It was 1984, maybe 1985. I was living with my family in Zimbabwe, and it seemed as if the world was caught up in Springsteen fever on the back of the worldwide phenomenon that was Born In The U.S.A. Even as far away from civilisation as I was, I was caught up in the rush - here was a singer hitherto unknown to us, who appeared to channel all the excitement at the essence of rock n’ roll.
But the glowing success of what went on to become one of the top-selling albums of all time was preceded by the artist’s darkest hour - the stark, confessionally intimate 1982 Nebraska, essentially a demo tape released as an album. It may have been Bruce’s bleakest moment, but - or maybe it’s because of this - it’s always been my favourite album of his. (A close second would be Nebraska’s 1980 predecessor, The River - “Is a dream a lie if it don’t come true, or is it something worse?” - especially once this album and the tracks Drive All Night and Out In The Street were used so prominently and powerfully in the film Reign Over Me - but that’s the subject of another post and another time).
I came to know Atlantic City from the black and white music video Columbia Records commissioned to promote the song. Clips from the music video featured in a taped television documentary on the Boss, which my Dad procured from one of his business colleagues in England. Apart from the black and white visuals, I was taken in by the song’s poetic lyrics, from the opening verse:
At the climax of the song, the narrator vows to his girl:
But the lasting mantra for the song, the hope for me anyway, is the chorus: “Everything dies, baby, that’s a fact/But maybe everything that dies some day comes back.”
Here’s a link to the video if you’re interested.
But the glowing success of what went on to become one of the top-selling albums of all time was preceded by the artist’s darkest hour - the stark, confessionally intimate 1982 Nebraska, essentially a demo tape released as an album. It may have been Bruce’s bleakest moment, but - or maybe it’s because of this - it’s always been my favourite album of his. (A close second would be Nebraska’s 1980 predecessor, The River - “Is a dream a lie if it don’t come true, or is it something worse?” - especially once this album and the tracks Drive All Night and Out In The Street were used so prominently and powerfully in the film Reign Over Me - but that’s the subject of another post and another time).
I came to know Atlantic City from the black and white music video Columbia Records commissioned to promote the song. Clips from the music video featured in a taped television documentary on the Boss, which my Dad procured from one of his business colleagues in England. Apart from the black and white visuals, I was taken in by the song’s poetic lyrics, from the opening verse:
The song continues the first-person narrative of one of life’s all-time losers, a man who “got a job and tried to put some money away”, but ended up with “debts that no honest man could pay.” (The lyric sheet accompanying the album reads, ‘I got in too deep and I could not pay,’ but Springsteen recorded a more desperate version of this line on the released album).“Well, they blew up the chicken man in Philly last nightNow they blew up his house tooDown on the boardwalk they’re gettin’ ready for a fightGonna see what them racket boys can do”
At the climax of the song, the narrator vows to his girl:
Realising that “down here it’s just winners and losers, and don’t get caught on the wrong side of that line”, Bruce as narrator tells his long-suffering girl: “I’m tired of comin’ out on the losin’ end, so honey last night I met this guy and I’m gonna do a little favour for him...” We don’t know what the favour is, but we can only imagine it’s a life and death kind of thing; the permanent kind of favour, one which will force the character to leave behind all he has in Atlantic City, and keep on running, heading for that elusive gold somewhere just out of his reach, in another place and time. This character could either become, or is the kin of, the namesake of the song Johnny 99 later on the album, who “went out lookin’ for a job, but he couldn’t find none. He came home too drunk from mixing Tanqueray and wine, got a gun, shot a night clerk, now they call him Johnny 99”.“Now our luck may have died and our love may be cold
But with you forever I’ll stay
Were goin’ out where the sands turnin’ to gold
Put on your stockings baby, ’cos the night’s getting cold
And maybe everything dies, baby, that’s a fact
But maybe everything that dies some day comes back”
But the lasting mantra for the song, the hope for me anyway, is the chorus: “Everything dies, baby, that’s a fact/But maybe everything that dies some day comes back.”
Here’s a link to the video if you’re interested.
