Arguably Springsteen’s Greatest, Saddest Song

I could listen to “Nothing Man” over and over for the rest of my life. Nothing he wrote or recorded before or since feels so grounded, so shorn of artifice, so unconcerned with the usual concerns of a songwriter-performer.

I don’t remember how I felt, I never thought I’d live
To read about myself in my hometown paper
How my brave young life was forever changed
In a misty cloud of pink vapor