Brothers Under the Bridge
There's a Bruce song that is hardly ever heard by anyone.
It's called Brothers Under the Bridge and it was never a hit, for sure. It was hardly even released! It's on the Tracks record.
It's slow, reflective and beautifully written. It's about a Viet Nam vet who returns and finds nothing is waiting for him at home. He tells his story of being lost to his daughter. A daughter that he hardly knows. A daughter who can't understand that he drifts across the west, sleeping in camps built by the homeless brothers.
The imagery is astounding.
Every single word means something.
We were in the car when it came across the radio in the middle of a concert replay. Bruce announced that the band had never played it before live.
I had certainly never heard it performed live.
But I thought my way through the song, remembering that the last line in the song is the one that struck me so hard the very first time I heard it.
The man is talking to his daughter.
He's telling her why his life turned out to be a lot different than what he had dreamed it would be.
One minute you're right there...and something slips.
The song fades to black.
That is the very last line.
Kathy was in the car as the song played. She was telling me about her day.
I was a million miles away...knowing that I had written about 50 pages based on that one line.
Something slips.
There was a man in a town where I lived a long time ago...
...West Haven, Connecticut.
The man was an absolute mess.
He worked construction from 7 to 3.
He drank from 3:30 until he passed out.
He had a couple of kids who he screamed at, threatened, and belittled. His wife had left him for another man. He considered her to be a filthy whore.
He lived in the apartment below me and one day I had one beer with him.
I couldn't stomach more than one.
And I wondered about that guy.
I was young. He was bitter, mean and his life seemed to be a waste.
I just wondered.
And on that day...when we had that one beer...he explained...that life had destroyed him and that he didn't care anymore.
He had been right there...
...then something slipped.
There are a lot of folks just putting their time in.
It wasn't what they expected.
Google the words sometime.
Brothers Under the Bridge.
It's called Brothers Under the Bridge and it was never a hit, for sure. It was hardly even released! It's on the Tracks record.
It's slow, reflective and beautifully written. It's about a Viet Nam vet who returns and finds nothing is waiting for him at home. He tells his story of being lost to his daughter. A daughter that he hardly knows. A daughter who can't understand that he drifts across the west, sleeping in camps built by the homeless brothers.
The imagery is astounding.
Every single word means something.
We were in the car when it came across the radio in the middle of a concert replay. Bruce announced that the band had never played it before live.
I had certainly never heard it performed live.
But I thought my way through the song, remembering that the last line in the song is the one that struck me so hard the very first time I heard it.
The man is talking to his daughter.
He's telling her why his life turned out to be a lot different than what he had dreamed it would be.
One minute you're right there...and something slips.
The song fades to black.
That is the very last line.
Kathy was in the car as the song played. She was telling me about her day.
I was a million miles away...knowing that I had written about 50 pages based on that one line.
Something slips.
There was a man in a town where I lived a long time ago...
...West Haven, Connecticut.
The man was an absolute mess.
He worked construction from 7 to 3.
He drank from 3:30 until he passed out.
He had a couple of kids who he screamed at, threatened, and belittled. His wife had left him for another man. He considered her to be a filthy whore.
He lived in the apartment below me and one day I had one beer with him.
I couldn't stomach more than one.
And I wondered about that guy.
I was young. He was bitter, mean and his life seemed to be a waste.
I just wondered.
And on that day...when we had that one beer...he explained...that life had destroyed him and that he didn't care anymore.
He had been right there...
...then something slipped.
There are a lot of folks just putting their time in.
It wasn't what they expected.
Google the words sometime.
Brothers Under the Bridge.
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