“Highway Patrolman” by Bruce Springsteen

"Highway Patrolman" sits fifth on Nebraska, the 1982 album Bruce Springsteen cut on his own four-track cassette recorder, planning to redo the songs with the E Street Band. The band version couldn't beat the demo, so the demo went out as it was, recorded by Mike Batlan: voice, acoustic guitar and a harmonica so faint it barely registers.

It's a short story told by Joe Roberts, a 1960s cop whose brother Frankie has always been trouble. Frankie joins the Army in 1965 while Joe stays on the farm and marries Maria, until falling wheat prices put him in a patrol car. Frankie comes home in 1968, a boy is badly hurt at a bar, a witness names Frankie, and Joe chases him through rural Michigan to the Canadian border, where, the song leaves little doubt, he lets his brother go.

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