Confessions of a Fanboy

I considered writing a series of commentaries about how this album is starting to take over my life and destroy me and then it hit me — fuck that, this is 11’s fault. He’s going to help me with this shit. Besides, this album needs a Big Tent Revival and I’m bringing the High Priest of The Tunnel of Love with me. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to our miniseries about Bruce Springsteen’s great Tunnel of Love. 11 and I will be going track-by-track, tossing out thoughts, opinions, analysis, critique, and a whole lot of other high brow nonsense. If you love this record, you’ll enjoy revisiting it with us. Who knows, you might even learn something (how very Fat Albert of me!). If you don’t like this record, consider this the brick of common sense and taste beating you alongside the head. If you don’t know the record, study up because puberty is coming and you’ll need to know this.

We had a draft to see who would lead on which songs. He selected “Ain’t Got You” in the third round (I think it was the third), so join me in welcoming 11 to the Fanboy Tunnel of Love Big Tent Revival:

11
Batting leadoff, we have “Ain’t Got You,” odd on this record and maybe among proper Bruce canon, but not if you know your b-sides, outtakes, or benched projects.
Bruce has a rich secret history of both stripped-down and rockabilly numbers, and the opening cut of TOL sits at the intersection of those styles.

A simple, fun song, especially when you consider what is to come later on this record, the sunny harmonica and ‘hummable’ tune mask the misery of the singer in the lyrics. Hmmm. Masking misery. I think Bruce had become pretty good at that, but this veil of millionaire success is about to be thrown off on TOL. Our triumphant, muscle-bound, swaggering hero is about to take a break from 100,000-seat stadiums and Courtney Cox for 50 minutes of self-pity.

And so we have “Ain’t Got You,” which works perfectly for what this album will be. As Bono said, ‘Our hero has a go at himself.’ This song finds the protagonist successful, with ‘The fortunes of Heaven, diamonds and gold’ but alas, he’s a fool, because he ain’t got what he really wants. Not just yet anyway. This may stand as the most autobiographical song Bruce had written to date. Yeah, you can make a case that Bruce is the protagonist in others, but who could deny that Bruce is reading from his diary here?

Rarely played outside the Tunnel of Love Express Tour, this up-tempo song is a ton of fun if you are lucky enough to hear it. Leading in from Born in the USA, Bruce was wise not to start the record waters that were too deep. Catchy as hell despite the lyrics of frustration, just try to keep still as the momentum builds … and then dies. On to heavier things…

Josh Hathaway
11 has hit on what I’m sure is the central theme of this song. It’s another way of singing “All You Need Is Love” or “Can’t Buy Me Love” where love comes in the form of having that special someone to share your life with. Before I come back to that theme, let’s look at the “you” in “Ain’t Got You” not as a person, but as happiness personified.

Restlessness gets a facelift on “Ain’t Got You.” Bruce’s earlier work was (largely) about young people struggling for identity, desperate for one last shot to make their dreams come true. In “The River,” Bruce asks if a dream is a lie if it doesn’t come true. “Ain’t Got You” poses the question a little differently: what if the grass isn’t greener on the other side of the fence? What if all the things you think you want don’t bring you the happiness you thought they would? Maybe the lie is the belief that the next promotion, car, or mansion will bring happiness. All the restless energy that propelled those protagonists to charge that next hill is still there, but now the protagonist has run out of hills and isn’t any happier at the end of the day. In short, now what? For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?

Let’s get back to this as a song about a man and a woman. Why can’t the protagonist get the girl? Has he finally run into the one woman who won’t be impressed by the power and prestige of the millionaire in the song? Or could it be that he’s got the girl lying next to him every night, there in physical presence but knows deep down he doesn’t have her heart? Maybe it’s not that he can’t have the girl, but that he shouldn’t have the girl because that position has already been filled, so to speak. In other words, is he talking about Patti or Julianne Phillips?

Beyond those potential titillating tabloid tidbits, this is a song that reminds us we’re all connected and all the same on some level. We all have the same needs, regardless of our station in life or personal net worth. Is it schadenfreude to take comfort in knowing our heroes get their hearts broken, too? Maybe.

Musically, this is a nice Bo Didley/Chuck Berry rockabilly number that wouldn’t have been out of place on Nebraska. There’s a lot of open space in this song with only an acoustic guitar, harmonica, and a some light percussion. Vocally, Bruce is at his feistiest. He may be down, but he’s not out. This girl is in for a fight.

Filed under: Tags: Bruce Springsteen, Tunnel of Love, Tunnel of Love Big Tent Revival