Highway Patrolman

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"Highway Patrolman" is a song written and recorded by Bruce Springsteen and was first released as the fifth track on his 1982 album Nebraska.

The song tells the story of Joe Roberts, the highway patrolman of the title from whose viewpoint the song is written – and his brother, Frankie, and is set in the 1960s. Frankie is portrayed as unruly and frequently causing and encountering trouble, while Joe is the more mature and sensible brother who always comes to his aid.

In 1965, Frankie joins the United States Army (and presumably is sent to Vietnam, though this is not made explicit), while Joe takes a farm deferment and marries a girl called Maria (who, it is implied, had attracted the attentions of both brothers). Within three years however, falling wheat prices cause Joe to leave the farm and take a job as a highway patrolman. Meanwhile, in 1968, Frankie leaves the army and returns home. One night, Joe receives a call and visits a bar where a boy has been attacked and appears to be in a serious condition ("on the floor looking bad, bleeding hard from his head"), with a witness ("a girl crying at a table") identifying his attacker as Frankie, who has fled. Joe chases Frankie through rural Michigan until they reach - and Frankie crosses - the Canada–US border, the implication being that Joe has allowed him to escape; as the lyrics suggest, "when it's your brother, sometimes you look the other way" and "I pulled over the side of the highway and watched his tail lights disappear."

Like the rest of the album, the song was recorded on Springsteen's four-track cassette recorder with the intention of it being performed for the album with his full band; however, it was felt that the demo version of the song was superior to the eventual 'band cut' and was released on the album in its original form. It features the same stark, bleak atmosphere as the other songs on the album, and it consists of only vocals, very quiet harmonica and acoustic guitar.

Springsteen featured the song only once on the "American Land" leg of his critically acclaimed tour with the Seeger Sessions band, and the version is featured on the 2007 release Bruce Springsteen with The Sessions Band: Live in Dublin. This version was praised by Rolling Stone critic Andy Greene as the "fantastic, maybe definitive" version of the song.