Song of the Day 11/14: Bruce Springsteen, “One Step Up”
Martin Luther King’s moral arc of the universe is, by definition, not a straight line. Sometimes it takes two steps back.
The third single from “Tunnel of Love,” Springsteen’s 1987 album about the breakup of his marriage to Julianne Phillips, reached No. 13. Springsteen plays all the instruments on the song except the drum machine. The backing vocal is by Patti Scialfa, who Springsteen married four years later.
Critic Dave Marsh called it “as miserable a cheating song as even Nashville ever knew,” which wasn’t lost on country singer Kenny Chesney or bluegrass veterans the Seldom Scene. It was also covered by Eddie Vedder with his pre-Pearl Jam band, Bad Radio.
Welsh folk singer Martyn Joseph disputes Marsh’s reading of the track. After performing the tune at a house concert in 2011 he explicated the narrative for his audience. “Some people might think this is a bar love song,” he says, “but there is so much more going on here. … I think Bruce just went and summed up the human condition.” That might sound over the top, but hear him out.
If Tunnel Of Love is a break-up album, and it is, it ranks among the greatest break-up albums of all-time.
Right there with Shoot Out The Lights by Richard and Linda Thompson.
I agree. It’s also among Springsteen’s three or four best albums because of it. Outside of this album he has rarely written about romantic relationships, and the body of work suffers for it.