Johnny 99 (song)
"Johnny 99" | |
---|---|
Song by Bruce Springsteen | |
from the album Nebraska | |
Released | September 30, 1982 |
Recorded | January 3, 1982 |
Genre | Blues, country, rock and roll,[1] rockabilly[2] |
Length | 3:38 |
Label | Columbia Records |
Songwriter(s) | Bruce Springsteen |
Producer(s) | Bruce Springsteen |
"Johnny 99" is a song written and recorded by rock musician Bruce Springsteen, which first appeared on Springsteen's 1982 solo album Nebraska.
Performance and themes
In "Johnny 99" Springsteen sings about an auto worker who gets laid off in Mahwah, New Jersey and shoots and kills a night clerk while drunk and distraught.[3] As a result, he is apprehended and is sentenced to 99 years in prison, but requests to be executed instead.[3] On the song, Springsteen is accompanied only by his acoustic guitar,[3] although he doubles on harmonica as well. Despite the bleakness of the song's themes - including unemployment, poverty, robbery, murder and possibly execution - the tune is ironically jaunty,[4] with a shuffling rockabilly beat.[5]
Like several other songs on the Nebraska album, "Johnny 99" is a song about complete despair.[6] It has direct links with certain songs on Nebraska: the protagonist in "Johnny 99" notes that he has "debts no honest man could pay," repeating a line used by the protagonist in "Atlantic City",[3][7] and, like the title song, "Johnny 99" is about a murderer[3] — though rather than being a psychopath like the protagonist in the title song, "Johnny 99" is motivated by his economic circumstances.[4]
History
Like the rest of the Nebraska album, "Johnny 99" was recorded in January 1982 in a no-frills studio set up in Springsteen's home in
The background of the song is based on a real-life occurrence, the 1980 closure of a Ford Motor Company plant in Mahwah, which had been open since 1955.[5] The song also has antecedents in two folk songs that appeared on the box set Anthology of American Folk Music: Julius Daniels' "99-Year Blues" and Carter Family's "John Hardy Was a Desperate Little Man."[5]
Despite its bleak themes, it has been a reasonably popular song in concert, with 421 live performances, the latest in August 2023.
Other artists have recorded "Johnny 99." Most famously,
Critical reception
In praising the album Nebraska, "Johnny 99" is one of the songs that was singled out by
Though never released as a single anywhere, "Johnny 99" garnered enough
Personnel
According to authors Philippe Margotin and Jean-Michel Guesdon:[14]
- Bruce Springsteen – vocals, guitar, harmonica
External links
References
- ^ "Bruce Springsteen's "Johnny 99" - an unlikely political anthem". 18 September 2020.
- ^ "Bruce Springsteen: His Top 50 Songs Ranked".
- ^ a b c d e f g h "Allmusic Johnny 99". Retrieved 2007-07-22.
- ^ ISBN 0-7119-5304-X.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-8256-3470-3.
- ISBN 1-56025-101-8.
- ISBN 1-56025-101-8.
- ^ a b "Brucebase, On the Tracks: Nebraska". Retrieved 2007-07-22.
- ^ "Johnny 99 by Bruce Springsteen Concert Statistics". setlist.fm.
- ISBN 1-56025-101-8.
- ISBN 0-8195-6761-2.
- ^ ISBN 1-56025-101-8.
- Allmusic. Retrieved 2011-10-30.
- ISBN 978-1-78472-649-2.