Halloween is in the air — boo! — and while Bruce Springsteen might not be known for being especially scary, he does have a few tracks that embrace his darker side. With that in mind, below is the perfect playlist to accompany your Springsteen-themed Halloween party, if there were such a thing.
Granted, not many of the songs veer into genuinely scary territory, but a few of them are certainly spooky, from the echoey howls of “State Trooper” to the eerie incantations of “Dream Baby Dream.” “Roulette,” meanwhile, bleeds frightening urgency, and “Hunter of Invisible Game,” particularly the video (sorry, “short film”), brings its share of post-apocalyptic shudders. And “Swallowed Up (In The Belly Of The Whale)” just creeps me out.
Throw in a ghost (“The Ghost of Tom Joad”), some magic (“Magic”), a mangled son (“Mrs. McGrath”), a mass murderer (“Nebraska”) and various other shady characters and things start to get suitably sinister.
What scary Springsteen songs would you have added to the list? Listen below, and also check out what has to qualify as Bruce’s best Halloween treat: 2007’s “A Night With The Jersey Devil,” in which Bruce rides a horse and gets his vest wet.