Album version
My name is Joe Roberts, I work for the state
I'm a sergeant out of Perrineville, barracks number 8
I always done an honest job, as honest as I could
I got a brother named Franky, and Franky ain't no good
Now ever since we was young kids, it's been the same come down
I get a call on the shortwave, Franky's in trouble downtown
Well if it was any other man, I'd put him straight away
But when it's your brother sometimes you look the other way
Yeah me and Franky laughin' and drinkin', nothin' feels better than blood on blood
Takin' turns dancin' with Maria as the band played "Night of the Johnstown Flood"
I catch him when he's strayin' like any brother would
Man turns his back on his family, well he just ain't no good
Well Franky went in the army back in 1965
I got a farm deferment, settled down, took Maria for my wife
But them wheat prices kept on droppin' till it was like we were gettin' robbed
Franky came home in '68 and me I took this job
Yeah we're laughin' and drinkin', nothin' feels better than blood on blood
Takin' turns dancin' with Maria as the band played "Night of the Johnstown Flood"
I catch him when he's strayin', teach him how to walk that line
Man turns his back on his family, he ain't no friend of mine
Well the night was like any other, well I got a call 'bout quarter to nine
There was trouble in a roadhouse out on the Michigan line
There was a kid lyin' on the floor lookin' bad, bleedin' hard from his head
There was a girl cryin' at a table and it was Frank, they said
Well I went out and I jumped in my car and I hit the lights
Well I musta done a hundred and ten through Michigan County that night
It was out at the crossroads, down 'round Willow bank
Seen a Buick with Ohio plates, behind the wheel was Frank
Well I chased him through them county roads
Till a sign said "Canadian border five miles from here"
I pulled over the side of the highway and watched his taillights disappear
Me and Franky laughin' and drinkin', nothin' feels better than blood on blood
Takin' turns dancin' with Maria as the band played "Night of the Johnstown Flood"
I catch him when he's strayin' like any brother would
Man turns his back on his family, he just ain't no good
HIGHWAY PATROLMAN is a song written by Bruce Springsteen and released on his 1982 album Nebraska. The above lyrics are for the album version of HIGHWAY PATROLMAN as released in 1982.
The song has the same stark, bleak atmosphere as the remainder of the album, and in terms of instrumentation, contains simply vocals, very quiet harmonica, and finger-picked acoustic guitar. Dave Marsh wrote in his book Glory Days: Bruce Springsteen In The 1980s, "Springsteen's voice quakes as he sings the final verse, and when Joe [Roberts] finally watches his brother's 'taillights disappear,' the voice breaks and Bruce fumbles the guitar pick, which he has otherwise strummed steadily throughout the song."
The song was originally titled "Deputy" but it was changed to "Highway Patrolman" upon its release.
The album version of HIGHWAY PATROLMAN features Bruce Springsteen solo on vocals, acoustic guitar, and harmonica. It was cut in late December 1981 or early January 1982 at Springsteen's home in Colts Neck, NJ, and included on the Nebraska demo tape of January 1982 (see the below section for more details). Actually four takes were recorded between late December 1981 and early January 1982 but only one was included on the Nebraska demo tape. The remaining three takes have not surfaced among collectors.
According to Sony's logs of Bruce Springsteen's studio sessions, HIGHWAY PATROLMAN was also recorded on 30 Apr 1982 at The Power Station in New York City, NY. No take of HIGHWAY PATROLMAN from these sessions with the E Street Band at The Power Station has surfaced among collectors.
Following The River Tour, Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band were scheduled to start recording the next album in New York City in February 1982. Springsteen felt that the upcoming band studio sessions would progress faster than they had for his previous three albums if he first records finished demos and demonstrates them to the band. He decided to record multi-channel, professional sounding, finished demos of some songs he had written during the period.
To achieve his goal, Springsteen asked his guitar technician, Mike Batlan, in December 1981 to set up a recording facility in a spare room at his home in Colts Neck, NJ. Some modification work was done to the room making it more receptive to achieving a decent sound. Batlan purchased a Teac Tascom Series 144 4-track cassette recorder, two Shure SM57 microphones, and two microphone stands. The sound was mixed through an old Gibson Echoplex and an old Panasonic boom box acted as the mix-down deck.
Batlan told journalist David McGee, "Springsteen began organizing his work for Nebraska during the first week of December 1981 — that's when I was directed to buy the four-track... actual recording began on 17 or 18 December and ended around January 3." Some of the songs were recorded two or three times in slightly different arrangements. A cassette tape was compiled and edited at the end of the sessions, likely on 03 Jan 1982. It contained fourteen songs recorded during these late December 1981 / early January 1982 sessions plus what is almost certainly a live recording of a fifteenth song, JOHNNY BYE-BYE. It also included seven alternate takes and five alternate mixes. The first person to listen to the tape was Jon Landau. Two or three months later, Springsteen recorded two additional songs (MY FATHER'S HOUSE and THE BIG PAYBACK) at home on the same equipment — thus making a total of 17 different songs.
The solo demo tape was never conceived to result in a commercially released album, as the songs were recorded by the E Street Band with multi-instrument arrangements, during what's known by fans as the "Electric Nebraska Sessions". It should be noted that most of the songs were not recorded in "rock" arrangements. Instead, Springsteen and Max Weinberg just added light percussion, or Roy Bittan added a synth pad.
During the E Street Band sessions it became apparent to Springsteen that a majority of these songs did not lend themselves well to a full band arrangement. He later wrote in his 1998 book Songs, "I went into the studio, brought in the band, rerecorded, remixed, and succeeded in making the whole thing worse." At one point he even went back into the studio with an acoustic guitar to try and re-record the songs solo, but the result lacked the atmosphere and feeling of isolation only found on the original home demos. According to Toby Scott, Springsteen handed him the original solo demo tape in April 1982 and asked him if it was possible to just master off the tape, with the intention to release some of the songs as a solo album. It took Scott a few weeks before eventually saying yes and in May a decision was taken to release a solo album ahead of the still-in-progress E Street Band album.
Most of the E Street Band arrangements of these songs were discarded and ten of the original solo demos from the tape were released on the Nebraska album. Max Weinberg revealed to Rolling Stone in June 2010 that the recording of the "Electric Nebraska Sessions" does exist. He said that "the E Street Band actually did record all of Nebraska and it was killing [...] It was all very hard-edged. As great as it was, it wasn't what Bruce wanted to release. There is a full band Nebraska album, all of those songs are in the can somewhere."
"Open All Night" and "January 3, 1982" were considered as titles for the album, but ultimately "Nebraska" was chosen. The album was produced by Bruce Springsteen and was commercially released on 20 Sep 1982 by Columbia Records.
Nebraska features 10 new Springsteen compositions and clocks at 40:50.
A merely different mix of the album version of HIGHWAY PATROLMAN appears on several bootlegs, including The Lost Masters Vol. 1 (Labour Of Love) [track 12].
Sean Penn is a lifelong Bruce Springsteen fan, and he also briefly dated Springsteen's younger sister Pamela. HIGHWAY PATROLMAN was the inspiration for the Sean Penn directed 1991 film The Indian Runner (see info about the film below), and in 2000, Penn directed a video for HIGHWAY PATROLMAN in which he used scenes from The Indian Runner to create a moody visual interpretation of the story.
The previously unreleased video was included on Springsteen's The Complete Video Anthology / 1978-2000 in 2001 and was included on the Japanese Singles Collection -Greatest Hits- compilation album. It was also posted on Bruce Springsteen's VEVO YouTube channel in February 2014.
Video Anthology / 1978-88 is a collection of 18 Bruce Springsteen music videos and concert performances, released on VHS on 31 Jan 1989. The home video was also released on LaserDisc.
Sonny reissued the video on DVD on 16 Jan 2001. Titled The Complete Video Anthology / 1978-2000, the new expanded release added a second disc with 15 additional music video, concert performances, and television appearances.
Disc 1:
Disc 2:
Japanese Singles Collection -Greatest Hits- is a Bruce Springsteen compilation album released by Sony Music Japan in 2023. The compilation, which was exclusively released in Japan, consists of previously released 35 audio tracks and 62 video tracks. The collection is part of a 26-title reissue campaign to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Bruce Springsteen's debut album. The series, issued in three waves (25 Oct 2023, 22 Nov 2023, and 20 Dec 2023), includes 25 albums originally released between 1973 and 2014 plus a new compilation album that includes all of Springsteen's singles released in Japan from 1975 to 1999. All audio CD's were manufactured using Sony Japan's Blu-spec CD2 format.
Disc 1: (audio CD)
Disc 2: (audio CD)
Disc 3: (DVD)
Disc 4: (DVD)
The album version of HIGHWAY PATROLMAN can also be found on at least one various artists compilation album.
Other versions of HIGHWAY PATROLMAN were also officially released.
HIGHWAY PATROLMAN was performed 27 times during the Born In The U.S.A. Tour (156 dates, June 1984 to October 1985). The song was played in a slow full-band arrangement with Patti Scialfa providing harmony vocals on the chorus. The live 05 Aug 1984 version of HIGHWAY PATROLMAN was released on the Brendan Byrne Arena, New Jersey 1984 official live download in 2015. The live 20 Aug 1984 version of HIGHWAY PATROLMAN was released on the Brendan Byrne Arena, NJ August 20, 1984 official live download in 2015.
HIGHWAY PATROLMAN was performed 25 times during The Ghost Of Tom Joad Solo Acoustic Tour (128 dates, November 1995 to May 1997). On this tour, the song was played solo acoustic. The live 18 May 1997 version of HIGHWAY PATROLMAN was released on the Nice, France 1997 official live download in 2021.
In preparation for the Devils & Dust Solo Acoustic Tour, HIGHWAY PATROLMAN was performed during both of the tour's two public warm-up rehearsal shows that took place in April 2005 in Asbury Park. The song is also known to have been practiced during at least two of the private rehearsals that took place in March and April 2005 in Asbury Park prior to the tour's first leg.
HIGHWAY PATROLMAN was performed 12 times during the Devils & Dust Solo Acoustic Tour (72 dates, April to November 2005).
HIGHWAY PATROLMAN was performed once during The Seeger Sessions Tour (56 dates, April to November 2006), on 17 Nov 2006 in Dublin, Ireland. The live 18 Nov 2006 version of HIGHWAY PATROLMAN was released on the Live In Dublin album and home video in 2007.
HIGHWAY PATROLMAN was performed once during the Wrecking Ball Tour (133 dates, March 2012 to September 2013), on 15 Nov 2012 in Omaha, NE. The song was played in a full-band arrangement.
Bruce Springsteen's HIGHWAY PATROLMAN was the inspiration for one movie.
At least 22 artists have recorded and released Bruce Springsteen's HIGHWAY PATROLMAN.
Much of the above info about the home demo recording is taken from Brucebase. Info about the Artist's Choice various artists album is taken from the Lost In The Flood website.
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List of available versions of HIGHWAY PATROLMAN on this website:
HIGHWAY PATROLMAN [Album version]
