song?

Yeah. Yeah, I see. He also plays a tambourine occasionally and an organ and a synthesizer on one song. But the mandolin is what I heard on that. also plays a tambourine occasionally uh and an organ and a synthesizer on one song but uh the mandolin is is what i heard on that um yeah it's uh it's uh a good song that that uh people like very good very very good i think i was already mentally on to what I had to do next. Okay. So.

Going out on the edge with that one. Fedge. All right. This is track three on side one. This is Mansion on the Hill. guitar solo There's a place out on the edge of town Rising above the factories and the fields Ever since I was a child

I can remember That mansion on the hill And the day you can see The children playing On the road that leads To those gates of hardened steel Steel gates that completely surround The mansion on the hill That night my daddy did on this At night

my daddy did So this, a lot of this album was Springsteen, I guess, thinking about his childhood and thinking about the weird way he grew up. I guess that his parents for a while lived with his grandparents

who because they had I think a child that passed away they spoiled bruce to the effect where like he was a preschooler up at three in the morning every every night and they let him do whatever he want he just ran wild and so then his parents like moved out of there and tried to be stricter with him and so he would always run over to his grandparents house where he could do whatever oh yeah whatever he wanted from his book yeah and um so he was just thinking about those feelings and the feelings of isolation from everyone and this is this song is about how his father occasionally would tell him to get in the car and then drive to these mansions in their neighborhood and just sit outside and look at them.

And he always wondered, what does this have to do with us? What does this have to do with my dad? What does it have to do? But I guess the dad was dreaming of a better life. And then he talks about how he still dreams about that and sometimes he's in the car but sometimes he's in the mansion looking outside as well mansion on a hill what about hills what about hank hill bobby what the hell or henry hill henry hill from good uh the or Henry Hill? Henry Hill from The Good Fellas? Yep. What about Jack and Jill going up one?

Oh, yeah. To fetch a pail of water. Yeah, they never came back down, right? They died up there? No. Jack fell down and broke his crown. Oh, right.

I always forgot what happened to them. Yeah, Jill came tumbling down after actually yeah well what do you think of mansion on the hill i like it very much he did uh i think on this the tour that he's on right now um he did on one night i think he and patty did it it was it was nice i did not see it that night. I would have remembered it. Do you want me to talk like this for the rest of the game? Do you mind?

Just very sad, nostalgic song. Yeah. Very sad. Not about crime at this point, but just a sad song about his family. Okay. Economics, which is a lot of what was kind of driving him at the time exactly yeah just feeling weird that he's rich yeah and saying what does that have to do with me i'm not a rich guy i didn't grow up this way what does this have like suddenly i'm

richer than my parents like what is this all about um okay so this is uh track four on side one this is johnny 99 Okay, so this is track four on side one. This is Johnny 99. Well, they closed down the auto plant and Ma was late that month. Ralph went out looking for a job, but he couldn't find none. He came home too drunk from mixing tangaree and wine. He got a gunshot and that flirt, now they call him Johnny 99. Down in that part of town where we hit a red light, you don't stop Johnny's waving his gun around And creating a blowout

Went in off duty, cops Slung a gun on him behind Out in front of the club tip-top Slapped the cuffs on Johnny 99 Every city supplied a public defender But the judge was me, John Brown He came into the courtroom And stared poor Johnny down

Fairly evidence is clear Gone with the sentence on for the crime prison for 98 in a year and we'll call out even Johnny 99 this is a song about an auto worker who the plant closes down

so he turns to crime the second real political song on the record um and in fact one of the lines he mentions debts no honest man could pay which is very similar to the line in atlantic city and he says he would have changed one of them but it was all on this cassette tape that he couldn't change anything on that's so funny what do you think of johnny 99 i love it i mean i i love these songs there's probably so i should stop asking you what you think of it no i because there's one that you don't like no there there's i love this whole album i mean i feel like johnny 99 is um among the bottom of the songs i love from this album but i still love it but sometimes we like

the bottom that's right that's right what about you what do you think of johnny 99 i would i i like johnny 99 uh i think maybe the style the this sort of do do do do like rockabilly yeah is i like it i i i like it in other cases it's it's maybe not as interesting to me as other songs on the right it's not it's not my favorite i like it okay track five on side one this is highway patrolman by bruce springs my name is i work for the state i'm a sergeant out of Birdville Barracks number eight I always done an honest job As honest as I could

I got a brother named Frankie And Frankie ain't no good Now ever since we was young kids It's been the same come down I get a call on the short way Frankie's in trouble downtown Well, if it was any other man I'd put him straight away

But when it's your brother Sometimes you look the other way. Yeah, me and Frankie laughing and drinking. Nothing feels better than blood on blood. Taking turns dancing with Maria. As a band played night at the Johnstown flood I catch him when he's straight Like any brother would Man turns his back on his family

Well, he just ain't no good Highway Patrolman, about two brothers. One's a cop, one's a criminal. And the cop is reminiscing about when they were younger and then dancing with Maria. Who becomes the cop's wife. The tennis player. Maria Sharpa.

Yes. And this player becomes the highway patrolman's wife. Right. And then he's supposed to arrest his brother. And then it ends sort of ambiguously. Like they go up to, he chases him. And then lets him go. Lets him go up in the Canada border.

After he kills someone. After he kills someone, yeah. But he says someone who turns his someone yeah but he says uh someone who turns his back on their family is just so good um this was everyone was like oh man bruce this is so evocative what an incredible story why don't you write movies and he was saying like well i don't have like i'm able to distill everything down to like three to five minutes i don't know how to expand it yeah any further than that but then uh sean penn made the movie the indian runner which is based on this yeah you ever see that i've never oh yeah this

this is my favorite song on the album really i love this song and your favorite movie uh yeah no but i i because i used to listen listen to this when I really kind of dug into the album and it was kind of felt the same way. Like the storytelling was so incredible. It's so sad. And, you know, he's now at this place, like you said, where he's pretty sparse with his words. He's kind of, you know, kind of pulling back. Not oversharing. Yeah.

And there's just so much using so little um and then when that movie came out i couldn't believe it that someone had made a movie based on this story and it is really good and it the movie is exactly what the what the song is it right starts and ends and the the exact exact the movie ends with the taillights disappearing. So the song technically should be called Spoiler Alert. Yes.

100%. If you haven't seen The Indian Runner do not listen to this song. Don't ever listen to this record or any Bruce Springsteen song at all. Or if you haven't heard the song do not watch The Indian Runner.

You can't do either. You can't do either thing. No. It'll ruin your life. That's right. So stay away from both of them um so that's your favorite okay good to know well uh what do you think of the song i love it it's yeah it's it's very cool um this one is maybe my favorite this one coming up this is state trooper this is the last song on side one weirdly side one has six songs in his 25 minutes and then side two is four songs in 15 minutes

so um why a little lopsided yeah this one could have been on side two maybe but this is the last i think the reason it's the end of side one is it's springsteen says it's not even really a song necessarily it's something weird i just put down what state trooper yeah uh really influenced by the band suicide who ended up uh uh covering born in the usa later uh a few years later um and springsteen would cover a suicide song live a lot um okay this is State Trooper. Neath the refinery's glow Out where the great Black River flows License registration I ain't got none

But I got a clear conscience About the things that I have Mr. State Trooper Please don't stop me Please don't stop me Please don't stop me Maybe you got a kid Maybe you got a pretty wife The only thing that I got

Been bothering me my whole life Mr. State Trooper Please don't stop me Please don't stop me Please don't you stop me. In the wee, wee hours, your mind gets... Sort of repetitive and monotonous intentionally, which is very unnerving. A lot of tension. Yeah.

This is your favorite on the album. I think so, yeah. Oh, cool. Well, especially with how it ends. I want to play it out a little more. But yeah, just a very atmospheric song about someone who's done something wrong who doesn't want to be stopped by the state trooper because he's hiding something. I also like about,

especially hearing with headphones, you are hearing weird drops in audio occasionally. Oh, here it is. Yeah, where he starts yelping. Yeah. There's more Yelps to come. But yeah, every once in a while, the guitar will like slow down because he is like he left all the clams in there. Like it'll slow down accidentally and he'll get back on track. Yeah, because there's nothing to keep time. Yeah yeah and he doesn't care about keeping time or anything because

here it is here we go it's just so cool to think that he made this not thinking it would ever be anyone would ever listen to it yeah and it's so cool yeah um yeah that's a cool song yeah it's very cool okay so that's side one let's flip the record over and go to side two this is track one on side two this is a song called used cars my little sisters in the front seat with an ice cream cone My ma's in the back seat sittin' all alone So my pa's steers her slow out of line

For a test drive down Michigan Avenue Now my ma, she fingers her wedding band And watches the salesman stare at my old man's hand She's telling us all about the break he'd give us If he could, but he just can't But if I could, I swear I'd know just what I'd do Now, Mr. Day, the lottery I win I ain't ever gonna ride no used car again

Now the neighbors come I ain't ever gonna ride no used car again. There's the glockenspiel, by the way. Just adds a level of that and then the harmonica very softly in the back. Used cars. This is very autobiographical about his sister sitting in the front seat and just about his family driving around. What do we think of used cars? I love it. I mean, this is kind of a boring... You rolled your eyes when you said it,

like, oh, you know what I'm going to say. Yeah. It's great. What do you think? I like the sound of it. It's not as maybe haunting as some of the ones that are about crime. Well, it has this kind of whimsical,

just a touch of it, like with the Glockenspiel and with the melody a little bit, it's a little lighter. Right. Yeah. Used cars. We've all driven one. Sure.

We've all bought one. Sure. Or had our daddies or mommies buy us one. We've all fucked someone over by selling them one that doesn't work. Just kidding. Have you ever bought a used car and- Been burned? Yeah.

No, but I've bought a used car and not taken proper care of it, and it kind of bites the dust. Remember when Tall John had that convertible that he sold? Yes. And it caught on fire on the guy driving it home. I remember once I got an 81 Oldsmobile used and drove it for a few years. And then when I was buying a different used car i traded it in and they gave me 100 and trade in great great story great okay let's hear track two on side

two this is open all night and this is okay so this was the the single, maybe? Or was it the second single? I'm not sure. But I think the record company was like, fuck, what do we do for singles? And this is the only one with electric guitar, so they put this out as a single. Well, I had to cooperate or maybe clean and check With her line blown out, she's roaming like a turbojet Wrapped her up in my backyard on concrete blocks

For a new clutch, lead and a new set of shocks Took her down to the car, watched checks, then plugged some points Well, I'm going out tonight, I'm going to rocket join Early north, Jersey, industrial skyline I'm a whole set of Early North Jersey Industrial skyline I'm a husset Cobra jet creeping through the night time Gotta find a gas station

Gotta find a payphone This turn back sure is spooky at night When you're all alone How to get to gas baby I'm running late This New Jersey In the morning

Like a lunar landscape Now the boss don't take me, sir Put me on the national text meter Hours I get back to where my baby lives Now wee wee hours your mind gets crazy Radio relay tires on your lead Me to my baby Underneath the over-rested Party lights switch This, of course, the single that you can hear on every radio station. Oh, yeah, just topping the charts. What do we think of Open All night uh it's awesome it's not

my favorite this is the one that i would leave off that oh you would it doesn't seem like different it doesn't seem like the i i get sonically like it's like oh i had something a little more peppy i would have swapped born in the usa for this honestly but um i can't wait to hear that version after we're done with you're gonna have to with this uh run through of nebraska by bruce springsteen okay so this is track three on side two this is a song called my father's house Last night I dreamed that I was a child Out where the pines grow Wild and tall I was trying to

Make it home through the forest Before the darkness falls Darkness falls I heard the wind rustling Through the trees And ghostly voices Rose from the fields. I ran with my heart pounding down that broken path. It starts with an allusion to the film Night of the Hunter. Really. Really.

like New Jersey's pine trees, kind of trying to evoke a scene where a little girl runs through the woods in Night of the Hunter. This one was actually recorded after all the other songs and was like a late edition. And he recorded it on the same equipment and then put it onto the album. Recorded with the same equipment? So it wasn't on the original tape. Yeah.

But. But he recorded it in the same way. He recorded it the same way and put it on the record. Yeah. I wanted to read this because I think it's interesting because it sort of tells you why he wrote this song. But he was saying this on stage. it sort of tells you why he wrote this song but um he was saying this on stage so um basically he would compulsively drive by his parents house his parent the house where he grew up all the time in freehold new jersey sometimes three four times a week and he would drive by it and look at the

house and he didn't know why so like after no they moved out they moved away after he was a rock star um and so he went to a psychiatrist he's like what am i doing so and i'm reading here so i went to see a psychiatrist and i sat down i said you know doc what am i doing and he says something bad happened and you're going back thinking you can make it right again something went wrong and you keep going back to see if you can fix it and i sat there and i said that is what i'm doing and he said well you can't end of story wow like thanks doc did it did it did Like, thanks, Doc. Did he pinpoint what the thing was? Was it just kind of general? General, you know, like.

Shittiness. Shitty growing up stuff. But that's what this song is about. Interesting. Yeah. Like, what a great story. A lot of fun. You should save that for Kimmel.

A lot of fun. You should save that for a Kimmel. Okay. So this is the last song on the record and this is called reason to believe by Bruce Springsteen. guitar solo Seen a man stand over a dead dog By the highway in the ditch He's looking down, kind of puzzled Poking that dog with a stick.

Got his car door flung open, he's standing out on Highway 31. Like if he stood there long enough, that dog get up and on. He's looking kind of funny funny Some kind of funny suddenly Still at the end of every hard day People find some reason to believe Now Marilu loved Johnny With a love mean and true She said, baby, I'll work for you every day, bring my money home to you.

One day up and left her, and ever since then, she waits the night to end that dirt road. Poor young Johnny Duke, my love, he's took me down the fuck. Reason to believe. He says this is the bottom of his depression, this song. This is the bottom of his depression, this song. Begins with a guy poking a dead dog, thinking it might come back to life on the highway, which he says that he saw happen, so he put it into the song. But it's all about, I guess, wondering if people are just fooling themselves in life. It's kind of a cheery melody, though. It sounds like an inspiring. It sounds like a kind of a cheery melody though.

So it's, and reasonably, it sounds like it's inspiring or something, but it's, he says it's the bottom of his depression and thankfully he got into therapy right after this.

Yeah. Because this was as low as he could go. What do you think? I mean, it's a great song and it's a great way to end an album because it does feel hopeful, but it's only when you listen to the words that you realize that it's not at all.

So that's Nebraska. How about you for that song? Oh, yeah. I've always, I mean, I never really listened to the lyrics all that much. You just kind of hear, give me reason to believe. And you're like, yeah, I got a reason to believe. And then you investigate a little more closely closely but it's a great melody and yeah uh what do we think of nebraska in total classic classic um classic i know other artists try to do

like oh this is my acoustic album or whatever but they just don't have the the feel that this is like our white album our nebraska it's like one of those one of those reference points yeah that's right all right so let's hear a couple of the outtakes there's there's two um there's first i'll play this this ended up being a b-side um and i think this is another one that was recorded after all the songs that were on the tape that they were thinking about putting on Nebraska. But this is called The Big Payback. I got a job and I'm a bring on my back. Working and working for the big baby. I keep up putting in a putting out. I keep a sweating like a hog.

Get out. I work so long that I'm a losing track. Waiting, waiting on the big baby. Well, it's a lamb, lamb, hanging lamb. God damn, we got sandwiched up on the train. Rumbling down this track. They got your neck in the news. You're dragging on back. Not my favorite. No. Wouldn't have put it on the album.

This ended up being the B-side to open all night. Fine. And it's just fine, yeah. Now, the one I would have maybe put on the album, this is the original version of Born in the USA. And I actually think when I listen to the album, I just put this on right at the end, and it's what I closed the album out on.

And would you have then left it off of Born in the USA? No, I would have put it on, and I think people would have understood the song better if they had heard this version of it first. And Reagan maybe wouldn't have used it for his rallies. Yeah, exactly. But this is the original Nebraska version of Born in the USA. Thank you. I got in a little hometown jam, and so they put a rifle in my hand Said, son, you ever heard of Vietnam? Well, go and kill the yellow man

Born in the U.S.A. Born in the U.S.A. Born in the U.S.A. Born in the U.S.A. Come back home What do you think? Yeah, it's cool. I mean, there have been so many different

acoustic versions over the years that he does live and stuff. I've never really heard this before. Yeah, it's... I think it's cool, too. I mean, I think it would have fit in very well on the album, obviously. And obviously you can focus more on what he's saying which is uh we'll talk about it it doesn't have that kind of anthemic feeling yeah the

patriotic anthemic thing yeah we'll talk about in the next uh episode about that song in more detail um so the album nebraska charted at number three on the album charts, I think. It did pretty well. Johnny Cash did a couple of covers for his 1983 album. He did Johnny 99 and Highway Patrolman, which I think fit really well with his oeuvre. And it was on a lot of the best albums of the year and everything like that. I think people had low expectations for how it would do commercially, you know. And, you know, the big, big, huge one is right around the corner.

The Big Daddy. The Big Daddy Long Legs. The Big Loaf of Hits. Just slice off some hits off that loaf. How many hits did they squeeze out of that loaf, by the way? Okay, well, that's going to do it for us. Anything else you want to say about Nebraska? Nope.

Good shit. Very good album. All right, that's's gonna do it for us we're gonna see you next time when we talk about Born in the USA let's go out on

trying to pick a song to maybe end on oh here's one here's a good one this is Cadillac Ranch we'll see you next time. And until then, we sincerely hope that you've found what you're looking for. Bye. I'm out.