Why ‘Highway Patrolman’ is the best Bruce Springsteen song
Most Bruce Springsteen songs are about dreaming of someplace better beyond the suburbs of the world. Even though it would be hard trying to find a life outside of some nowhere town in middle America, Springsteen always makes it seem like it’s still possible, as if all one’s dreams exist on the other side of the horizon. It’s definitely inspiring, but all good music is about something closer to the bone, and ‘Highway Patrolman’ is probably the best track Springsteen has ever written simply because of how open it is.
Then again, most of Nebraska was going to have to be open because there wasn’t much to work with. Springsteen figured that he would workshop a bunch of the demos, but once the label liked the way they sounded without the E Street Band, he decided to release everything raw, meaning that every song was going to live and die on his performance alone. This was to be the album that best reflected his beating heart.
‘Highway Patrolman’ certainly isn’t the most sonically complicated piece of work Springsteen has ever produced. There are only a handful of chords, and most could pick up the track on their first guitar lesson, but the kind of emotion that Springsteen puts into this one tune is like watching the most heartbreaking family drama ever put to screen or vinyl, in this case.
There have been songs before where Springsteen talks about his family, but his portrayal of Joe Roberts as he makes his way through his nightly run as a policeman is something ripped straight out of a morality lesson. As Roberts sings about his relationship with his brother, Franky, we get to hear every single detail of their relationship before we even see him show up.
From day one, it wasn’t good, with Franky being the kid that gets screwed up in war and Joe ending up stealing his girlfriend while he’s away and marrying her, leaving him feeling more than a bit jaded. After one too many fallings-out with his father, Franky is practically the version of ourselves that we hope not to turn into, growing more resentful of life as the years go on and drinking his troubles away just to feel something again.
Once Joe gets word that Franky was involved in a barroom fight that leaves someone badly wounded, he’s the one who has to turn on those headlights and chase down his brother. Even though Joe seems to do his job no matter what, every chorus has a different tone when talking about his brother. In one verse, he’s saying how he ain’t no friend of his, and in the next, there’s almost a twinkle in Springsteen’s voice, like he’s remembering all those years they were together.
As Joe starts gaining on Franky, he gets all the way to the border and comes close to nabbing him. Right when he’s got the jump on him, though, he lets his foot off the pedal and watches his brother fade into the night.
Even though Joe may have done right by his brother, this is an extremely mixed blessing for anyone who has siblings. Yes, you’re going to make sure that your family isn’t going to go to jail for a long time, but that also means that you’re probably never going to see him again until the day he dies.
While this is an extremely specific situation, Springsteen’s greatest strength on this song is about giving everyone the benefit of the doubt. Sure, Franky was definitely not an upstanding member of society, but no one deserved to be counted out, and while it hurts to see him go, it’s better to see him drive off into the night than spend the rest of his life behind bars.
That wasn’t even the last time Springsteen dug deep to finish a track, either. Half of the songs on The Rising deal with similar emotional baggage, with many of the tunes about dissecting the reality of dealing with a tragedy like 9/11. While that came from a more experienced version of Springsteen, ‘Highway Patrolman’ feels a lot closer to reality than most of us realise.
‘Highway Patrolman’ and the record at large continue to be a major influence for artists like Phoebe Bridgers today due to how raw the performance is. So next time you listen to this song, it might be a good idea to put yourself in the shoes of Joe. There will always be those warm memories of being one happy family, but ‘Highway Patrolman’ is a reminder that all of them could be gone without even realising it.
