Tunnel of Love by Bruce Springsteen

Album: Tunnel of Love (1987)

Charted: 45 9

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This song was inspired by the amusement rides on the boardwalk of Asbury Park, New Jersey, where Springsteen hung out and gigged growing up. He used the Tunnel Of Love ride as a metaphor for the ups and downs of a relationship. Springsteen was married to his first wife, Julianne Phillips, at the time, and they were on the rocks. They ended up getting a divorce in 1989, and in 1991 he married Patti Scialfa, a singer in his E Street Band.
"Tunnel Of Love" is the title track to an album Springsteen recorded mostly by himself in his home studio in Rumson, New Jersey. He programmed a drum machine to create the basic rhythm, then added guitar, mandolin, bass, keyboards, harmonica and percussion. Some of his band members then overdubbed their parts:

Nils Lofgren: lead guitar
Roy Bittan: synthesizers
Max Weinberg: percussion
Patti Scialfa: backing vocals
This was one of the last songs Springsteen recorded for Tunnel Of Love. He liked the title enough to use it as the name of the album.
Springsteen wanted real carnival sounds to add ambiance to this track, so his engineer, Toby Scott, went to an amusement park in Point Pleasant, New Jersey, and recorded people on a roller coaster, who were added to the mix.
Palace Amusements, an arcade and amusement park in Asbury Park, New Jersey, was where Springsteen drew inspiration for the title and theme, and is also where the video was shot. It closed in 1988 after 100 years in business. It was later entered in the New Jersey Register of Historic Places.
Nils Lofgren didn't know he'd be put to work when he was passing through New Jersey and called Springsteen to say hi, but he ended up recording the guitar solo on "Tunnel Of Love." Springsteen told Lofgren he had a track underway and suggested he came by and take a poke at it. Lofgren told Songfacts how it happened:

"I was on the road, in and out of Jersey. Bruce called and said he was working on a solo record, and he said he had this title track. He'd been messing with the solo, but he thought I could take a shot at it. So we went to a little barn on his guest house where he had a makeshift studio. I was shocked at the song: It was so different sounding and radical and beautiful, and just out of the box - in my eyes - from what Bruce normally did. So I started playing solos. I threw a couple of foot pedals on the ground, since he said on the phone he was looking for something a little unusual.

I asked him what key we were in and he said C, so I just started picking out some hammered notes - something I usually don't do in my style - to take what I do and put a little different slant on it, because the song is a little out of the normal box. We just kept plugging in foot pedals and choruses and flangers and messing around with the sound, and we got a couple of different takes that felt great under his instruction. Then I went to writing one of my one-note-with-a-rhythm, bouncing harmonic thing under the singing, and came up with a solo that he wanted to use, which I was honored by and still love playing that live."
Dire Straits beat Springsteen to the title, releasing their "Tunnel Of Love" in 1980. Roy Bittan, a member of Springsteen's E Street Band, played on both songs.
After touring for the Tunnel Of Love album in 1989, Springsteen dissolved the E Street Band and started working with different musicians on a smaller scale. He didn't release another album until 1992, when he put out both Human Touch and Lucky Town on the same day. He hadn't done any press for a while, so he had to answer the inevitable question of if the song "Tunnel Of Love" was a reflection of his marriage at the time. Springsteen was often elliptical in his response. He told the LA Times: "You meet a lot of people who expect you to be your music, but you're not. It's part of you, but it's never your complete self. At the time, I didn't think anything. Those were just the songs I wrote."

Comments: 16

Maryann from Outer Banks North CarolinaYdur from Knoxville
Gimme Shelter is hands down my favorite Rolling Stones song. A huge part is because Merry Clayton's haunting backing vocals. The emotional power of her voice gives an eerie intensity to the only protest song the Stones wrote about Vietnam and societal upheaval of the 1960s.
Maryann from Outer Banks North Carolinalines from song lyrics will imprint themselves on my emotional mind's memory.
it doesn't happen to me with every song but some lines just stick like gum on the sole of a pair of my kicks.

for whatever reason far too deep in my subconscious to excise, these four lines from bruce springsteen's 1987 classic, 'tunnel of love' return to my thoughts-out of the blue-time and again to my mind.

whispered to me like a the ghost of a summer breeze in october catching my ear. a phantom smell so strong, and undeniable to my sense memory. juicy fruit gum spit out in the exact spot needed to hitch a ride on the bottom of a pair of canvas high-tops.

those two lines written by the Boss in 'tunnel of love'

But this house is haunted and the ride gets rough
You've got to learn to live with what you can't rise above

perhaps because those lines can be interpreted
in a myriad of ways depending on the person
and what obstacle they need to rise above.

sorry for droning on but I've often wondered
'why' those lines.
never took any time to try to figure
out 'why'

sometimes things that make us question why
remain a secret for a reason.
Pat from Nashville, TnI agree with Eric from So Cal & Ydur from Knoxville. The backing vocals can only be topped by Merry Clayton’s Gimme Shelter. After all these years, still gives me goosebumps. The lyrics are vintage Springsteen. Maybe his best. The only other that compares is Blinded By the Light, IMO.
Bill Lassiter from Little River,sc My favorite Bruce tune.
Mez from Westwood, MaCoolest line in this song. "The lights go out and just the 3 of us. You, me and all that stuff we're so scared of" One of Bruce's best!
Eric from So Cal, CaI find myself constantly going back to this song. Takes me back in time. I completely agree with yduR of Knoxville. Merry Clayton on Gimme Shelter and Patty Scialfa on this song are on par with each other!! Simply fantastic.
Jeff from Beverly Hills, MaMy favorite Bruce Springsteen song. Like others, I found meaning in the line that you've got learn to live with what you can't rise above.
Barry from Sauquoit, NyOur 37 year old son was killed in 2007, a line from Tunnel of Love helped us greatly dealing with this ordeal. That line was 'you've got to learn to live with what you can't rise above' Thanks Bruce!!!
Scott from Detroit, MiTraveling with a co-worker from Fresno to Bakersfield...I ask him what he would like to listen to.
He said he only liked country music...so I put in "Tunnel Of Love" and when it was done he said it was the best country album he'd ever heard.
Don from Indianapolis, InI could easily call "Tunnel of Love" my favorite, and best performed Springsteen song. His vocals, along with those of Sciafla's are both powerful...and convincing about the "rollercoaster" emotion of love.
Gene from San Diego, CaAll so true. A song about the ups and downs of a relationship. The use of the theme park ride as a metaphor is nothing short of incredible.
Brian from Chalfont, PaThis song is the greatest pop song to describe the craziness of "LOVE".
Ydur from Knoxville, TnPatty Sciafla's backing vocals are perhaps the best backing vocal track in rock history, especially considering the relationship between Bruce, Patti, and Julie Ann at the time. The only other real contender in this catagory is Merry Clayton on the Stones "Gimmie Shelter".
Richard from Newport, Isle Of Wight, EnglandAlthough a nice song, the idea could be seen as a rip-off of Dire Straits' earlier song of the same name, which, as far as I can make out, uses a similar metaphorical meaning for the fairground ride.
Wes from Springfield, VaOne of the better metaphorical songs in pop, I think. Also, the video does a good job of reinforcing the lyrics, as I recall. When it came out I sort of considered that it represented the maturation of 1980's songwriting.
Paul from Detroit, MiThe rollercoaster sound effects at the end of Tunnel of Love are from The Cowsills song "The Rain, The Park & Other Things". The Cowsills were a 60's family group and the inspiration for The Partridge Family.

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