There’s a room of shadows that gets so dark brother. It’s easy for two people to lose each other...

Retirement mornings are awesome and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. My own routine starts with getting up early for chores then waking the kids to get them ready for preschool. A bit later I spend an hour or so at the gym with my wife before she has to go to work. Around nine there’s a sojourn at my favorite coffee shop with newspapers and friends.

Yeah, it’s tough alright. But somebody has to step up.

Later it’s back home where the rest of the day begins with a bit of guitar practice. What’s it going to be today? Acoustic or electric? Stratocaster or Les Paul? Slide or finger picking? It is, I will readily admit, a nice set of choices to have to confront. I thank my lucky stars every time.

Now that I have the opportunity to play regularly again I’ve been going through my personal catalog of songs performed (or attempted) over the years. Recently I came across “One Step Up,” by Bruce Springsteen, from the album “Tunnel of Love.” It’s been a while since I either played the song or listened to this album. So I went to my studio, found the actual vinyl album, and put it on the turntable. The next 46 minutes and 25 seconds were a punch in the gut.

If “Starry Night” is a window into Van Gogh’s madness, “Tunnel of Love” is a vicarious and extremely visceral connection to Springsteen’s anguish over the breakup of his first marriage. Actually it’s more than that, it’s a direct tap into dolor. If you could mainline desolation it would feel like this. I’d forgotten how powerful “Tunnel of Love” is. Rarely have I heard such a display of raw emotion throughout an extended work of contemporary music.

Other fans of popular music might cite Fleetwood Mac’s “Rumors” as such a work. But I’d say that the drugs they were doing at the time did as much of the talking as their music. Plus “Rumors” was a mass-casualty event. That’s not the case here.

Three songs pop from “Tunnel of Love” — “Brilliant Disguise,” “Tunnel of Love,” and “One Step Up.” None of these were penned by the street poet version of Springsteen, the guy who wrote and performed the songs on “Greetings From Asbury Park,” “The Wild the Innocent & the “E-Street Shuffle” and “Born to Run.”

The playful melodies and hopeful lyrics about girls and hot rods and hopeful futures are gone, gone and gone. These songs are about despair — which pours right out of Springsteen’s guitar and vocals.

Most musicians dream of the day that they can express themselves directly and effortlessly through their instrument. Springsteen shows you what that’s like for the cost of about 45 minutes of your life. It’s equal parts eloquent and brutal.

Kids, there are two kinds of people in the world: those who’ve endured the breakup of a relationship and those who are going to. Those of you among the latter should give “Tunnel of Love” a listen and consider it a preview of coming attractions. “Tunnel of Love” was Springsteen’s first album without the E-Street band (though members do make some appearances) and the drum machines and synthesizers he used to bolster what is essentially a solo effort are unmistakably ‘80s. But it’s still worth a listen.

Whenever you write anything about relationship issues everyone wants to know if your relationship is on the rocks. No way. In fact my wife claims that she initially thought that I might be OK when she heard me play “One Step Up” a long time ago. So listening to this album can have a better ending than depicted in the songs on the album. But almost everyone over the age of 12 can relate to “Tunnel of Love” in some way.

Unless, that is, all you’ve done your entire life is play video games in your mom’s basement. If so move right along. Nothing to see here.

For everyone else — you’ve got to learn to live with what you can’t rise above.

Amen, brother.

Associated Press and Idaho Press Club award-winning columnist Martin Hackworth of Pocatello is a physicist, writer, consultant and retired Idaho State University faculty member who now spends his time happily raising children, llama farming, riding mountain bikes and motorcycles.