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The following notes, written by Bruce, are taken from the book "Songs".
At the end of the Human Touch album I still felt I needed another song. So I wrote "Living Proof," about the common strength it takes to constitute a family. Children are the "living proof" of our belief in one another, that love is real. They are faith and hope transformed into flesh and blood.
Once I had written "Living Proof," over the next three weeks I wrote and recorded an entirely new record. I was a release from the long process of making Human Touch. I set up the home recording equipment and everything came together very quickly, as on Nebraska and Tunnel of Love. Lucky Town had the ease that came with the relaxed writing and recording of its songs.
"Better Days," "Book of Dreams," and "Leap of Faith" were all songs about second chances. The characters return from broken love affairs and self-doubt and find the tempered optimism to take another shot. "Local Hero" takes an ironic look at "the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune," while "Leap of Faith" is a sexually humorous glimpse at love and resilience. "If I Should Fall Behind" was one of my best songs about the dedication to one another that comes with love. "The Big Muddy" explores human frailty and the morally ambiguous territory that comes with adulthood.
Scenes from the Persian Gulf War and gang warfare in Los Angeles open "Souls of the Departed." In the song, the character's desire to protect the things he loves most from the violent world around him is undeniable. But the underbelly of that impulse, along with economic injustice, is one of the things that has led us to the racially segregated society we live in. The father in "Souls of the Departed" wrestles with his own hypocrisies about the choices he has made for his family in contrast to his beliefs.
Lucky Town closes with "My Beautiful Reward." A man searches for something unnameable, then, slipping between life and death, transforms into a bird flying over gray fields with "the cold wind at my back."
Human Touch and Lucky Town were both about the blessings and the unanswerable questions that come with adult life, morality, and human love.