Nebraska (4:26)

This is about Charles Starkweather, who was 19 when he went on a murder spree in 1958. Along with his 14-year-old girlfriend Caril Fugate, he killed 10 people in Nebraska and brought out fears that rebellious movies and rock music were creating a new breed of offenders. Springsteen considered “Starkweather” as the title.

The 1973 movie Badlands, starring Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek, was inspired by Starkweather’s story. After seeing a poster for the movie in a theater lobby, Springsteen used the title for his 1978 song, but did not see it until 1980.

This was the title track to the first album Springsteen recorded by himself. He recorded the songs at his house with a 4-track recorder, and after playing them with The E Street Band, decided they worked best as they were.

E Street Band guitarist Steve Van Zant recalled to Rolling Stone magazine that Springsteen started cutting the tracks that made up Nebraska as demos for the band. However he saw potential in them and persuaded Springsteen to record them for an album: “I remember him playing them for me one day and said ‘Here’s my new songs. We’ll start rehearsing them as a band soon.’ And I listened to this thing and I thought to myself, ‘I gotta say there’s something extraordinary about this.’ There was no intention of it being a record and no intention of it being released, but there was something just extraordinarily intimate about it. And I thought ‘What a wonderful moment has been captured here just accidentally.’ And I said to him, ‘Listen, I know this is a bit strange but I honestly think this is an album unto itself and I think you should release it.