a deeply layered and multifaceted account

Deliver Me from Nowhere: The Making of Bruce Springsteen's Nebraska by Warren Zanes
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book is like a biography, except it's for an album rather than a person. In "Deliver Me from Nowhere", Warren Zanes brilliantly delivers a deeply layered and multifaceted account of the birth of the amazing album "Nebraska" by Bruce Springsteen. In this book, we learn the backstory of Nebraska, get acquainted with all the people involved, but most interestingly, we get to see how and why it was written, recorded, "produced", and released. Every aspect of this story is fascinating. Especially interesting to me (besides my being a lifelong fan of Bruce and his music) were the technical details of the recording, mixing, and mastering. Being a retired Electrical Engineer, who for 40 years have felt some regret for not pursuing the music industry in my career, and having run sound equipment, mixers, and recording setups for artists and bands on the amateur level, the techie section was pure joy. Nebraska was one of the first Springsteen albums I purchased in college, right after it was released. I've loved it in many ways over the years. Today, i went back and put the CD on after i finished the book, to relive the album with all the details fresh in mind. Given the excellent writing and amazing subject matter, this was an easy 5 star rating for me.

Note that this book inspired the recently aired PBS Television special entitled "Bruce Springsteen's Nebraska - A Celebration in Words and Music", narrated by Warren Zanes and featuring many artists performing the songs live. Especially love Noah Kahan's version of Atlantic City!!
https://www.pbs.org/show/bruce-springsteens-nebraska-a-celebration-in-words-and-music/

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