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 reissue of the legendary band’s latest album, Forever. The collaboration brings together the two 1980s legends, and it hearkens back to the singer-songwriter’s golden era of blues music. It sounds a lot like a track Bruce Springsteen would have included on his 1982 pool album, Nebraska.
“Hollow Man” is an ode to the days of folk songs
“Hollow Man” incorporates the harmonica and acoustic elements that defined folk music icons like Bob Dylan and Van Morrison. It even taps into similar themes like nostalgia, hopelessness, and despair. Much like Dylan’s protagonist in “Visions of Johanna,” the narrator of “Hollow Man” looks back on his life now that he’s older and now, as the song’s title suggests, feels hollow, lonely, and lacking faith. Thematically, the song fits the genre and speaks to the maturity of Springsteen and Jovi, as their careers have spanned more than fifty and forty years, respectively.
The collaboration also speaks to the pair’s New Jersey roots, as it suggests the main character comes from a working-class background. 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 take for granted on “Hollow Man.” As such, the song is not only an ode to classic folk blues, but also a nod to the underrepresented populations that both artists have spent their careers trying to bring to light. The song was eventually released alongside a new song by Jovi 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 — specifically, classic Nebraska. One of Springsteen’s most beloved albums and the subject of the upcoming biopic Springsteen: Take Me From Nowhere (starring Jeremy Allen White), Nebraska is a dark, moody album that focuses on the seedy, downtrodden characters who linger in the shadows of Boardwalk Towns. “Hollow Man” feels straight from the album, and the timing couldn’t be better given the upcoming biopic.
Springsteen also leans into the material, coming in with his rough, low voice as he sings of hollow tales of the promised land and “pulling the trigger on an empty gun.” Such metaphors are classic Springsteen. The image of the gun in particular evokes Nebraska , which is filled with violent characters gambling with his and others’ lives.
On “Hollow Man,” Bon Jovi and Bruce Springsteen reference classic folk and blues, as well as their music’s working-class thematic roots. Perhaps even more interestingly, the song sounds like it was lifted straight from Springsteen’s landmark 1982 album Nebraska. For all we know, it’s the beginning of a new era for Springsteen—one that heralds the most celebrated period of his musical career.
