“Adam Raised A Cain” by Bruce Springsteen

"Adam Raised a Cain" is the second track on Darkness on the Edge of Town, Bruce Springsteen's fourth album, from 1978, and it hits like a slammed door. Springsteen reaches for the Bible to get at fathers and sons, casting the pair as Adam and Cain, and he has described the song as autobiographical in its emotions: the bitter, loving tangle in it mirrors his own with his father, Douglas.

In the 2010 documentary The Promise: The Making of Darkness on the Edge of Town, Chuck Plotkin recalled Springsteen telling him to picture a film of two lovers on a picnic that suddenly cuts to a dead body; this song was the body. Max Weinberg drums, Garry Tallent plays bass and Little Steven's guitar lines up with Springsteen's, and Springsteen produced it with Jon Landau.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.