The Best of "Tougher Than the Rest"

by Michael Pelusi

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Published: Feb 9, 2010

[ listening too long to one song ]

I am not what you would call a Bruce Springsteen fan, per se, but hot damn, "Tougher Than the Rest" is one great song.

The second track on his romantically tortured album Tunnel of Love (1987), "Tougher" features its share of dated production touches: the booming drums, the synths, the weird digital flange effect on Bruce's guitar. Guess what? None of that matters. With a stately, steady melody and lyrics that describe a chance glimpse on a dancefloor, the song realizes Springsteen's ambition to be both Roy Orbison and Robert Mitchum even better than "Thunder Road." That is to say, the song is high, vulnerable drama, as well as a coolly detached dare.

For a song that wasn't a hit, nor a Springsteen signature song, "Tougher Than the Rest" has inspired an impressive number of cover versions, including the likes of Emmylou Harris and Travis Tritt. Wikipedia provides the helpful information that "If I Could Turn Back Time"-era Cher covered the song on tour in 1990. YouTube provides proof, via a concert video. Yes, her live performance is abetted by dancers dressed as bar denizens and a pool table on a hydraulic lift, but I can't say it's a bad rendition.

Intriguingly — and in a completely different sphere from Cher — "Tougher Than the Rest" has become one of the more popular Springsteen songs for female indie singers to cover. The most recent comes from Scottish band Camera Obscura, on the B-side to their new single "The Sweetest Thing." At face value, their version is pleasant enough, and it's a hard melody to ruin. But their gently loping country rhythm, and lead singer Traceyanne Campbell's sweet vocals, remove all the drama, all of the sense that anything is at stake here. It sounds like the band has planned to record this song, and then take a nice long nap.

In 2007, The Mendoza Line covered the song, on their 30-Year Low/Final Remarks of the Legendary Malcontent release, the last outing, professionally and personally, by the band's now-divorced duo of Shannon McArdle and Tim Bracy. Their version starts sparse, but Springsteen's urgency is retained, thanks to a gradually building arrangement that makes room for layered percussion, guitar feedback and a very Danny Federici-like organ. McArdle gives a restrained performance, but one highly attuned to the fact that the song is both a pledge of devotion and a come-on.

Perhaps the prototype of the indie version of this song came in 1992, courtesy of Everything But the Girl on their album Acoustic, back in the days before they discovered DJs and remixes. It's even quieter than Camera Obscura's version, but it cuts deeper. Though Tracey Thorn's double-tracked vocal is supported only by Ben Watt's acoustic guitar and piano, they are totally committed to the song.

(m_pelusi@citypaper.net)

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