Tunnel Of Love

The Tunnel of Love is a metaphor for the journey a man takes when following the path of marriage with his new bride. The Tunnel of Love is an old amusement ride, usually found in the lower-budget "carnivals" and smalltime fairs. In the ride, two lovers would sit closely together in a small "boat" and ride through an indoor cavern that was plunged in darkness. The boat would twist and turn through the dark, following the current of a narrow river, while dimly lit mannequins and models would occassionally appear. In a sense, you were largely helpess on the ride...you were at the mercy of the darkness, you had no control over the controls of the boat, and you never knew what lay around the next sharp turn - "Then the lights go out and it's just the three of us, yeah you me and all that stuff we're so scared of".

Springsteen uses this ride as a metaphor for a new marriage. The feelings of fear, helplessness, nervousness, the unpredictability that come with the vows and new obligations. Two people are embarking on a journey that neither one has even been on before - "Cuddle up angel cuddle up my little dove and we'll ride down baby into this tunnel of love".

The final third of the song is where the true "meat" lies - "It's easy for two people to lose each other in this tunnel of love". In the darkness, with the rocky waters and sharp turns in the river, it is easy to fall apart, to let fear and mistrust come between you, and quite easily make you lose your way.

The song ends with two offerings from Springsteen - he gives us warning, followed by sage wisdom. His warning to his audience is that "...it ought to be easy, ought to be simple enough - Man meets woman and they fall in love...But the house is haunted and the ride gets rough". Perhaps riding down the "Tunnel of Love" isn't the sweet, innocent and fun-filled ride that we all hope and dream it is.

Finally, Springsteen offers some wisdom, and it is the final line that provides the home run in this song: "You've got to learn to live with what you can't rise above if you want to ride on down in through this tunnel of love".

Amazing song. Great solos and breaks that are just dripping with pain and emotion. The music is accented with fairground side effects, and in a chilling twist, the song fades to the sound of screams. Screams of helplessness, fear, anticipation and nervous energy. Do we take them literally as the sounds of a group of customers enjoying the thrills and scares of of a rollercoaster? Or are these screams indicating the fear and discomfort of serious commitment?

I think this song is brilliant all around. He's speaking of the reality of relationships...the baggage we carry into them and the realization that its not as easy as it should be but you sacrifice to make it work.

Lyrically sound. The boss is amazing.

Blue Monkey nailed the biggest part of this song.

Still, I get a religious feel from this one ... and I'm not the kind of guy who finds religious wisdom in unusual places. I sense that the Tunnel of Love is a reference to God's love. You may get lost, lose each other, but the tunnel can guide you. This entire album has religious overtones.

Great stuff.

Blue Monkey nails it.

This is a brilliant song that uses an old amusement park ride as a metaphor for the challenges and struggles of modern day marriage.

The only one not mentioned yet that I've seen is the reference to the crazy mirror. The mirror room on this ride had a bunch of large, curvy mirrors that simultaneously magnified and distorted your image and the image of anyone or anything else in the mirror. Isn't marriage the same way? Doesn't it reveal every odd quirk, every imperfection, every failure, every human weakness, in the worst possible light? Aren't these things put under such a microscope that you wonder how anyone makes it through? That's the "crazy mirror showing us both in 5-D".

the sequal to Stolen Car

Pretty songs, good lyrics. The title "tunnel of love" detracts because people could interpret it as having double meaning, but I don't think that was intended. A lot of his songs do tell stories and relate to one another which is something I didn't know until I bought a Springsteen album.

yeah unfortunate that some would only see the Freudian meaning of the title...

It begins as a story about two kids going into a funhouse at a carnival but by the last verse it turns out that whole thing was just a metaphor and the real story is of two adults in a troubled relationship.

Best song in the world. The brief guitar solo is heart wrenching.

Loving someone, but not being able to commit !!!