bruce springsteen tunnel of love tour wembley

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• June 25, 1988 Setlist

Bruce Springsteen Setlist at Wembley Stadium, London, England

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Tour: Tunnel of Love Express Tour statistics Add setlist

• Tunnel of Love Play Video
• Boom Boom ( John Lee Hooker  cover) Play Video
• Adam Raised a Cain Play Video
• Two Faces Play Video
• All That Heaven Will Allow Play Video
• The River Play Video
• Seeds Play Video
• Cover Me Play Video
• Brilliant Disguise Play Video
• Spare Parts Play Video
• War ( The Temptations  cover) (with Edwin Starr ) Play Video
• Born in the U.S.A. Play Video
• Tougher Than the Rest Play Video
• Ain't Got You Play Video
• She's the One Play Video
• You Can Look (But You Better Not Touch) Play Video
• I'm a Coward ( Gino Washington  cover) Play Video
• I'm on Fire Play Video
• Part Man, Part Monkey Play Video
• Because the Night ( Patti Smith Group  cover) Play Video
• Backstreets Play Video
• Dancing in the Dark Play Video
• Light of Day Play Video
• Born to Run ( Acoustic ) Play Video
• Hungry Heart Play Video
• Glory Days Play Video
• Love Me Tender ( Elvis Presley  cover) Play Video
• Bobby Jean Play Video
• Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out Play Video
• Have Love, Will Travel ( Richard Berry  cover) Play Video
• Sweet Soul Music ( Arthur Conley  cover) Play Video
• Raise Your Hand ( Eddie Floyd  cover) Play Video
• Twist and Shout ( The Top Notes  cover) Play Video

Note: Soundcheck included: "Twenty-Five Miles", "Gulf Coast Highway", "Across the Borderline" and "Lonely Teardrops"

Edits and Comments

27 activities (last edit by oddi , 11 Jul 2023, 17:00 Etc/UTC )

Songs on Albums

• Because the Night by Patti Smith Group
• Boom Boom by John Lee Hooker
• Have Love, Will Travel by Richard Berry
• I'm a Coward by Gino Washington
• Love Me Tender by Elvis Presley
• Raise Your Hand by Eddie Floyd
• Sweet Soul Music by Arthur Conley
• Twist and Shout by The Top Notes
• War by The Temptations
• Ain't Got You
• All That Heaven Will Allow
• Brilliant Disguise
• Spare Parts
• Tougher Than the Rest
• Tunnel of Love
• Born in the U.S.A.
• Dancing in the Dark
• I'm on Fire
• Backstreets
• Born to Run
• She's the One
• Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out
• Hungry Heart
• You Can Look (But You Better Not Touch)
• Adam Raised a Cain
• Light of Day
• Part Man, Part Monkey

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Bruce springsteen gig timeline.

• Jun 21 1988 Villa Park Birmingham, England Add time Add time
• Jun 22 1988 Villa Park Birmingham, England Add time Add time
• Jun 25 1988 Wembley Stadium This Setlist London, England Add time Add time
• Jun 28 1988 Feijenoord Stadion Rotterdam, Netherlands Add time Add time
• Jun 29 1988 Feijenoord Stadion Rotterdam, Netherlands Add time Add time

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• Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band 2024 World Tour

Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band 2024 World Tour

Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band will return to Wembley Stadium in 2024

Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band

Bruce springsteen & the e street band.

Lauded by Rolling Stone as "the embodiment of rock & roll" with more than 140 million records sold around the globe and more than 70 million in the United States, Bruce Springsteen is one of the world's best-selling artists. Long recognized as an incomparable live performer, Springsteen and The E Street Band will be returning to Wembley Stadium in 2024. 

Dates 25 July 2024 27 July 2024 Hospitality Enjoy luxury hospitality at Bruce Springsteen . Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band return to Wembley Stadium and you can enjoy the show in style. Enjoy the ultimate hospitality with Club Wembley. Click here to find out more. General Admission Tickets for the UK dates will go on sale to the general public on November 3rd at 10am local time via Ticketmaster and SeeTickets. Disabled Access ticketing information For important information regarding booking and sale dates, please click here. Any guest with a disability access requirement can find all the information on purchasing accessible tickets by clicking here . All accessibility  tickets will be sold by Wembley Stadium. If you need to get in touch with us to discuss your disability access requirements please click here or contact us on 0800 093 0824. You can read about accessibility at Wembley to assist you with planning your visit by clicking here . For information about our Sensory Rooms, please click here. BSL interpretation Wembley Stadium is proud to offer BSL interpretation for every show we hold. For these shows, the interpreter will be located in front of Block 102. If you would like to purchase tickets in this area, please follow the process to book accessible tickets by clicking here. Merchandise Please check back for further information in the weeks leading up to the shows. Entry Times Please check back for further information in the weeks leading up to the shows. Restricted Bag Policy Wembley operates a restricted bag policy, and we ask every guests to familiarise themselves with it before attending. You can read more about our restricted bag policy by  clicking here . Cashless Wembley Stadium is a cashless venue. Please be aware that NO kiosks will accept cash. Contactless & Card payments will be accepted at al kiosks inside the stadium. Age Restrictions No under 5s No under 14s on pitch standing All under 14s must be accompanied by an adult aged 18 or over

Visit the Guest Support portal for information, help and to contact us: https://help.wembleystadium.com/support/solutions

Tunnel Of Love Express Tour

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Coming on the heels of the massively successful  Born in the U.S.A. Tour , the Tunnel of Love Express was designed to disorient Springsteen's audiences. A theatrical entrance began the show, a full horn section appeared, band members were rearranged from their customary positions, and on-stage spontaneity was kept to a minimum. Set lists were unusually static, and many of Springsteen's most popular concert numbers were omitted altogether. Instead, the shows featured Springsteen B-sides and outtakes as well as renditions of obscure genre songs by others. Critical reaction to the concerts was generally favorable, with some mixed reviews, while audiences were sometimes baffled.

The show featured backup singer Patti Scialfa brought center stage and the object of sexually themed presentations unusual for Springsteen. That, combined with the dour nature of many  Tunnel of Love  songs, led to speculation that Springsteen's marriage to Julianne Phillips was troubled. Further visual evidence of Springsteen and Scialfa becoming a couple emerged as the tour progressed, his separation from Phillips was officially confirmed, and for the first time Springsteen became the subject of a tabloid fervor. Springsteen and Scialfa eventually married, and the Tunnel of Love Express shows were the last full-length ones Springsteen would play with the E Street Band for eleven years

• 1 Broadcasts and recordings
• 3.1 The E Street Band
• 3.2 The Horns of Love

Broadcasts and recordings [ ]

MTV filmed the March 28 show in Detroit's Joe Louis Arena. Portions of several songs were aired as part of their special  Bruce Springsteen – Inside the Tunnel of Love  on April 30.

Much of the July 19 East Berlin concert was broadcast live on GDR state television and radio.

The first set of the July 3 show in Stockholms Olympiastadion was broadcast live on radio to an international audience. Distributed through DIR Broadcasting and available free to any station that wanted it, it was Springsteen's first live broadcast since 1978, and the first available nationwide. Some 300 stations broadcast it in the U.S., and it was also heard across Canada, Europe, Australia, and Japan. Proceeds from commercials that aired before and after the concert segment were to be divided between DIR and Springsteen, and after subtraction for costs, sent to charity. The set itself followed tour practice except for the addition of Bob Dylan's "Chimes of Freedom" at the close, as Springsteen announced his upcoming participation in Amnesty International's Human Rights Now! Tour later that year.The concert was subsequently issued through the Bruce Springsteen Archives in November 2017.

The  Chimes of Freedom  EP, released in August 1988, included that rendition, as well as documenting three other song performances from scattered dates on the Express, including the radical simplification of "Born to Run".

In July 2015, Springsteen released  LA Sports Arena, California 1988 , the first official full show live release from this tour. It captured the April 23 show performed at the L.A. Sports Arena and was available through his website. This would be followed by the release of the July 3 show at Stockholms Stadion in November 2017, the release of the May 23 U.S. leg finale at Madison Square Garden in January 2019, the above-mentioned March 28 show from Detroit in March 2020, the fifth and final show at the Los Angeles Sports Arena in April 2021 & the first night at Madison Square Garden in May 2022.

Personel [ ]

The e street band [ ].

• Bruce Springsteen – lead vocals, guitars, harmonica
• Roy Bittan – piano, synthesizer
• Clarence Clemons – saxophone, congas, percussion, background vocals
• Danny Federici – organ
• Nils Lofgren – guitars, background vocals
• Patti Scialfa – background vocals, some featured duet vocals, acoustic guitar, percussion
• Garry Tallent – bass guitar
• Max Weinberg – drums

The Horns of Love [ ]

• Mario Cruz – saxophone
• Eddie Manion – saxophone
• Mark Pender – trumpet
• Richie "La Bamba" Rosenberg – trombone
• Mike Spengler – trumpet
• 1 Born In The U.S.A. Tour
• 2 Cindy Mizelle
• 3 The E Street Horns

• my concerts

Tunnel Of Love Express Tour : Bruce Springsteen, Wembley Stadium, London (GB) - Jun 25, 1988

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Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band 2024 World Tour

Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band are coming to Wembley in 2024

Thu 25 Jul 2024

Sat 27 jul 2024.

Lauded by Rolling Stone as “the embodiment of rock & roll,” with more than 140 million records sold around the globe and more than 70 million in the United States, Bruce Springsteen is one of the world’s best-selling artists. Long recognised as an incomparable live performer, Springsteen and The E Street Band's 2023 international tour marked their first live shows since the conclusion of The River Tour in 2017 — a 14-month run named 2016’s top global tour by both Billboard and Pollstar — and kicked off in February 2023 with a string of U.S. arena dates. The 2023 tour then continued into Europe over the spring and summer, before returning to North America for a second leg in August. Backed by The E Street Horns and The E Street Choir, Springsteen and The E Street Band’s 2023 European tour sold more than 1.6 million tickets — and earned widespread acclaim as some of the best shows of the band’s career, receiving praise from Billboard as “the greatest show on earth” and "one of the greatest shows ever" from The Daily Telegraph as well as five-star reviews from The Times, The Independent, NME and many others. Highlights included a two-night kick-off in Barcelona which "unleashed euphoria," as El Correo attested, as well as performances to over 130,000 fans across two dates at London's Hyde Park and a final night to over 70,000 in Monza, Italy. The 14-country tour included multi-night stands in each of Barcelona, Dublin, Paris, Amsterdam, Gothenburg, Oslo, London and Copenhagen.  

Springsteen has won 20 Grammy Awards, an Academy Award, two Golden Globes and a Special Tony Award. In 1999, Springsteen was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame — followed by The E Street Band at large in 2014 — as well as the Songwriters Hall of Fame. In 2013, he received a Kennedy Center Honor — and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the country’s highest civilian award, by President Barack Obama in 2016. In 2023, Springsteen was also honored by President Joe Biden at the White House with the 2021 National Medal of Arts. Before the success and accolades, the fiercely loyal New Jerseyan first assembled The E Street Band on the state’s beaches and boardwalk clubs — featuring many members who still tour with him till this day. In 1999, after 10 years apart, Springsteen reconvened The E Street Band for a historic series of shows documented on the “Live in New York City” HBO special, DVD and album. Since the E Street reunion tour, Springsteen has toured consistently — usually with the band. Highlights have included the 2004 Vote for Change benefit tour, The Rising Tour in 2002 — including a record-breaking 10 nights at Giants Stadium — as well as the Wrecking Ball World Tour in 2012 and The River Tour in 2016, both of which were the highest-grossing tours of their respective years. According to Pollstar magazine, Springsteen is one of just four artists who have sold more than 20 million tickets since 1980.   Enquire below for Private Box and Hospitality packages.

Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band Diamond Package

£649 inc VAT

• Reserved luxury padded seat in an exclusive central searing block on Level One

• Exclusive access to the most prestigious club in Club Wembley's History, The One Twenty

• Inclusive champagne, spirits, beers, wines and soft drinks pre-show and for one-hour post-show

• Exceptional four-course menu served prior to the main act

• Snacks served post show

• Concert Goodie bag and souvenir pass

• Access to the Club Wembley after show party

Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band Gold Package

£499 inc VAT

• Reserved ticket in a central seating block on Level One

• Exclusive access to relaxed and informal 'lounge style' hospitality pre show and for one hour post show

• Complimentary beers, wines and soft drinks pre show and for one hour post show

• A wide ranging buffet menu before the main act

• Purchase bar available during the show

Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band Private Boxes

£818 per person inc VAT

• Premium ticket directly outside your Box on Level 3 or 4 of the Stadium
• Boxes available for 8, 12 or 20 people
• Delicious pre concert full catering menu with light bites served throughout
• Complimentary beers, paired wines and sparkling wine throughout the concert
• Your own chef and host/hostess in attendance throughout
• 42” flat screen TV in every Box

Explore Memberships

Inner Circle

£2,640 inc vat  .

Access to a variety of members-only bars and restaurants.

Centre Circle

£5,046 inc vat  .

Exceptional views and complimentary street-style food and beverages.

Bobby Moore

£9,030 inc vat  .

Exclusive access to a fine dining restaurant with live entertainment.

£13,002 INC VAT  

The most exclusive club anywhere in the stadium.

Private Box

Your own private haven, with breath taking views and service.

Number Nine

£6,342 inc vat  .

Named after the iconic Number 9 jersey, the experience is truly striking from start to finish. 

Upcoming events 

23 Mar 2024

England vs brazil.

England will host Brazil at Wembley Stadium connected by EE in March 2024

26 Mar 2024

England vs belgium.

England men will host Belgium at Wembley Stadium connected by EE in March 2024

05 Apr 2024

England vs sweden.

The Lionesses will play Sweden at Wembley Stadium as part of their European Qualifier fixtures for UEFA Women’s EURO 2025

Bruce Springsteen at Wembley Stadium: live review

Meet the new boss, same as the old boss: bruce springsteen and the e street band bring the river tour to london.

You can trust Louder Our experienced team has worked for some of the biggest brands in music. From testing headphones to reviewing albums, our experts aim to create reviews you can trust. Find out more about how we review.

When Bruce Springsteen headed out on this latest lengthy tour at the beginning of the year, the intention was to play 1980’s The River album in its entirety at each show. But by the time the E Street Band pitched their tent at Wembley on Sunday he had other ideas. Just six of the 20 songs from that landmark release make the cut for the three-and-a-half-hour set, but The Boss doesn’t go radically off-message.

Now 66, Bruce appears to use the record as a touchstone to reflect on his 30-year-old self, dusting off another 10 pre- River songs that loosely map out the route that brought him to major commercial breakthrough. Tellingly, only three tracks from his five most recent albums get an airing.

Sitting at the piano for the solo, subdued opener Does This Bus Stop At 82 nd Street? (a song that featured on his first professional demo back in 1972), he signals his plan for a broader back pages show than initially advertised. Before too long, augmented by the fiercest, best-drilled rock‘n’roll band on the planet, he checks in on his twentysomething lust ( Candy’s Room , She’s The One ), formative poetic street serenades ( Jungleland , Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out ) and blue-collar paeans to the romance of escape ( Badlands , The Promised Land ).

Assessing those ‘70s cuts alongside The River , it becomes clearer just how pivotal the album was. He was still a consummate storyteller as the ‘80s dawned, but for the most part (and in the case of all the River tracks played on Sunday) Springsteen had moved away from fanciful, character-driven tales and towards more direct first-person narratives.

Over the course of 210 minutes on stage, however, there’s still plenty of room for a few scattergun detours and long-standing crowd-pleasers. The tender, confessional Tougher Than The Rest is dedicated to Muhammad Ali, social outrage rears its head on My City Of Ruins , American Skin and Death To My Hometown , while heart-swelling anthems come courtesy of The Rising and No Surrender .

After a last return to the boards for Thunder Road , assisted only by his trusty acoustic guitar and harmonica, he’s gone. Next time around he may have new songs to draw upon, and fresh perspectives on the American condition, but it would be foolhardy to pigeonhole Springsteen as a nostalgia act just yet. He’s still hungry, and he’s still full of heart.

Bruce Springsteen: The Ties That Bind: The River Collection

Terry Staunton was a senior editor at NME for ten years before joined the founding editorial team of Uncut. Now freelance, specialising in music, film and television, his work has appeared in Classic Rock, The Times, Vox, Jack, Record Collector, Creem, The Village Voice, Hot Press, Sour Mash, Get Rhythm, Uncut DVD, When Saturday Comes, DVD World, Radio Times and on the website Music365.

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Tunnel Of Love Express Tour

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The  Tunnel of Love Express  was a concert tour by Bruce Springsteen and featuring The E Street Band along with The Horns of Love that took place in 1988. It followed by four and a half months the release of Springsteen's 1987 album,  Tunnel of Love . Considerably shorter in duration than most Springsteen tours before or since, it played limited engagements in most cities, leading to tickets being in great demand. Shows were held in arenas in the U.S. and stadiums in Europe and included a historic performance in East Berlin.

February 25, 1988 - Centrum In Worecester, Worcester, MA

February 28, 1988 - Centrum In Worecester, Worcester, MA

February 29, 1988 - Centrum In Worecester, Worecester, MA

March 3, 1988 - Dean E. Smith Center, Chapel Hill, NC

March 4, 1988 - Dean E. Smith Center, Chapel Hill, NC

March 8, 1988 - The Spectrum, Philadelphia, PA

March 9, 1988 - The Spectrum, Philladelphia, PA

March 13, 1988 - Richfield Coliseum, Richfield, OH

March 14, 1988 - Richfield Coliseum, Richfield, OH

March 16, 1988 - Rosemont Horizon, Rosemont, IL

March 19, 1988 - Rosemont Horizon, Rosemont, IL

March 20, 1988 - Civic Arena, Pittsburgh, PA

March 22, 1988 - The Omni, Atlanta, GA

March 23, 1988 - The Omni, Atlanta, GA

March 26, 1988 - Rupp Arena, Lexington, KY

March 28, 1988 - Joe Louis Arena, Detroit, MI

March 29, 1988 - Joe Louis Arena, Detroit, MI

April 1, 1988 - Nassau Venterans Memorial Coliseum, Unioundale, NY

April 2, 1988 - Nassau Venterans Memorial Coliseum, Unioundale, NY

April 4, 1988 - Capital Centre, Landover, MD

April 5, 1988 - Capital Centre, Landover, MD

Apriil 12, 1988 - The Summit, Houston, TX

April 13, 1988 - The Summit, Houston, TX

April 15, 1988 - Frank Erwin Center, Austin, TX

April 17, 1988 - St. Louis Arena, St Louis, MO

April 20, 1988 - McNichols Sports Arena, Denver, CO

April 22, 1988 - Los Angeles Sports Arena, Los Angeles, CA

April 23, 1988 - Los Angeles Sports Arena, Los Angeles, CA

April 25, 1988 - Los Angeles Sports Arena, Los Angeles, CA

April 27, 1988 - Los Angeles Sports Arena, Los Angeles, CA

April 28, 1988 - Los Angeles Sports Arena, Los Angeles, CA

May 2, 1988 - Shoreline Amphitheatre, Mountain View, CA

May 3, 1988 - Shoreline Amphitheatre, Mountain View, CA

May 5, 1988 - Tacoma Dome, Tacoma, WA

May 6, 1988 - Tacoma Dome, Tacoma, WA

May 9, 1988 - Met Center, Bloomington, MN

May 10, 1988 - Met  Center, Bloomington, MA

May 13, 1988 - Market Square Arena, Indainapolis, IN

May 16, 1988 - Madison Square Garden, New York City. NY

May 18, 1988 - Madison Square Garden, New York City. NY

May 19, 1988 - Madison Square Garden, New York City. NY

May 22, 1988 - Madison Square Garden, New York City. NY

May 23, 1988 - Madison Square Garden, New York City. NY

June 11, 1988 - Stadio Olimpico Grande Torino, Turin, Italy

June 13, 1988 - Piazza di Spanga, Rome, Italy

June 15, 1988 - Stadio Flamino, Rome Italy

June 16, 1988 - Stadio Flamino, Rome, Italy

June 18, 1988 - Chateau de Vincennes, Paris, France

June 19, 1988 - Hippodrome de Vincennes, Paris, France

June 21, 1988 - Villa Park, Birmingham, England

June 22, 1988 - Villa Park, Birmingham, England

June 25, 1988 - Wembley Stadium, London, England

June 28, 1988 - Feyenoord Stadion, Rotterdam, Nehterlands

June 29, 1988 - Feyenoord Stadion, Rotterdam, Nehterlands

July 2, 1988 - Stockholm Stadion, Stockholm, Swenden

July 3, 1988 - Stockholm Stadion, Stockholm, Sweden

July 7, 1988 - RDS Arena, Dublin, Ireland

July 9, 1988 - Bramall Lane, Sheffield, England

July 10, 1988 - Bramall Lane, Sheffield, England

July 12, 1988 - Waldstadion, Frankfurt, Germany

July 14, 1988 - St Jakob Stadium, Basel, Switzerland

July 17, 1988 - Olympia Reitstadion Riem, Munich, Germany

July 19, 1988 - Radrennbahn Weissensee, Berlin, Germany

July 22, 1988 - Waldbuhne, Berlin, Germany

July 25, 1988 - Københavns Idrætspark, Copenhagen, Denmark

July 27, 1988 - Valle Hovin, Oslo, Norway

July 30, 1988 - Weserstadion, Bremen, Germany

August 2, 1988 - Vicente Calderon Stadium, Madrid, Spain

August 3, 1988 - Camp Nou Stadium, Barcelona, Spain

• 1 Electric Light Orchestra
• 2 Jimi Hendrix

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Tunnel of Love

By Steve Pond

So Bruce Springsteen met a girl, fell in love, got married and made an album of songs about meeting a girl, falling in love and getting married. And if you think it’s that cut and dried, you don’t know Springsteen. Far from being a series of hymns to cozy domesticity, Tunnel of Love is an unsettled and unsettling collection of hard looks at the perils of commitment. A decade or so ago, Springsteen acquired a reputation for romanticizing his subject matter; on this album he doesn’t even romanticize romance.

Tunnel of Love is precisely the right move for an artist whose enormous success gloriously affirmed the potential of arena rock & roll but exacted a toll on the singer. Born in the U.S.A. sold 12 million copies mostly because it was the best kind of thoughtful, tough, mainstream rock & roll record — but also because it was misinterpreted and oversimplified by listeners looking for slogans rather than ideas. When Springsteen hit the road to support that album, his sound got bigger, his gestures larger, his audience huger. The five-record live set that followed that tour was a suitably oversize way to sum up Bruce Springsteen, the Boss, American Rock Icon.

But where do you go from there? Trying to top Born in the U.S.A. with another collection of rock anthems would have been foolhardy artistically; on the other hand, to react the way Springsteen did after the breakthrough 1980 success of The River — with a homemade record as stark and forbidding as Nebraska — would have turned an inspired gesture into a formula. So Tunnel of Love walks a middle ground. The most intelligently arranged album Springsteen has made, it consists mostly of his own tracks, sparingly overdubbed; he uses the members of the E Street Band when they fit. It’s not, as was rumored, a country album, though Springsteen sings it in the colloquial, folkish voice he used on Nebraska , and it’s not a rock & roll album, though “Spare Parts” and “Brilliant Disguise” come close to the full-bodied E Street Band sound.

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Instead, this is a varied, modestly scaled, modern-sounding pop album; it is a less ambitious work than Born in the U.S.A. , but its simpler sound is perfectly suited to the more intimate stories Springsteen is telling. Although you could often hear the sweat on his previous records, this LP came surprisingly quickly and feels effortless and elegant rather than belabored. Crucially, it demystifies Springsteen’s often arduous album-making process.

But energy rather than elegance is what sold Born in the U.S.A. ; the scaled-down Tunnel of Love is thus a chancier commercial proposition. The songs are the kind that many of the fans at the last tour’s stadium shows talked through. Listeners who turn to Springsteen for outsize gestures and roaring radio rock may well be confused or even irritated by these more somber miniatures and may insist on reading a first-rate song collection as an aberration.

Initially, in fact, Tunnel of Love sounds not only modest but also playful, giddy and lightweight. “Ain’t Got You” is a funny, partially a cappella Bo Diddley-style rocker that jokes about Springsteen’s wealth (“I got a pound of caviar sitting home on ice/I got a fancy foreign car that rides like paradise”) but expresses yearning for the one thing money can’t buy (i.e., “you”). In the next two songs, “Tougher Than the Rest” and “All That Heaven Will Allow,” Springsteen is head over heels in love, convinced that the sun will shine as long as he’s got the right woman by his side. Those three songs are a light, romantic, lovely beginning, and then it all comes crashing down.

Bobby said he’d pull out Bobby stayed in Janey had a baby it wasn’t any sin They were set to marry on a summer day Bobby got scared and he ran away.

The song, “Spare Parts,” is a road-house rocker reminiscent of Dylan’s “Highway 61 Revisited”; the sound is abrasive and harsh; the story is bleak; and the moral is hard: “Spare parts/And broken hearts/Keep the world turnin’ around.”

From that point on, times are tough. In “Cautious Man,” the main character has “love” tattooed on one hand, “fear” on the other (Springsteen’s lift from the film The Night of the Hunter , in which Robert Mitchum played a preacher with “love” and “hate” tattooed on his knuckles). The relationships in “Two Faces,” “Brilliant Disguise” and “One Step Up” (“and two steps back”) are crumbling as trust gives way to betrayal and recrimination: “Another fight and I slam the door on/Another battle in our dirty little war.” In the title song, Springsteen voices a fear that underlies the entire album: “It’s easy for two people to lose each other in/This tunnel of love.”

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But these are not “Baby, you done me wrong” songs. They’re not about the outside forces that threaten relationships but about the internal demons that keep people uncertain of love, skeptical that they can ever truly touch another human being. It is an album about loneliness and solitude in the midst of what promised to be bliss. A pivotal moment comes halfway through “Brilliant Disguise,” when the singer stops questioning his lover and turns upon himself: “I wanna know if it’s you I don’t trust/’Cause I damn sure don’t trust myself.” More than any record since his first, it is an album in which you can hear Springsteen’s Catholic upbringing: again and again lovers pray for deliverance, romance is depicted as a manifestation of God’s grace, and love brings with it doubt and guilt.

Of course, the religious images and the frequent references to weddings will tempt those who want to think these songs tell us about Springsteen’s own recent marriage. But to read Tunnel of Love as a report from the marital front is far too facile and ignores the fact that Springsteen was telling similar stories as far back as Darkness on the Edge of Town , in 1978. Since then, he has written about the promises our country makes to its people and the way it reneges on those promises, about the dreams our land inspires and the things that stifle those dreams and about the glory in simply persevering. On Tunnel of Love , Springsteen is writing about the promises people make to each other and the way they renege on those promises, about the romantic dreams we’re brought up with and the internal demons that stifle those dreams. The battleground has moved from the streets to the sheets, but the battle hasn’t changed significantly.

And in “Valentine’s Day,” the last song on the record, Springsteen quietly reaffirms the glory of persevering. In the song, the singer drives a long, lonely highway and thinks about his girl, terrified of losing her and grappling with all the uncertainty that’s surfaced throughout the album. Finally, he shrugs aside the doubts and makes a final plea: “So hold me close honey say you’re forever mine/And tell me you’ll be my lonely valentine.” It’s a partial return to the touching naiveté of the album’s first three songs, but at this point it sounds like deliberate, hard-earned naiveté.

More than any other song, however, it is “Walk Like a Man” — the track that ends side one — that has the feel of outright autobiography. Yet another song about his father — sung from the vantage point of the son’s wedding day — it moves to as lovely an arrangement as Springsteen has ever crafted: a steady drumbeat with distant echoes of “Racing in the Street,” a gentle wash of synthesizer, a lulling melody. Every incident rings true, and every line seems open, genuine and artless (“So much has happened to me/That I don’t understand”). It is perhaps the most compassionate and affecting song Springsteen has written to his father, but at its center is a devastating question that reverberates through the entire album:

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I remember ma draggin’ me and my sister up the street to the church Whenever she heard those wedding bells Well would they ever look so happy again The handsome groom and his bride As they stepped into that long black limousine For their mystery ride?

There’s the heart of the album: an uncertain journey down a dangerous, dark highway. The album doesn’t make it sound like an easy trip — but then, it’s been a long time since Bruce Springsteen has written about free rides of any sort. One of the wonders of Tunnel of Love is that in the end, he convinces us that the mystery ride just might be worth the toll.

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• TUNNEL OF LOVE

Live 23 May 1988 version

[Spoken:] Ready for a hell of a ride? Fat man sitting on a little stool Takes money from my hand while his eyes take a walk all over you Hands me two tickets, smiles and whispers good luck Well cuddle up angel, cuddle up my little dove We'll ride down baby into this tunnel of love I can feel the soft silk of your blouse And ooh them soft thrills in our little fun house Then the lights go out and it's just the three of us Yeah, you me and all that stuff we're so scared of Gotta ride down baby into this tunnel of love Well there's a crazy mirror showing us both in 5-D I'm laughing at you, you're laughing at me There's a room of shadows that gets so dark brother It's easy for two people to lose each other in this tunnel of love Shana nana nana nana yeah Shana nana nana oh oh oh oh Shana nana nana nana yeah Whoa oh oh oh, whoa oh oh oh Hey oh It ought to be easy, it ought to be simple enough Yeah, man meets woman and they fall in love But the house is haunted and the ride gets rough You've got to learn to live with what you can't rise above If you ride on down, down in through this tunnel of love Tunnel of love Tunnel of love baby Tunnel of love Oh ooh, ooh-ooh-ohh ooh, ooh-ooh-ohh ooh-ooh, ooh-ooh-ohh ooh-ooh Yeah ooh, ooh-ooh-ohh ooh, ooh-ooh-ohh ooh-ooh, ooh-ooh-ohh ooh-ooh Yeah ooh, ooh-ooh-ohh ooh, ooh-ooh-ohh ooh-ooh, ooh-ooh-ohh ooh-ooh Yeah ooh, ooh-ooh-ohh ooh, ooh-ooh-ohh ooh-ooh, ooh-ooh-ohh ooh-ooh Shana nana nana nana yeah Shana nana nana oh oh Shana nana yeah yeah hey hey Shana nana nana oh oh oh oh Shana nana yeah yeah hey hey Shana nana nana oh oh oh oh Shana nana yeah yeah hey hey Shana nana nana oh oh, oh oh

The above lyrics are for the live 23 May 1988 performance of TUNNEL OF LOVE at Madison Square Garden in New York City, NY, during the Tunnel Of Love Express Tour .

The 23 May 1988 Show

Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band wrapped up the U.S. leg of the Tunnel Of Love Express Tour with a series of five consecutive sold-out concerts at Madison Square Garden in New York City, NY, on 16, 18, 19, 22, and 23 May 1988.

In January 2019 the complete 23 May 1988 concert was officially released on Live.BruceSpringsteen.net (see the "Official Live Downloads" section below for more details). The show was recorded live with the Thrill Hill mobile unit by Toby Scott, assisted by Paul du Gré. It was mixed by Jon Altschiller from Digital PCM multitracks, with additional engineering by Danielle Warman, and mastered to DSD and PCM by Jon Altschiller.

For the first time in the Bruce Springsteen Archive Series, Madison Square Garden 1988 includes a bonus track recorded prior to the show during the sound-check: a cover of Ed Townsend's FOR YOUR LOVE .

23 May 1988 concert setlist

• FOR YOUR LOVE (sound-check)
• ADAM RAISED A CAIN
• ALL THAT HEAVEN WILL ALLOW
• VIGILANTE MAN
• BRILLIANT DISGUISE
• SPARE PARTS
• BORN IN THE U.S.A.
• TOUGHER THAN THE REST
• SHE'S THE ONE
• YOU CAN LOOK (BUT YOU BETTER NOT TOUCH)
• I'M A COWARD
• I'M ON FIRE
• ONE STEP UP
• PART MAN, PART MONKEY
• BACKSTREETS
• LIGHT OF DAY
• BORN TO RUN
• HUNGRY HEART
• HAVE LOVE WILL TRAVEL
• TENTH AVENUE FREEZE-OUT
• SWEET SOUL MUSIC
• RAISE YOUR HAND
• LONELY TEARDROPS

Prior to the High Hopes Tour , Bruce Springsteen's management announced a new service allowing fans to download concert recordings approximately 48 hours after each show. The initial plan required fans to purchase a special USB wristband, which could then be used to download a single High Hopes Tour show of the purchaser's choice and also functions as a regular reusable USB flash drive. The wristband, which could be purchased online or at the concert venue, was priced at $40. Following some negative response from fans over the high cost for the wristband, Springsteen's management subsequently announced a separate cheaper option for purchasing shows directly, without the need for the wristband. The shows were available for purchase and download via Live Nation , Bruce Springsteen's concert promoter, priced at $9.99 for MP3 and $14.99 for FLAC. Audio recordings for 31 of the 34 High Hopes Tour dates (all except 16 Feb 2014, 06 Apr 2014, and 03 May 2014) were released as such and they were available until 30 Jun 2014.

On 17 Nov 2014, Live.BruceSpringsteen.net was launched. It's a new addition to the official website , serving as an online store offering high-quality live concert recordings as well as high-resolution digital releases of Springsteen's album catalog. The download store is powered by Nugs.net in cooperation with Columbia Records. Audio recordings for 30 of the 34 High Hopes Tour dates (all except 16 Feb 2014, 06 Apr 2014, 03 May 2014, and 18 May 2014) were re-released on the new download store in multiple formats, including MP3, lossless CD-quality FLAC or ALAC, and 24-bit HD FLAC or ALAC or MQA, as well as audio CD-R with custom artwork. Nugs.net adopted the MQA (Master Quality Authenticated) format on 24 May 2017. From then on, all Bruce Springsteen live concert recordings, including the previously released ones, became also available in MQA.

List of High Hopes Tour official downloads

Audio recordings for all 75 The River Tour 2016 dates were also released on Live.BruceSpringsteen.net in multiple formats, including MP3, lossless CD-quality FLAC or ALAC, and 24-bit HD FLAC or ALAC or MQA, as well as audio CD-R with custom artwork. Each show was generally released within a month after it took place.

List of The River Tour 2016 official downloads

Audio recordings for all 14 Summer '17 Tour dates were also released on Live.BruceSpringsteen.net in multiple formats, including MP3, lossless CD-quality FLAC or ALAC, and 24-bit HD FLAC or ALAC or MQA, as well as audio CD-R with custom artwork. Each show was generally released within a month after it took place.

List of Summer' 17 Tour official downloads

Archival releases were periodically released on the same site, as part of the Bruce Springsteen Archive Series. These shows were also made available in multiple formats, including MP3, lossless FLAC or ALAC, 24-bit FLAC or ALAC or MQA, DSD, and audio CD-R. So far 90 shows (or sets of shows) were released from the ongoing series.

List of Live Archive Series releases

Available versions.

List of available versions of TUNNEL OF LOVE on this website:

Page last updated: 04 Feb 2019