Video hit Bruce Springsteen

Bruce Springsteen - Brilliant Disguise

Brilliant Disguise is a song by Bruce Springsteen from his 1987 album Tunnel of Love.

It was released as the first single from the album, reaching the #5 position on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and #1 on the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart in the United States.

Like much of the Tunnel of Love album, "Brilliant Disguise" was recorded in Springsteen's home studio, called Thrill Hill East, between January and May 1987 with several members of the E Street Band.

On this song, Springsteen played several instruments and is backed by Roy Bittan on keyboards, Danny Federici on organ and Max Weinberg on drums.

The lyrics of "Brilliant Disguise" represent a confession of self-doubt on the part of the singer. The emotions expressed in the song include confusion, jealousy and anxiety about whether the singer's wife has become a stranger to him.

The song deals with the masks people wear and the bitterness that can ensue when we realize the darkness that may lie behind those masks.

The song's quiet power builds slowly. The sound is scaled back from the typical E Street Band sound.

The singer struggles to do things right, but it doesn't help. He can't trust either himself or his wife.

Both he and his wife continue to play their roles - he of a "faithful man", she of a "loving woman", but the singer is nonetheless wracked with self-doubt. A key line towards the end of the song: "I wanna know if it's you I don't trust/Because I damn sure don't trust myself. Somes up the emotions that resonate throughout the song, and indeed the entire second side of the Tunnel of Love album.

Springsteen himself wrote about the song "after '85 I'd had enough and turned inward to write about men, women and love, things that have previously been on the periphery of my work." The song was later released on the compilation album The Essential Bruce Springsteen.

"Brilliant Disguise" has been ranked as the #1192 best song of all time, as well as the #27 song of 1987 and the #214 song of the 1980s, in an aggregation of critics' lists at acclaimedmusic.net.

The song has also been listed as one of the all time great songs in Toby Creswell's "1001 songs" and as one of the 7500 most important songs from 1944 through 2000 by Bruce Pollock.

It was also ranked as the #6 single of 1987 by the Village Voice and the #51 single of 1987 by the New Musical Express.

The video of the song, shot in black and white, effectively reflects its emotions.

The singer sits uncomfortably on the edge of a chair.

He plays his guitar as he sings the lyrics about what it means to try to trust someone looking straight into the camera, never flinching. This very personal performance can make it difficult to watch, but it effectively reflects the themes of the song.

The lyrics:

I hold you in my arms

as the band plays

What are those words whispered baby

just as you turn away

I saw you last night

out on the edge of town

I wanna read your mind

To know just what I've got in this new thing I've found

So tell me what I see

when I look in your eyes

Is that you baby

or just a brilliant disguise

I heard somebody call your name

from underneath our willow

I saw something tucked in shame

underneath your pillow

Well I've tried so hard baby

but I just can't see

What a woman like you

is doing with me

So tell me who I see

when I look in your eyes

Is that you baby

or just a brilliant disguise

Now look at me baby

struggling to do everything right

And then it all falls apart

when out go the lights

I'm just a lonely pilgrim

I walk this world in wealth

I want to know if it's you I don't trust

'cause I damn sure don't trust myself

Now you play the loving woman

I'll play the faithful man

But just don't look too close

into the palm of my hand

We stood at the alter

the gypsy swore our future was right

But come the wee wee hours

Well maybe baby the gypsy lied

So when you look at me

you better look hard and look twice

Is that me baby

or just a brilliant disguise

Tonight our bed is cold

I'm lost in the darkness of our love

God have mercy on the man

Who doubts what he's sure of