My brother and I were polar opposites in just about every way, but at the end of the day there wasn’t anything stopping us from sharing a beer together, and laughing the night away. He passed away about two years ago from a drug overdose. I always come back to this song, and it makes me think of him. That no matter what darkness he was traveling through, at the end of the day he was still my brother, through thick and thin. I’ll always miss him.
"Man turns his back on his family, that man he aint no good" This is the lyric that's been nailed into my head for 25 years since i first heard it. The story told in this song, the way the protagonist has to wrestle with it. This is one of the all time great songs.
Yep. My grandad turned his back on his family. So did my uncle. So did my brother. I tried to do best my old man, show him loyalty. You only get one family. You don't turn your back on that.
I got a little brother looking at 25 to life right now. He called me the other day, needing 500$. What could I do? took a loan out against my jeep and sent the $. I'll always do anything I can for that kid.
Brent Thornton. You're a good man. You did what you had to do for your brother. It doesn't make any difference what your brother did. Like you said what else could I do? Nothing bro. By the way I was the cop in my family. I was straight. But the moral of the story is folks don't hate family just because they're in prison.
Brent Thornton I don’t have a brother but if I did I know with out a doubt I would do the same thing. “Nothings better than blood on blood “ you’re a good brother!
Favorite Springsteen album ever since it came out in 9/1982. Can't believe it's been over 40 years. So many amazing songs on this album: Used Cars, Highway Patrolman, Nebraska, Johnny 99, Reason to Beleive.....
"The Indian Runner"... This is a movie by Sean Penn based on Bruce´s song! Great album, great song, great poet and great movie. Greetings from São Paulo, Brazil.
Greeting from Los Angeles (born in São Paulo; however, the year this album came out). Thanks for posting the name of the movie, I was wanting to watch it.
For this song to only have 700k views is astounding. Bruce reveals ugly truths as well as the good stuff. The damage Vietnam/Korea did to America's sons should never be forgotten. The character's protagonist was a pure metaphor for the evil of war. As Afghanistan failure has proven, it never ends.
I remember hearing this song for the first time. It was late at night in the summer of 2012, just me and my little red iPod, and I was just letting my thoughts wonder until this song came on. And I remember it made me stop and really listen to the lyrics, and I couldn't believe that as beautiful as the story was it wasn't more popular. The next day, I discovered the movie The Indian Runner, based on this song, which was great, but not quite as much as the song that inspired it. After growing up with his music, that was the summer that I really became a true Springsteen fan.
+Natalie Johnston Since you enjoy this so much: Look up the film "Badlands" from 1973. It stars Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek. When your finished with the movie...listen to the song Nebraska, the title track to this album. It's a true treat for the mind and your ears.
I really like this movie, Sean Penn and Viggo Mortensen are up there with the best ever. But I have been a spectator to this story since I was 12 years old. I have seen the brothers laughing and drinking for 35 years now, there was just no way that Sean Penn could make this movie better than the one that’s been playing in my head a million times. Bruce is an incredible artist, he paints pictures in my head again and again and I just can’t look away…they are the best ever❤
My husband loves this song. It reminds him of his brother. Their lives were so different but still so close. Held together by the bonds of brotherly love. Rest in Peace ERIC ! Always remembered and forever Loved.
That's not a good thing. The song is about a man who lets his brother get away with crimes that no one else would, and it eventually leads to his brother murdering an innocent man. The song aims to portray the man's thoughts but it does not condone his actions. Letting someone get away with horrible things because they are family is an awful mentality and leads to pain and suffering for those caught on the wrong side of someone's actions who have gone unchecked. Always keep those close to you in check, or someone will get hurt.
I agree, the story telling is exquisite. Watching this or just listening to this always makes me tear up. I write songs now, and Bruce is always the bench mark, here's me attempting story telling in song: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-1b85V2p4puw.html&list=PLWehun4PmMf_00nsBZDretT5gHW_zhBeb
Grew up with Springsteen. My brother and I love him. 2023 he got sick. I’m so lucky he made it through. We get to spend more time together. We’re nothing like the good guy and bad guy in the story but this song always chokes me up. Who are you if you don’t love your brother?
This is the song that turned me into a Springsteen fan. I have now been to three of his shows and just love all his songs but this one still resonates with me.
I'm in the relatively unique position of having been both brothers. Got an older brother who's not worth talking about. Got a younger brother who's like a better version of me. Me without the crap. Not proud of the bad brother I've been. Proud of my younger brother who turned out good despite two bad examples.
@@jamessimon9164 It's hard, being in the middle. Especially with a bad example. Because when you're that young, a bad example is your only example. And if you're just a kid, you can't really help not knowing better.
I agree, the story telling is exquisite. Watching this or just listening to this always makes me tear up. I write songs now, and Bruce is always the bench mark, here's me attempting story telling in song: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-1b85V2p4puw.html&list=PLWehun4PmMf_00nsBZDretT5gHW_zhBeb
Somber, dark and cold album but its magnificent. Tracks detailing the human condition! Bruce is a modern day genius 👏 Glad I heard him at 15yrs old as I have been listening to him ever since.
This song just keeps my crying everytime i hear it. It's so amazing how Bruce that got magik to translate songs into feelings, and at the same time, make feel like the protagonist of every story he tells.
I loved the Born in the USA album when it came out and I was 15. I wanted to discover more of Bruce so I bought the Nebraska album. I loved it especially Atlantic City, My Father’s House, and this song. I memorized the lyrics and figured out how to strum a guitar to go along. My friends love it, especially after a few cold ones. You know you’ve written a piece of Americana classic when Johnny Cash covers it.
This song has so much depth. The commitment to one's family, or the commitment to one's community. It's a tough decision. Patrolman Joe Roberts was placed into a horrible position of being forced to make this decision based on his job description. It's also one of the first songs ever written to graphically talk about a Vietnam Vet struggling w/PTSD issues. Also a song that talked how farmers were struggling at the time (Bruce writes about that issue brilliantly in the "Born In The USA" outtake "Sugarland"). I just love the way the song starts: "My name is Joe Roberts; I work for the state; I'm a sergeant out of Perrineville; Barracks Number 8; I always done an honest job; As honest as I could; I got a brother named Frankie; and Frankie ain't no good." It sounds like a guy introducing himself to you in a crowded bar and telling you his story. What's also key is the Steinbeck-like working class use of language throughout the song. It won't make the English teacher happy, but it's real.
The song is simple: an acoustic guitar and a melancholy voice. Yet, the song is deep in emotion, tragically nostalgic. Yet the song is layered in themes, with brotherly loyalty played out in the face of a moral choice.
'Dancin' with Maria as the band played Night of the Johnstown Flood’… On this day in 1889 {May 31st} the South Fork Dam collapsed, flooding the city of Johnstown, Pennsylvania...
Bruce frequently included 3 songs from Nebraska in the opening set on the Born In The USA tour. Between his official releases and some very good boots we can experience the brilliance of Highway Patrolman. The August 20, 1982 version is particularly poignant.
I’m very fond of this album too. Its mellow tunes(mostly) are very soothing when l have one of many rests in my day. This song is high on my list..❤❤❤❤❤❤
I have a massive man-crush on David Morse. Himself and Viggo playing the protagonists in the movie was just perfect. Nebraska really really is a neglected masterpiece.
Still listening in 2021 Wow a very deep written and compassionate tune hits a cord everytime. Should've been a more highly rated song it leaves you emotional and speechless Bruce never lets his fans down this is music from the soul 🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏 God Bless 🥰🥰🥰🥰
Huh. You know, I'm watching this video because I listened to this album today for the first time in at least a decade. Honestly, I don't know if this was the original video (though there would have to be a period of several years that separate the album from this movie judging by the ages of the actors), I've only ever hear the song from the album, I don't think I've ever even heard it over the radio. Listing to the lyrics it struck my how this song is completely a product of a different time that is almost an era that seems as far as any before it. Just the story being told doesn't sound like something could have been told it yesterday, it has a completely different sensibility. I envision something that looks quite similar to the scenes from whatever movie this is; the late 70s LTD police cars, CB radios, pull tab beer cans and pay phones everywhere (with rotary dial). Even the fact that throughout the song, the narrator never mentions his own name. You know that name of his brother and wife, but he remains anonymous, as if he's irrelevant to the story. I'd think that would be the first thing that would be completely different from now. How could remaining unnamed help further your personal brand? Not to mention the fact that the song humanizes a cop, so it would be judged as hate speech or something just as equally absurd .
Bruce scored his first major pop chart hit in 1980 with “Hungry Heart.” Coming off that, it would have been reasonable to expect The Boss to strike while the iron was hot and write more ear candy so that his commercial success might match his critical acclaim and his live reputation. But Springsteen always had the long game in mind even as a young man, releasing an Nebraska in 1982 that was almost defiantly anti-radio. It came down to the notion that the stories on that record, like the clash between duty and family at the heart of “Highway Patrolman,” were the ones he needed to tell to properly continue his career-long conversation with his fans. “I think I’d come out of a period of my own writing where I’d been writing big, sometimes operatic, and occasionally rhetorical things,” Bruce said. “I was interested in finding another way to write about those subjects, about people, another way to address what was going on around me and in the country - a more scaled-down, more personal, more restrained way of getting some of my ideas across.” In terms of “Highway Patrolman,” that restraint is evident in the way that Springsteen doesn’t feel the need to fill in every little detail or burden the song with exposition. His narrator, police officer Joe Roberts, is clearly a man of few words, yet what’s roiling inside of him can be detected in Springsteen’s world-weary delivery. His basic problem: He is sworn to uphold the law in his little Michigan town of Perrineville, but, as he sums it up, “I got a brother named Franky and Franky ain’t no good.” He then details how the scenario has played itself out over the years: Franky causes trouble, and Joe uses his position to sweep those problems under the rug. “But when it’s your brother sometimes you look the other way,” Springsteen sings, and it’s immediately clear where this stance of willful ignorance will lead. But Joe defends himself by telling nostalgic stories of happier times filled with drinking and singing; “Nothing feels better than blood on blood,” he explains. He defends his actions by falling back on family ties: “Man turns his back on his family well he just ain’t no good.” Springsteen takes a verse to explain how the brothers came to be in this position, which is important because the themes of poverty and people forced into suffocating circumstances run rampant throughout Nebraska. Joe tells how he attempted to farm until he could no longer make ends meet. Meanwhile Frankie spends time in the Army at a time when the Vietnam War was ramping up, so we can only assume that his own personal problems were exacerbated by his stint in the conflict. It all leads to the final verse, when Franky finally does the kind of damage that can’t be ignored. Joe Roberts hustles out to his vehicle and starts speeding through the streets in search of his brother. The juxtaposition in this section is fascinating, as the suspenseful, high-speed pursuit is contrasted by the staggering pace of the song. We are led to believe that Joe might finally confront his wayward brother, but Springsteen gives us a final twist: “Well I chased him through them county roads/ Till a sign said Canadian border five miles from here/ I pulled over to the side of the highway and watched his taillights disappear.” The ambivalence of this ending is truly haunting. Franky might be getting away for now, but it seems a given that he is headed for a bad end without his brother around to clean up his messes. And for all of his good intentions, Joe is now left to wonder if he enabled Franky with his actions. “Highway Patrolman” is about impossible choices, a story song that teaches no lessons and leaves no morals. It’s also proof that in songwriting, less can be more, especially when you’ve got a master like Bruce Springsteen deciding what to include and what the listener can figure out for themselves.
Brilliant song by, IMO, our greatest living songwriter, and insightful analysis. As great as Nebraska (1982), the album is, and it's a classic, I think I like his second acoustic record, The Ghost of Tom Joad (1995), even more. Songs like, Across the Border, are even more breathtaking, poignant, and relevant, now, 25 years after they were written.
Sorry, his first major chart hit was "Born To Run" years earlier. It was huge the summer the album was released and he was on the cover of news magazines everywhere around the world. What a summer!
@@nycarl Sorry but Bruce's first charted hit was Hungry Heart, the key word being charted. Born to Run did not come close to charting. www.billboard.com/music/bruce-springsteen-the-e-street-band/chart-history
Steve, I'm not sure who's feeding you information, but apparently you didn't live through the seventies. In '75, Springsteen was on the covers of Time & Newsweek, among others, all because of Born To Run.
@@1415bjm I was born in 1956 and of course I remember him on the covers of Newsweek and Time. I saw him for the first of many times at the Boston Music Hall in 1975. But he didn't have his first Top 20 hit until 1980.
Quanto è vera sta canzone, il testo è profondo ed emoziona e con le immagini del film tutto è più bello. Liriche così belle Bruce ora se lo sogna, questa come l'album è un capolavoro! Bisogna accontentarci di dischi ora mediocri ....
I was just going to "Like" this, but...I hit reply, instead. I don't know why. Maybe just to reach out, tell you, whoever you are, Katherine, that, yes, it is beautiful, and sad.
I remember a student from William and Mary coming to my elementary school in the very early '80s playing one of Nebraska's songs (I forgot which, maybe Atlantic City) Then a classmate of mine was next and played some hard rock. His name is Mark Morton, who's currently playing with Lamb of God.
