Springsteen Loves Nebraska. Why Won’t He Play Its Songs?

Bruce Springsteen’s album Nebraska is having its moment, with the Oct. 24 release of a biopic focused on its 1982 creation and a box set of outtakes. The singer has said that of his 19 LPs of original songs, Nebraska should be seen as singularly representative of his life’s work long after he’s gone.

I agree: It’s a masterpiece — raw, spare, unpolished and, above all, dark. I said so just after it came out, in my college newspaper review. Headline: “Darkness on the edge of a mean world.”