Bono's delivery, when he inducted Springsteen into the RR Hall of Fame in 1999:
Something was going on, though. As a fan I could see that my hero was beginning to rebel against his own public image. Things got even more interesting on Tunnel of Love, when he started to deface it. A remarkable bunch of tunes, where our leader starts having a go at himself, and the hypocrisy of his own heart, before anyone else could. But the tabloids could never break news on Bruce Springsteen. Because his fans -- he had already told us everything in the songs. We knew he was spinning. We could feel him free-falling. But it wasn't in chaos or entropy. It was in love.
Here in lies the central topic of Bruce: Born in the USA and Tunnel of Love albums. Why did he break form and produce two albums that are more classified in the "pop" sections?
Despite the fact that Born in the USA is one of the most popular albums in the history of modern radio, Bruce always spoke against it and called it his least favorite. Tunnel of Love would of course fall in the same category.
But I don't buy that, Bruce. You wanted to experiment with different sounds and these albums offered you the chance to do that. I posted several songs from each of these albums b/c as a Bruce fan I feel that they are as important as Born to Run or Thunder Road.
One Step Up, Brilliant Disguise, Born in the USA, etc, are favorite Bruce tunes of mine and always will be. I consider myself to have "diverse" interests in music(As I think most of us do) and these songs helped diversify Bruce and make him the God that he is.
