From: hunsecker@loop.com
Subject: "My Best Was Never Good Enough" and "The Killer Inside Me"
Date: Thu, 30 Nov 1995 10:34:33 -0800

Someone a few digests back (so many these days) asked what the hell the
last cut on TGOTJ was all about.  Before he played it as an encore on
Monday night, Bruce said that it was inspired in part by a novel by Jim
Thompson published in 1952 called "The Killer Inside Me."  Thompson was the
hottest dead writer in Hollywood a few years back -- recent movies from his
works include "The Grifters" and "After Dark, My Sweet."  "The Killer
Inside Me" is told in the first person by a Texas sheriff named Lou Ford
who spouts every tired aphorism, but turns out to be a homicidal
psychopath.  Here's a quick excerpt from the end of the first chapter,
which should give a sense of the flavor, and the obvious inspiration for
Springsteen's lyrics:

[begin excerpt -- p. 5 of the Vintage Crime edition, for those of you
playing along at home:]

"I reckon I should have been a college professor or something like that," I
said.  "Even when I'm asleep I'm working out problems.  Take that heat wave
we had a few weeks ago; a lot of people think it's the heat that makes it
so hot.  But it's not like that, Max.  It's not the heat, but the humidity.
I'll be you didn't know that, did you?"

He cleared his throat and muttered something about being wanted in the
kitchen.  I pretended like I didn't hear him.

"Another thing about the weather," I said.  "Everyone talks about it, but
no one does anything.  But maybe it's better that way.  Every cloud has its
silver lining, at least that's the way I figure it.  I mean, if we didn't
have the rain we wouldn't have the rainbows, now would we?"

"Lou..."

"Well," I said, "I guess I'd better shove off.  I've got quite a bit of
getting around to do, and I don't want to rush.  Haste makes waste, in my
opinion.  I like to look before I leap."

[end excerpt]

That's the general idea -- stuff that's wearyingly familiar, but that
becomes creepy and edgy out of the mouth of a psycho.  I think the song
serves the same function on the album as "Reason to Believe" did on
"Nebraska" -- a sardonic bit of punctuation to the dark subject matter that
has come before.  Be sure to put Thompson next to Steinbeck on your reading
list -- this is sure to show up on the exam.




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From: ripcity1@ix.netcom.com (Todd Mintz )
Subject: The Killer Inside Me
Date: Thu, 30 Nov 1995 08:15:49 -0800

Bruce is saying that Jim Thompson's "The Killer Inside Me" is the 
inspiration for "My Best is Never Good Enough". Well, Bruce has great 
taste in literature in my opinion and I will give a strong 
recommendation to you all out there to read Thompson's book because it 
is one of the scariest, darkest, most chilling books I have read (and I 
read a lot) and is also probably the best of the 30 or so books 
Thompson has read (I've read most of them).

The general story focuses on a Sheriff in a West Texas Town who is both 
exceptionally smart (contrasted with the rest of the locals who are 
portrayed as stupid hicks) and extremely disturbed (he has a penchant 
for killing).  The Sheriff uses lots and lots of cliches as a way to 
blend into the community because if he were talk in a way corresponding 
to his intelligence, there would be nobody in town to relate to.  He is 
quite successful at hiding his intelligence because even the locals 
think is pretty stupid.

Thompson's life story would be a perfect TGOTJ song because he was a 
major alcoholic and drifted around the country doing odd jobs for a 
good part of his life.  

The book is short enough to read in an evening and (I believe) is still 
in print.

Todd Mintz


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