{"id":35382,"date":"2022-06-09T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-06-09T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/estreetshuffle.com\/?p=35382"},"modified":"2022-06-08T20:26:47","modified_gmt":"2022-06-09T03:26:47","slug":"roll-of-the-dice-somewhere-north-of-nashville","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/estreetshuffle.com\/index.php\/2022\/06\/09\/roll-of-the-dice-somewhere-north-of-nashville\/","title":{"rendered":"Roll of the Dice: Somewhere North of Nashville"},"content":{"rendered":"<blockquote><p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">&#8220;Sometimes you&#8217;ve been too beat up or haven&#8217;t healed enough of the fear out of you to know a good thing when you&#8217;ve found it. Sometimes you just gravitate to the pain. It&#8217;s what you&#8217;re used to. It&#8217;s how you recognize yourself. It feels like home. It feels more familiar to you than love. So that&#8217;s where you go.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">You don&#8217;t know how to hold on to love, but you know how to hold on to hurt.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><br \/>\n&#8212; Bruce Springsteen, <em>Western Stars<\/em>\u00a0(2019)<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>&#8220;I wrote this song quickly at the kitchen table one morning,&#8221; Bruce explained by way of introduction in\u00a0<em>Western Stars<\/em>. &#8220;It&#8217;s just about being lost on the highway of life. Lost is something i&#8217;m good at writing about.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>With due respect to the author, I think he misdirects a bit. &#8220;Somewhere North of Nashville&#8221; is less about being lost on life&#8217;s highway and more about the wrong turn that led him off-road.<\/p>\n<div class=\"jetpack-video-wrapper\"><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"758\" height=\"427\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/FC3_D4PVlF8?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/div>\n<p>At one minute and fifty-two seconds, &#8220;Somewhere North of Nashville&#8221; is the shortest song on\u00a0<em>Western Stars\u00a0<\/em>and one of his shortest in his entire catalog. But as with &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/estreetshuffle.com\/index.php\/2022\/06\/07\/roll-of-the-dice-camilla-horn\/\">Camilla Horn<\/a>&#8221; a couple of days ago (short songs seem to be our theme this week), Bruce demonstrates that it needn&#8217;t take more than two minutes to bring a character to life.<\/p>\n<p>The narrator of &#8220;Somewhere North of Nashville&#8221; is an itinerant musician who prioritized his career above his love life&#8230; not unlike a certain songwriter during his early years. Thinking he could have both, he made a go of it in Nashville, making the rounds of the clubs and making a home with his love.<\/p>\n<p>But when his career prospects didn&#8217;t pan out the way he&#8217;d hoped he found himself faced with a choice: settle down with his lover and give up his ambitions, or take to the road in search of better fortunes.<\/p>\n<p>He chose the latter, and Bruce&#8217;s lyrics and world-weary vocals are clearly tinged with regret.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><em>Came into town with a pocketful of songs<\/em><br \/>\n<em>I made the rounds but I didn&#8217;t last long<\/em><br \/>\n<em>Now I&#8217;m out on this highway with a bone-cold chill<\/em><br \/>\n<em>Somewhere north of Nashville<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><em>I lie awake in the middle of the night<\/em><br \/>\n<em>Making a list of things that I didn&#8217;t do right<\/em><br \/>\n<em>With you at the top of a long page filled<\/em><br \/>\n<em>Here somewhere north of Nashville<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><em>For the deal I made the price was strong<\/em><br \/>\n<em>I traded you for this song<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><em>We woke each morning with hearts filled<\/em><br \/>\n<em>A bluebird of love on the windowsill<\/em><br \/>\n<em>Now the heart&#8217;s unsteady and the night is still<\/em><br \/>\n<em>All I&#8217;ve got&#8217;s this melody and time to kill<\/em><br \/>\n<em>Here somewhere north of Nashville<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Our narrator made his choice and lost. He lost his love, and while he may have gained the working life of a touring musician, it&#8217;s an empty one. In the still and quiet of the night, he has nothing but time to contemplate the price he paid for his working life, and the implication is that the price was too steep.<\/p>\n<p>We don&#8217;t know whether he&#8217;s ten weeks down the road or ten years, but we do know he&#8217;s unable to move on. He can&#8217;t let go of the regret, the loss, the sacrifice. He can&#8217;t enjoy whatever small joys the road of life might bring his way.<\/p>\n<p>His heart is with his ex in Nashville, but the rest of him is in exile&#8230; somewhere north.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>Bruce has only performed &#8220;Somewhere North of Nashville&#8221; live once, but at least it was for the cameras. In the film version of\u00a0<em>Western Stars<\/em>, Bruce hews closely to the album arrangement, but there&#8217;s a moment where the visual medium helps him transcend.<\/p>\n<p>During the key bridge, Bruce catches the camera and his gaze meets ours just as he says the words,\u00a0<em>I traded you for this song<\/em>. And in that moment, we feel the full force of his character&#8217;s sadness and regret. It&#8217;s one of the most powerful moments in the entire film.<\/p>\n<div class=\"jetpack-video-wrapper\"><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"758\" height=\"427\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/QFYy08tkdIk?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/div>\n<p><strong>Somewhere North of Nashville<br \/>\nRecorded:<\/strong> Unknown<br \/>\n<strong>Released:\u00a0<\/strong><em>Western Stars<\/em> (2019)<br \/>\n<strong>First performed:<\/strong> April 2019 (Colts Neck, NJ)<br \/>\n<strong>Last performed:<\/strong> April 2019 (Colts Neck, NJ)<\/p>\n<p>Looking for your favorite Bruce song? Check our full index\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/estreetshuffle.com\/index.php\/roll-of-the-dice-album-by-album\/\">here<\/a>. New entries every week!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The shortest song on Western Stars is also the most poignant, a two-minute character study in loss and regret.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":35417,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[3494,2416],"class_list":["post-35382","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-roll-of-the-dice","tag-somewhere-north-of-nashville","tag-western-stars"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/estreetshuffle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/nashville.jpg?fit=1600%2C1000&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9w3Lk-9cG","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":25933,"url":"https:\/\/estreetshuffle.com\/index.php\/2021\/04\/10\/roll-of-the-dice-there-goes-my-miracle\/","url_meta":{"origin":35382,"position":0},"title":"Roll 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Dice","link":"https:\/\/estreetshuffle.com\/index.php\/category\/roll-of-the-dice\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/estreetshuffle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/texas.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/estreetshuffle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/texas.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/estreetshuffle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/texas.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/estreetshuffle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/texas.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/estreetshuffle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/texas.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":13398,"url":"https:\/\/estreetshuffle.com\/index.php\/2019\/10\/11\/roll-of-the-dice-tomorrow-never-knows\/","url_meta":{"origin":35382,"position":3},"title":"Roll of the Dice: Tomorrow Never Knows","author":"Ken","date":"October 11, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"The very definition of an overlooked gem, \"Tomorrow Never Knows\" reflects an artist truly coming to terms with his mortality and establishes a throughline to Western Stars.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Roll of the Dice&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Roll of the Dice","link":"https:\/\/estreetshuffle.com\/index.php\/category\/roll-of-the-dice\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/estreetshuffle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/tomorrow.jpg?fit=960%2C960&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/estreetshuffle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/tomorrow.jpg?fit=960%2C960&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/estreetshuffle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/tomorrow.jpg?fit=960%2C960&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/estreetshuffle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/tomorrow.jpg?fit=960%2C960&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 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