“My own personal life”: Bruce Springsteen’s most autobiographical song
Any great artist, musician, or writer will tell you that your best work happens when you draw upon your own life experiences. If you look at some of the most iconic and popular rock songs of all time, you will find that most of them were inspired by real-life events, not plucked randomly from the far-out imaginations of their songwriters. That is certainly true when it comes to Bruce Springsteen, who has regularly drawn inspiration from his own life story within his extensive discography.
Born and raised in Long Branch, New Jersey, Springsteen led the life of an archetypal rock rebel. Attending Catholic school in his teens, the future songwriter found himself rebelling against institutions and rules from a very young age, quickly channelling that rebellious ethos into his musical output. Springsteen had been a disciple of rock ‘n’ roll during his childhood and, coming of age during the British invasion period, he was first inspired to pick up a guitar after witnessing The Beatles perform on The Ed Sullivan Show.
Aside from his musical heroes, though, a huge influence on Springsteen’s early life was his parents, Douglas Springsteen and Adele Ann. The bond between fathers and sons is a complicated brew, and the relationship between Bruce and Douglas became all the more complicated with the addition of the father’s various mental health struggles over the years. As a result, Springsteen often drew upon the influence of his father within his music.
The most obvious example of this came on the 1982 album Nebraska. Marking a pivotal point in the development of Springsteen as a songwriter, Nebraska was his most personal and vulnerable effort up until that point.
Each of the songs contained on the LP reveals something new about the life and mentality of Springsteen in one way or another. Of course, a definite highlight of the record comes with the piece ‘Used Cars’, which was directly inspired by Springsteen’s early life and his experiences with his father.
Like many men of that generation, Springsteen’s father had been obsessed with cars. “When I was growing up, he had every kind of used car possible,” Springsteen said while introducing the song at a show in New Jersey in 2005. “He had the used car without the heat. He had the used car without the muffler, he had the used car with the bad brakes, he had the used car that doesn’t go in reverse. Then, of course, let’s not forget the used car that just won’t start.”
“And the worst part,” The Boss continued. “My room was out over the backyard, and I’d hear him in the morning out on that ice-cold ground in the middle of winter trying to get the thing started. Then he would take us on a forced march on Sunday – our family day – and we would go for a ride. It was brutal. The used car without the muffler, when we passed a police car, he used to have to turn the thing off and coast by.” It is clear, therefore, that ‘Used Cars’ occupies a special place within the songwriter’s heart as a result of its close ties to his father and childhood.
In reality, though, ‘Used Cars’ contains so much more than “the exciting story of my own personal life,” as Springsteen once put it. The track is not only an ode to Douglas Springsteen and his love of rusty old cars; it is a heartwrenching account of nostalgic family life and the relationship between father and son.
In typical Springsteen fashion, he took something that was very personal to him and his own autobiography and gave it something of a universal appeal. It is tracks like ‘Used Cars’ which make the vulnerability and honesty at the heart of Nebraska an indisputable highlight within his extensive body of work.
