10 Classic Rock Songs You Didn't Realize Were Incredibly Dark

Every single aspect about the rock and roll spirit feels like it's contained in between the chords of Bruce Springsteen's songs. Outside of some of his more Dylan-esque beginnings, records like Born to Run capture the determination that rock and roll comes with, making you feel like you can take on the world with nothing but your guitar and a dream. Bruce also has a bit of a lonely soul though, and when he stripped the E Street Band away from him, he made some of the most brutal listens of his career.

That's not to say that Nebraska is a bad listen by any stretch. Throughout the entire album, you can hear the Boss wearing his heart on his sleeve, but the title track really sets the tone of the kind of characters that we're dealing with this time around. Taking inspiration from a serial killer that was sentenced to death some years before, this is Bruce's way of giving him a voice in the public eye, finding a way to sympathize with a kid that was dealt a rough hand in life and resorted to violence to get what he needed.

By the time you get to the end, there's no real shot at redemption, with the narrator left to die in the electric chair and only asking that his lover be there with him when he passes. He's definitely going to need to atone for his sins sooner or later, but there's a certain ruthlessness in the world that put the gun in his hand in the first place.