Rock and roll music was built in part on a need to rebel against the older generation, which meant in part a break from the family. Bruce Springsteen has never really seemed to view it like that. Few artists have written with as much candor or feeling about family ties, in terms of both the ones you need to break and ones we should aim to strengthen.
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Narrowing this list down to just five Springsteen songs about a family was a bear, as it meant that we had to leave out excellent tracks like “The Wish” (a touching tribute to his mom), “Living Proof” (his ode to how fatherhood changed him), and “Ricky Wants a Man of Her Own” (in which Little Sister grows up way too fast for Mom and Dad). That left us with these five wonderful tracks, some you might know, and some you might want to get to know quick.
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5. “My Father’s House” (from the album Nebraska, 1982)
Much of Nebraska is given over to story songs in which Springsteen gets inside the head of protagonists pushed to the edge by societal pressures. But he also takes the time for a pair of telling childhood remembrances. “Used Cars” is somewhat light-hearted, but “My Father’s House” speaks in noirish metaphors about unresolved rancor between father and son.
In a dream, the narrator imagines reconciling with his father at the family homestead, only to find in reality that it’s too late to patch up those old wounds. By all accounts, Springsteen came to a place of peace with his own dad after their relationship had been strained. This song hauntingly imagines the outcome for all those who wait too long to find common ground.
4. “You’re Missing” (from the album The Rising, 2002)
While the intent of The Rising was infinitely noble, the execution often came off a bit strained. Maybe 9/11 was too awful for literal, musical retellings of the day to transcend it. Springsteen did best on the record when he evoked the tragedy without hitting it head on, as in “You’re Missing.”
On this track, adorned with sympathetic violin instead of the brittle rock found elsewhere on the record, a husband and father tries to move on with some semblance of a normal life in the absence of his wife. Although it’s somewhat unclear if the woman is actually missing or has just mentally or emotionally checked out, Springsteen expertly details the devastating impact of a family’s tragic upheaval.
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3. “Kingdom of Days” (from the album Working on a Dream, 2009)
Working on a Dream is one of the more unfairly underrated albums in the Springsteen catalog, as it looks back on the music of his youth while dealing with the realities of aging. When those seemingly antagonistic notions come together, as they often do on the album, it’s a rich, beautiful listening experience.
Nowhere is that truer than on “Kingdom of Days,” a touchingly lovely evocation of the subtle joys and simple pleasures of a long marriage. The point of the song is that people in such a sound union don’t feel the ravages of time or notice their watermarks (such as gray hair and wrinkles) because they’re too distracted by all the good stuff they have right in front of them.
2. “Cautious Man” (from the album Tunnel of Love, 1987)
Consider this the flip-side of “Kingdom of Days,” as this track instead details how mistrust and obfuscation between a husband and wife can render a family foundation quite flimsy. Springsteen tells the story of a man who was on steady, if uninspiring, ground, until he meets someone and marries her on a whim—a wide departure from his usual measured approach to decision-making.
What’s fascinating about “Cautious Man” is at no time during the narrative does the new bride give our hero, Bill Horton, reason to doubt her fidelity or love. And yet this guy becomes torn apart by doubt and takes moonlight drives that do nothing to assuage his angst. Hey, not all families are happy ones, and Springsteen’s own divorce not all that long after this song was released proves that maybe his subconscious seeped into the lyrics.
1. ”Independence Day” (from the album The River, 1980)
By 1980, Springsteen had largely left behind the over-the-top antics of street gangs to evoke the tumult of youth. Instead, he was writing in a more grounded but no less affecting manner about matters his audience, which had grown older with him, were experiencing as well. Separating from one’s parents, both physically and figuratively, was certainly one of those issues.
On “Independence Day,” what’s notable is that Springsteen doesn’t go scorched-earth on his father, bringing up old arguments as a way to justify his departure from the family home. He instead leads with understanding, realizing his father’s actions were shaped by circumstances beyond his control. That doesn’t change the inevitability of the fracture between the two, but at least it leaves room for a reconciliation somewhere down the line.
Photo by Larry Busacca/Getty Images for Tony Awards Productions
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