This popped up tonight. I haven’t played it in years, yet it is one of my favourite Springsteen songs. I spent the length of the song thinking about why I haven’t played it more, especially recently. Then it hit me. It’s because I associate it with the unhappiest time of my life. And I am really happy, at the moment.

When my first marriage was caving in, I would spend nights downstairs, after she’d gone to bed, delaying going to bed myself, and playing the Tunnel Of Love album. This was always the last track I would play before giving in to the responsibilities of work the next day, and climbing the stairs. I haven’t thought about that for years.

After weeks of suspicion and phone calls that went dead if I answered, I confronted her. She denied the affair. I walked out of the house and spent the rest of the day buying the 300 paracetamol, the brandy and the various things I needed to kill myself. The fact that total liver failure takes a few days, and a smart young doctor’s persistence, meant that I am still here, happily fifteen years into a second marriage.

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