Tougher Than the Rest

On this night in Bruce Springsteen history, the E Street Band took the stage at the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena in 1988 and performed a stately, slow-burning rendition of “Tougher Than the Rest” that appeared on the Chimes of Freedom EP and became a music video. The video, which intercuts that live performance with clips of couples goofing around or canoodling during the Tunnel of Love Express Tour, is notable for its inclusion of same-sex pairings, but we’re here today to discuss something else entirely.

“Tougher Than the Rest” is, in Springsteen’s estimation, his best love song, an eloquent but rugged ode to emotional staying power. Its official video has been viewed more than 140 million times on YouTube, where comments testify to its near-universal appeal. There you’ll find countless reminiscences of enduring loves, late spouses and what “Tougher,” with its boast of “Well, if you’re rough and ready for love/Honey, I’m tougher than the rest,” meant to those unions. I’m not exempt from that sentimental impulse; the track means a lot to me as well.

The Los Angeles concert was filmed in the waning days of Springsteen’s marriage to actress Julianne Phillips (of Sisters and Original Sins). Theirs was one of the most scandalous celebrity splits of the ’80s, and the “Tougher” video illustrates why: The romantic tension between Springsteen and bandmate Patti Scialfa—soon to boil over publicly, when they were photographed together on an Italian hotel balcony, bleary-eyed and barely dressed—was such that Phillips could’ve submitted the tape to any judge in the country and been granted a swift divorce.

“Tougher Than the Rest” first appeared on 1987’s Tunnel of Love, an album that is, with apologies to Richard and Linda Thompson, probably the finest ever recorded about marriage. It finds Springsteen consumed by uncertainty—about himself, about his wife, about adulthood itself. “God have mercy on the man/Who doubts what he’s sure of,” goes the haunting conclusion of “Brilliant Disguise,” a bitter chronicle of a marriage’s demise against a shimmery wall-of-sound backdrop. “Tougher” is, as its title implies, made of stronger stuff.

“Yeah, the road is dark and it’s a thin, thin line/But I want you to know I’ll walk it for you anytime,” he tells his prospective sweetheart on this, Tunnel’s second track. Four songs later, on “Walk Like a Man,” he is struck by his father’s tears on his wedding day and doubts his own maturity as his bride approaches the altar. By track nine, “Brilliant Disguise,” he’s in a cold marital bed, “lost in the darkness of our love,” bitterly questioning whether their union was doomed from the start. What ever happened to that thin, thin line? (That “Disguise” is followed by the exquisite “One Step Up,” another portrait of a dying marriage, is an embarrassment of lyrical riches.)

Darkness is a recurring theme in Springsteen’s work, as even casual listeners know, and I think it’s never used to better effect than in his relationship songs: The River’s poignant “Stolen Car,” about a man’s nightly flight from a troubled marriage, is as devastatingly observed as the best short fiction you’ll ever read. The dark road of “Tougher Than the Rest” is one my thoughts return to regularly, as both a listener and spouse. Was Phillips ever really the woman “all dressed up in blue,” or was it Scialfa (now his partner of 35 years and counting) all along? I prefer to imagine this timeless tune closing Tunnel of Love rather than opening it, a glimmer of light in the abyss.

Cranky Lesbian

Cranky Lesbian is a disgruntled homosexual with too much time on her hands. Click for film reviews or to follow on Instagram.

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