Today, Bon Jovi and Bruce Springsteen released a new collaboration, “Hollow Man.” The track is a single from Bon Jovi’s upcoming album, which will be a re-release of the legendary band’s most recent album, Forever. The collaboration brings together two legends of 1980s rock, and it hearkens back to the golden age of singer-songwriter blues music. In particular, it sounds a lot like a track Bruce Springsteen would have included on his watershed 1982 album, Nebraska.
“Hollow Man” Is an Ode to the Folk-Blues Days of Yore
“Hollow Man” incorporates the harmonica and acoustic elements that defined the folk music of icons like Bob Dylan and Van Morrison. It even hinges on similar themes such as nostalgia, hopelessness, and disenchantment. Like Dylan’s main character in “Visions of Johanna,” the narrator of “Hollow Man” looks back on his life now that he’s aged and now, per the song’s title, he feels hollow, lonely, and lacking in faith. Thematically, the song lines up with the genre and speaks to Springsteen and Jovi’s maturity, as their careers have spanned over fifty and forty years, respectively.
The collaboration also speaks to the pair’s New Jersey roots, as it suggests a main character who hails from a working-class environment. Both Springsteen and Jon Bon Jovi have spoken publicly about coming from blue-collar towns in New Jersey, where they met people like the man whose mind listeners occupy in “Hollow Man.” Thus, not only is the song an ode to classic folk-blues, but it’s also a nod to the underrepresented populations that both artists have spent their careers giving visibility to. After all, the song was released alongside a new Jovi track called “Red, White and Jersey.”
This Collaboration Sounds Like a Song from One of Springsteen’s Most Legendary Albums
Although “Hollow Man” was written by Jon Bon Jovi and produced by him and longtime Bon Jovi guitarist John Shanks, the song is classic Bruce Springsteen—more specifically, classic Nebraska. One of Springsteen’s most beloved albums and the subject of the upcoming biopic Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere (starring Jeremy Allen White), Nebraska is a dark, moody album that focuses on seedy, downtrodden characters who linger in the shadows of boardwalk towns. “Hollow Man” feels plucked directly from the album, and because of the upcoming biopic, the timing could not be better.
Springsteen leans into the material as well, coming in with his raspy low voice as he sings about hollow stories of a promised land and “pullin’ the trigger on an empty gun.” Metaphors like these are classic Springsteen. The image of the gun, in particular, evokes Nebraska, which is filled with violent characters gambling with their lives and those of others.
In “Hollow Man,” Bon Jovi and Bruce Springsteen evoke classic folk and blues as well as the working-class thematic roots of their music. Perhaps even more interesting, the song sounds like it was pulled straight off of Springsteen’s historic 1982 album Nebraska. For all we know, this is the start of a new era for Springsteen—one that evokes the most celebrated period of his musical career.
