NEBRASKA - Bruce Springsteen - w/lyrics - Natural Born Killers

"Nebraska" is the title song of Bruce Springsteen's 1982 solo album. The stark, moody composition sets the tone for the LP, the content of which consists mostly of songs about criminals and desperate people, accompanied only by acoustic guitar and harmonica. The song has been covered by other artists, including Steve Earle, Chrissie Hynde, and Aoife O'Donovan.

"Nebraska" is sung as a first person narrative of Charles Starkweather, who along with his teenage girlfriend Caril Ann Fugate murdered 11 people over an eight-day period in 1958. Springsteen sings of 10 deaths, as Starkweather had already killed one man prior to their meeting.

Their story inspired a number of films, among them Oliver Stones' almost operatic and very violent Natural Born Killers. A much more understated (but no less violent) version was by Terence Malick in '73. It was entitled Badlands.

The Springsteen song Nebraska is not just close in spirit to Malick's film but also draws its imagery directly from it in many places.

Springsteen had seen the film then did his own reading and research (see clip below).

Some of the lines attributed to Starkweather came from that research.

Springsteen was also influenced by the spare writing style of the author Flannery O'Connor whose work he had been reading.

And it is very like Dylan in his delivery.

So this is not really reportage as he says but rather a retelling of the story using the facts and imagination.

*Baton scene by: 'SNOWFLAKE ROLLER GIRL'