Deliver Me from Nowhere: The Making of Bruce Springsteen's Nebraska

by Warren Zanes

"An illuminating deep dive into the making of Bruce Springsteen's most surprising album, Nebraska, revealing its pivotal role in Springsteen's career--from the New York Times bestselling author of The Biography. Without Nebraska, Bruce Springsteen might not be who he is today. The natural follow-up to Springsteen's hugely successful The River should have been the hit-packed album Born in the U.S.A, but instead, in 1982, he came out with Nebraska, an album consisting of a series of dark songs he had recorded exclusively for himself. But almost forty years later, Nebraska is arguably Springsteen's most important record--the lasting clue if you're looking to understand not just the artist's career and the vision behind it but the man himself. Nebraska was rough and unfinished, recorded on a cassette tape with a simple multi-track recorder by Springsteen, alone in his bedroom, just as the digital future was announcing itself. And yet Springsteen now considers it his best album. Nebraska expressed a darkness that was reflective of a mood in the country but was also a symptom of trouble in the artist's life, the beginnings of a mental breakdown that Springsteen would only talk about openly decades after the album's release. Warren Zanes spoke to many people involved with making Nebraska, including Bruce Springsteen. He also interviewed more than a dozen celebrated musicians, from Rosanne Cash to Steven Van Zandt, about their reaction to the album. He interweaves these conversations with inquiries into the myriad cultural events, including Terence Malick's Badlands, that influenced Springsteen as he was writing the album's haunting songs. The result is a textured and revelatory account of not only a crucial moment in the career of an icon but also a recording that upended all expectations and predicted a home recording revolution"--

Genres: Music, Nonfiction, Biography, Audiobook, History, Music Biography, American

310 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2023

About the author

Zanes holds a PhD in visual and cultural studies from the University of Rochester. He was a member of the Del Fuegos and is set to release his fourth solo recording. He has worked on films including Twenty Feet from Stardom and Martin Scorsese's George Harrison: Living in the Material World and his writing has appeared in The Oxford American, Rolling Stone, and the Los Angeles Times. Zanes served as a V.P. at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum and is currently the Executive Director of Steven Van Zandt's Rock and Roll Forever Foundation. As a professor, Zanes has taught at the University of Rochester, Case Western Reserve University, the School of Visual Arts, and New York University.

Reviews

[Diane S ☔ · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story behind the music, behind this particular album which was such a departure from what came before. Springsteen's Nebraska is his most poignant album, and i listened to his music while I was reading this book. how it came to be and where and yes, even why. His vulnerability shows through in a big way and though I didnt know beforehand he is another creative person suffering from depression. A must read for Springsteen fans.

[Carmel Hanes · Rating 4 out of 5]

I fell in love with Bruce Springsteen's music as a young adult and own most (maybe all?) of what he has produced. That said, 'Nebraska' was the one album, early on, that left me scratching my head a bit. It didn't "fit" with his other early music. It wasn't what I'd come to expect. It was my least favorite. I didn't often listen to it. So, with that background, I was curious about what this book might offer to finally help explain that outsider LP.

After listening to some fascinating background, I pulled out this music and listened again. Holy error Batman. Maybe I'm more mature. Maybe my tastes have changed. Maybe the way the world has changed in the meantime and what I've lived enriched the lyrics for me. Maybe the background offered did such a stellar job of giving me context and depth that the words hit like hammers instead of glancing blows lost to the wind or near misses.

I don't know...but this book just gifted me a new perspective, a new appreciation, and a renewed love for the Bruce who is a simple peasant in king's clothing (and I mean that in the nicest possible way---I admire that about him). To know the space he was in when Nebraska was produced, to know his heart and the place this one has in it....well, it is the diamond in the rough of his life.

This book also offers insight into the music business itself and sent me to Google to check out some of the influences Bruce was under as he penned those words. It led me to watch the old movie Badlands and to investigate the true story the movie is loosely based on. It led me to look up bands I'd never heard of. Maybe that makes me a geek, but it did enrich my enjoyment of Zane's book. I wasn't equally enthralled with all that was contained in the book (hence, no fifth star), but it certainly held my interest most of the time, providing new understanding and a sense of awe.

[Barbara · Rating 5 out of 5]

So much better than others of the genre. And, dare I say it, more engaging that the very long, sometimes meandering, Born to Run.
The level of research and thought behind this book is evident. Zane’s brings so much to the table to share with us.

[Gail · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I heard the news that my beloved Jeremy Allen White was in talks to portray my beloved Bruce Springsteen in a new biopic, my first thought was: HOW BRILLIANT!!

When I found out the film would be an adaptation of Warren Zane’s 2023 book, Deliver Me From Nowhere, my first thought was: HOW DO I NOT ALREADY KNOW THIS BOOK EXISTS?!

I’ve written plenty on GoodReads about my love of Bruce (see my review of his memoir or my review of this deep dive into the stories behind his songs), but I’ll say it again: I stan the man. So much so that, some day when he dies, I want you to automatically think of me BECAUSE I WILL NOT BE OKAY, okay?

Whew, that got morbid didn’t it? Forgive me! Just me, back on my usual bullshit of telling the world how much I love Bruce Springsteen. Ha! And that love was resoundingly renewed with this read, one that chronicles the sliver of time when Bruce was in between making the eclectic The River and his starkly experimental Nebraska.

Maybe because I was listening to this book at the same time I was taking breaks to listen to Taylor Swift’s new Tortured Poets Department album, but I couldn’t help finding comparisons between Springsteen and Swift. To me, each artist carries the mark of a once-in-a-generation songwriter. And as much as Bruce had to make Nebraska before he could make the arena-friendly Born in the USA, Taylor had to make her Folklore/Evermore albums before she could embark on her arena-friendly Eras tour.

I’m digressing, I know, but I’ll just say that, for Bruce fans out there, this deep dive into Nebraska is a must-read. If you want the TLDR version instead, just know that from one little cassette tape Bruce carried around in his back pocket sans case (OMG! the damage all that lint could have caused!) came a masterpiece that Bruce himself considers his “definitive album.”

My only regret now is knowing it’ll be 2025 or beyond before we see JAW play the vulnerable, raw version of The Boss who created that very album on a cheap little 4-track recorder in his New Jersey bedroom. Already I can’t wait for the finished result!

[Also, I have to give a shout-out to my college bestie, Jon —a fellow musicophile who gifted me Nebraska on vinyl ... it's a cherished album in the Werner household now, for sure!]

[Shawn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Managed to finish this in less than a day, which doesn’t happen often with me. Once I started reading, I simply couldn’t put it down. Incredible story about the making of an incredible album by an incredible artist. What more could anyone ask?

[Jeff Bursey · Rating 5 out of 5]

I recall myself and another guy listening to his copies of Dire Straits' Love Over Gold followed by Nebraska one night in October 1982. Both were powerful, but Springsteen's album edged out the other in its bleakness and vulnerability. It's always had a special place in my music canon. For anyone who remembers that musical time (Toto, techno pop, Styx, Culture Club, almost every canadian singer-songwriter, but on the plus side were Stevie Ray Vaughan, The Blasters, and NRBQ), and the united statesian government (Reagan), this album encapsulated the fears and the deep unease of those not experiencing anything like 'morning in America.'

Warren Zanes (a musician) is stellar in recounting the making and impact of Nebraska, on its release and to this day, and in asking Springsteen, and many others, the right questions about it. Highly recommended for its intelligence and the style. There are a few repetitions but they don't mar the book. It also has some neat one-liners and observations.

[Chandler Rhoades · Rating 3 out of 5]

My employer 🤝 Bruce Springsteen

People nicknamed “the Boss” whose work can make me cry sometimes.

Here’s my Mount Rushmore of people named Bruce:

1) Springsteen
2) Willis
3) Wayne
4) the shark in Finding Nemo

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars rounded up to 3. Some interesting insights but not sure there was enough material for a book, as parts were repetitive. I do love Bruce so those few tidbits made it worth it, especially in audiobook format. My other constructive criticism is that the author overrelied on quotations from prior materials and interview questions, making this feel a bit more like an oral history. This was appropriate for a book about music but wasn't as advertised.

[Jack Harding · Rating 4 out of 5]

“In that moment in American life,” reflects musician and best-selling author Warren Zanes in the prologue of his fascinating making-of book, “it seemed you couldn’t turn on a radio without hearing Bruce Springsteen or buy a magazine without seeing him. But that wasn’t what mattered to us. Not right then. It wasn’t even the earlier records like Born to Run or Darkness on the Edge of Town that were on our minds, though we knew them line for line. When our dressing room door opened and Bruce Springsteen walked in, we had one thought: that’s the guy who made Nebraska.”

Having set the stage, what follows is an incredibly well researched, set-up and mapped-out account of how a then detached Springsteen, having just scored his first number one record with The River and around two-thirds poised for what would be one of the biggest selling albums of all time (Born in the USA), churned out what many consider to be his best work.

Nebraska was an album that was never really meant to be an album at all. Its songs were mastered at a low level- rough and not-so-ready home demos laid down with a lot of heart but a hint of trepidation by an isolated Springsteen perched on the end of his bed into a cassette 4 track recorder. No singles. No hits. Downbeat. Nothing catchy. The songs and stories that make up Nebraska are dark and largely hopeless affairs- its characters all doomed and downtrodden, marginalised and victims of their own choices. It’s undoubtedly the most obscure and heartfelt piece of work he’s ever done, and Zanes does an outstanding job of exploring the legacy behind Springsteen’s intimately unique and then risky solo venture. It’s packed with interviews and insights from not just Springsteen but those around him at the time of Nebraska’s creeping emergence.

This is undoubtedly one for the Springsteen purists or anybody who has the slightest interest in how music’s made. I enjoyed it immensely. A tad repetitive in the early chapters perhaps but that’s alright- I’ve come out of this book with a new found appreciation for an album I’ve always liked but never really embraced. Until now.

[Eve · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was 13 years old when I bought Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Born in the USA’ album and, like many other newly baptized fans, sought out the rest of his catalog to date. As for its immediate predecessor, ‘Nebraska’…well, that was a puzzling record. It was an album I had to grow into.

Some four decades later, this book brings a grown-up fan’s take on the record. As most fans know, the Boss recorded it in his rented house on a four-track cassette recorder—rather advanced for the consumer market, but not quite professional grade. No band, no backup singers, no Clarence—just Bruce. It is more than 100 pages before we even get there, what with the back story of his career and his influences (punk outfit Suicide and the Terrence Malick drama ‘Badlands,’ to name two). Then he writes and records what he had intended to be simply demos for the band. Some of those became ‘Born in the USA,’ but that album would have to wait. The rest would, after some tricky conversion, be released essentially as is as ‘Nebraska.’ It surprises critics and musicians, etc. etc. And now the guy from ‘The Bear’ is going to be in a movie about it.

Zanes jumps around a bit too much for my liking. He’s conversational and in awe of his subject one moment, and deep into the weeds of recording techniques and formats the next. Even though he spoke with Springsteen for the book, the creator of ‘Nebraska’ does not seem very present in his own record’s biography.

There is a ton of padding here (we learn, for example, that Springsteen’s Los Angeles home was once owned by the actor who played Charlie Chan, and we get a whole paragraph of biography on him). It is often repetitive and stops and starts on strange notes. Zanes draws a line between the solitude of the ‘Nebraska’ demos and the Sony Walkman. It doesn’t flow. I was as confused reading this book as I was listening to ‘Nebraska’ as an adolescent. Thing is, I know the album is a masterpiece and the book…well, I’m not going to pick it up again in 40 years. Check out Bruce’s memoir ‘Born to Run,’ and say no more.

[Nick · Rating 4 out of 5]

The structure of this was pretty hit or miss for me, and it felt like there was a large build up to Bruce's mental health crisis that was then not given a ton of time, but overall enjoyed this. I imagine it's very hard to convey how big of a popularity jump Bruce made with The River and then the massive leap he took with Born in the USA, but Zanes does a good job building out the context before and after Nebraska came out.

[George Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

read in 2024 but forgot to log - capture’s Nebraska’s haunting desolation and Bruce’s mindset during its creation wonderfully. Can’t wait for the film!

[jeremy · Rating 3 out of 5]

no sound of a crowd, just ghosts and anxious murmurs.

springsteen’s nebraska may well be the most singular work of his career, and, in many ways, is the skeleton key to his entire catalog. the record is an enormous achievement, as stark and haunting today, over forty years after its fabled release. deliver me from nowhere, written by former del fuego guitarist, nyu professor, and tom petty biography warren zanes, chronicles the making of bruce’s 1982 album (recorded onto cassette using only a 4-track). with access to the artist himself and the (surprisingly unchanged) colts neck, new jersey farmhouse where it was recorded, deliver me from nowhere is as much a historical account as it is an impassioned encomium. for the most ardent of fans, a good bit of the book may not offer much newness beyond specific anecdotes, but overall zanes did an excellent job capturing the album’s origins, zeitgeist, recording details, and legacy.

rough home demos. mastered at a low level. no singles. first track is about a serial killer. no tour or press. if you could make a list of the things a record company does not want to hear…

[Charlie Ravioli · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing! If you like Springsteen, it’s a must read. The backstory of all that led up to, went into and came as a result of the album Nebraska. Really a phenomenal book about an incredible musician.

[Lindsay Farr · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ok I know I’m biased but this book was truly amazing. Not only in telling the story of Bruce at this point in his journey and the story of Nebraska, but in exploring ideas of songwriting, artistry, fame, storytelling, the American experience. Learned a lot about a significant turning point in how music was made and listened to. I loved Bruce’s memoir, but getting to hear these stories from a listeners perspective, from a slight distance, allowed for incredible analysis.

[Jeff · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some friends of mine did “music appreciation” nights sporadically throughout college. My friend Kellie surprised me when she chose Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska. My only exposure to Springsteen at that point had been seeing his Born in the USA video on VH1 on the Fourth of July as a 13 year old kid. I, like many others, misunderstood the meaning of the song.

I truly started to understand and appreciate Springsteen on that cold Idaho night in my small college apartment. I’ve been a fan ever since.

My friend Zach bought me this book for my birthday last week and it was hard to put it down. I’ve listened to Springsteen read the audiobook version of his biography and this was at least as good.

[Gary Anderson]

On his double album The River, Bruce Springsteen finally captured something approaching the sound of his powerful live show. The logical next album would have been Born in the USA, a rock album full of hits. But when Springsteen returned from his River tour, he rented a modest house in Colts Neck, New Jersey where he lived alone and instead wrote songs about the bleak side of American culture which echoed the emptiness that he felt in his own life. He bought a low-tech four-track recording system and recorded the songs on a cassette which he planned to bring to the E Street Band for fleshing out as a new record.

In Deliver Me from Nowhere: The Making of Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska, Warren Zanes tells how that cassette took on a life of its own when Springsteen decided to release the songs just as he recorded them. Zanes explains how Springsteen came to that moment, and the challenges involved in a major artist releasing an album he didn’t know he was making that only existed on a piece of technology that didn’t interface well with more sophisticated studio equipment.

Deliver Me from Nowhere is a fascinating exploration of how Nebraska came into being. Zanes doesn’t analyze the songs that much, but through interviews with Springsteen and others who came to be involved in the project he reveals why this album is such an important part of Springsteen’s catalog.

[Arjen Doosje · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nebraska is mijn lievelingsalbum en ik veerde meteen op toen ik zag dat dit boek verscheen op 2 mei. Het is een geweldig boek. Warren Zanes geeft een prachtig inzicht in het creatieve proces van Springsteen na The River, leidend tot Nebraska en Born in the USA. De platen zijn zo met elkaar verweven. De schrijver heeft veel betrokkenen geïnterviewd, onder wie Springsteen zelf. Een parel van een boek en het legde wat puzzelstukjes die ik zelf nog had na alles wat ik al over de beste man wist. Aanrader voor elke muziekliefhebber.

[Ann Marie · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5. So good. Bruce making a record without knowing he was making a record. Incredible story and well told…I knew only the basics before but to be immersed in the process with Bruce was fascinating. Brought back the first time I heard those songs, from the stage at the LA Sports Arena in 1984, and how much they struck me at the time. Johnny 99, Reason to Believe, and Highway Patrolman…still remember the impact. But the album itself..the sound of it, the echo, Bruce’s voice…no way to improve on that demo tape.

[Graham Connors · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am a Bruce fan. I think I was bound to love this book regardless. And I did love it! Zanes goes into great depth as he unwraps Springsteen. It's not so much about the recording of the album, but the preamble to it, a discussion of his creative process. It's fascinating, to be honest.

Would I recommend this book? Absolutely. This is for fans of Springsteen's music and for those interested in creativity alike! A fantastic read!

[John Dudley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fabulous, I’m ready for the movie!

This was my first time reading a book about the making of a record, and I have to say it was a very enlightening experience. Maybe it’s because of the way the album, Nebraska fits into the Springsteen catalogue or maybe it’s just the story itself that’s so compelling. Either way, I learned things, and I really came to appreciate the album, a lot more than I ever had before…and the musician.

This also made some of the songs on Bruce’s next album, “Born in the USA” make a lot more sense, and have a much deeper context. And some way it was like hearing some of those songs for the first time, which is pretty cool.

This is a really great book for Bruce Springsteen fans, and I would also recommend it for folks who want to understand what it’s like to be at the high of fame, and to take a step back to consider the value of it all.

[Grant Thompson · Rating 4 out of 5]

"I'm an alienated person by nature. Always have been, still am to this day. It continues to be an issue in my life, in that I'm always coming from the outside, and I'm always trying to overcome my own internal reticence and alienation. Which is funny, because I throw myself the opposite way onstage, but the reason I do that is because while the stage and all those people are out there, the abyss is under my heels, and I always feel it back there."

[John DiLillo]

picked this up after seeing the (dreadful) movie under the assumption that there might be something more compelling to find in the source material. nope! one of the most vapid pieces of culture writing I’ve ever read, endlessly repetitive and lacking any insight about nebraska that you wouldn’t have received simply by listening to it. does climax with an excruciating section where the author explains to springsteen why nebraska and born in the USA are like homer’s odyssey, so that’s something I guess. not recommended!

[Erin · Rating 4 out of 5]

very fascinating, Atlantic city is my favourite Springsteen song and this album seems to encapsulate the bleakness of America that interests me and the interaction of music and politics, such as Reagan’w fundermental misunderstanding of Springsteens intentions. In some way this album is the musical version of In Cold Blood, and I appreciate that I now need to read more Flannary O’Connor to fully grasp the depth of this album

[nate]

A beautiful book about a beautiful record. Zanes doesn't demystify; he draws you into deeper wonder. Fantastic.

[Simon Sweetman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Big fan of Warren Zanes’ music writing, and Nebraska is the one Springsteen album I can always return to with fresh ears, so, no brainer for me. Loved hearing more about the story behind this wonderful record.

[N.Barber · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well-researched and technically detailed but somewhat dry. I got most of what I wanted to know about the album well before I’d finished it.

[Bella · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nebraska is a middle of the road album in Bruce’s discography for me. I like some of the songs, but none are songs I really love, I think partially because they’re missing the full band sound. In fact, it’s every too-cool-for-school person’s favorite Springsteen album I think because it sounds so different from the rest of his work. Which, unfairly to the record, has made me resent it a bit.

All to say, I’m glad I read this book! It gave me a huge appreciation for the production of the album and why that was so inspiring to people. I wish there’d been some ink spilled on Open All Night, one of my favorite songs on the album which doesn’t necessarily fit with the rest of the vibe (and indeed is nearly identical to an earlier Springsteen song) but the narrative was generally good.

[J.J. Lair · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like the frame of the narrative. It starts at the River album. Side 4 of that album has Stolen Car and that becomes the omen of what is coming. There are bits of things I learned like notes on early drafts of Born in the USA from 1982. There is a lot that fans would know already. There are times it feels redundant. There are times it becomes about Zane’s research.
Zanes goes into songs that still haven’t been officially released. He gets into where Springsteen lived and recorded. The technical difficulties of making an album from a cassette tape should’ve been boring, but it was interesting. That part of the story had conflict and back and forth.
Overall it felt too long, but there were new tidbits that I learned.

[John Valesano · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting account about a pivotal album of Bruce Springsteen's career.
A good discussion of it's importance and the ground breaking recording processes to creating and releasing albums with little or no professionsl studio. It led to an independence of musicians and the current musical world we now have.
Thanks for the book Natalie & Casey!