“Atlantic City” by Bruce Springsteen

Nebraska, Bruce Springsteen's stark 1982 solo album, holds "Atlantic City", and he made it at home. He demoed it twice in April 1981 in Colts Neck, New Jersey, under the title "Fistful of Dollars", borrowed from the Clint Eastwood western, then renamed it late that year and taped at least five more takes on his four-track Portastudio between December 17, 1981, and January 3, 1982. The third one made the album. Springsteen handles everything: voice, guitar, harmonica and mandolin, with Mike Batlan credited on the recording.

The sound is bare wood and tape hiss, a voice alone in a bedroom, and it cuts deeper for it. Springsteen himself told Jon Landau in a letter that the song probably belonged to the full band cranked up, and on stage he has often played it just that way.

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