Tougher_than_the_rest -

While the song was written during the troubled final years of Springsteen’s first marriage to Julianne Phillips, it has since become synonymous with his enduring partnership with Patti Scialfa.

: Artists like Emmylou Harris and the band Midland have embraced the song's "rough enough for love" ethos, finding its country-soul heart. tougher_than_the_rest

: Recently, the synth-pop band Nation of Language released a cover using the same Yamaha CS-80 synth textures found on the original 1987 sessions. While the song was written during the troubled

In the late 1980s, Bruce Springsteen found himself at a crossroads. Having conquered the world with the stadium-shaking anthems of Born in the U.S.A. , he retreated into a more introspective, synth-heavy landscape for his 1987 album, Tunnel of Love . At the heart of this shift sat "Tougher Than the Rest," a song that stripped away the romantic idealism of pop music to reveal the bruised, wary reality of adult love . The Unromantic Love Song In the late 1980s, Bruce Springsteen found himself