Bruce Springsteen - Classic or Dud ?

That single is going to fit well with G8/Ocuppy craziness in Chicago this May.

could be easily misinterpreted by both sides, hmmm ..."

One would have to do a lot of contortions to twist this into a right wing anthem.

Reagan and George Will (and numerous others) managed to get a few miles out of "BITUSA." Never underestimate the contortionist abilities of the right wing.

he should've called it OCCUPY NEW JERSEY
haven't really been into much of bruce's 21st century output aside from a few tracks, but i'll check this out. also, is "earwitness" really a term people use? sounds gross.

He did a holiday concert a year or two ago from Asbury Park, was on YouTube for a short time, really good performance and really well shot.

I tried searching for it and found this instead--a show he did last weekend at the same venue:
http://www.soundspike.com/story/3590/bruce-springsteen-ramps-up-tour-buzz-with-raucous-set-in-asbury-park/

yeahhh, he did incident on 57th st!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0P4j7mIRX9E

Here he is last week, asking the audience to sing the sax line from Promised Land:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=l40sBvn23MU

That new song, by the way, is faaaaar more ambiguous than BitUSA. The right wing will be so myopic about the phrase "we take care of our own." It can easily mean soldiers and unborn babies but not poor people in their mindset.

Other song titles offer promise of pissed Bruce, though, so I hope the Jars of Clay guy got him to step up.

lol that promised land is great. glad the Sopranos are back together too.

Really pleased he's finally gotten around to recording 'LoHaD', always loved that song on the Live in NYC album.

― ban this sick stunt (anagram), Thursday, January 19, 2012 10:09 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

^^

A+ display name, some dude

eh not crazy about the new song. does sound like he's going for maximum possibility of republican co-option.

The right wing will be so myopic about the phrase "we take care of our own." It can easily mean soldiers and unborn babies but not poor people in their mindset.

He's a cool rocking daddy looking out for his fellow 1%ers.

this is unfortunate

Eh, it's an election year. He'll make his leanings clear. Could be a Ron Paul / Tea Party theme, though.

barf

in theusa

Barf In The USA

i'm sure that brooce will come out as a heavy democrat supporter next year, but that song just seems like he's fishing for newt or someone to start saying "WE TAKE CARE OF OUR OWN" and then the boss can come out and say NO.

lol xp

next year? this year, i mean.

I can't imagine anybody mistaking this for a Springsteen endorsement of any GOP idea or candidate. But it is fun to try.

from the good ol' days when the GOP assumed Springsteen was on their side

The next day, George Will, who also saw Springsteen at the Capitol Center, checked in with his nationally syndicated column. Will had attended the show at the invitation of Max Weinberg and his wife Becky, who had mysteriously found him amusing on ABC-TV's This Week with David Brinkley. (They also invited Sam Donaldson, who didn't show; so much for liberalism in broadcast journalism.) In the course of a clumsy encomium, Will managed to contort the experience beyond recognition, ending in a burst of free market bluster: "If all Americans--in labor and management, who make steel or cars or shoes or textiles--made their products with as much energy and confidence as Springsteen and his merry band make music, there would be no need for Congress to be thinking about protectionism." In other words, if you find slapping bumpers onto compact cars less fulfilling than singing rock and roll songs in front of adoring masses, fuck off. Will's column did not note that he had left the concert one song into the second set, though not before he finally unknotted his ugly yellow bowtie.

I've seen Bruce booed (as opposed to Bruuuuced) at least twice for speaking his mind, once at MSG during the "41 Shots" imbroglio, the other a couple of summers ago at the Harley Davidson 105th anniversary celebration. Generally, though, his political foes know how to compartmentalize (see: the Boss vs. Chris Christie).

omg @ land of hope and dreams! actually excited for this!

it sucks that this song has neu-bruce production but I think it's really good

I dig the idea of a conservative rocking out to this and then hearing the line 'From the shotgun shack to the Superdome'

really this is amazing troll work

Officially touring with a horn section.

ooooOOOOooooo

Witness, the power of horns:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxgPBILzBDk&feature=fvst

http://www.nj.com/entertainment/music/index.ssf/2012/02/bruce_springsteen_announces_tw.html

At least one from Southside Johnny's band

look at that guy! jesus christ. omg. he doused himself in water!

I hope the Boss busts out the bolo tie again.

Better the bolo than shirtless with overalls, but I am sympathetic to most of his looks at least through Tunnel of Love.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-x8zBzxCwsM&feature=player_embedded

other than the strings and a lot of the video, this is actually better than i was expecting.

Video ends with scores of dejected fans shut out from buying Bruce tix: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204573704577187410568254898.html

Hmm, lots of the new songs (I guess the album has leaked, too) have looped drums and gospel singing. But the lyrics are pretty specific about contemporary class warfare. Interesting Trojan horse approach, slick music, direct lyrics.

wait if the music is accessible and the lyrics are unambigous, what is the Trojan horse aspect?

The music is sort of big and slick, but the lyrics sneakily not strident. Ergo, the catchy stuff gets played on the radio/embraced by the masses, despite being subversively pro-99%.

but the masses ARE part of the 99%.

But the masses don't give a shit about the political aspect of that reality. Which is why we have Republicans.

I hope I'm not picking on you, but how are "slick" music and "direct" lyrics an example of subversion or a Trojan horse approach? I can understand how the booming beat lent a jingoistic fervor to the chorus of "Born in the USA," but otherwise slick music and direct lyrics have been staples of pop music since, I dunno, forever.

yeah, in one post the lyrics are "pretty specific" and "direct," in another they're "sneak[y]" and "subversive"....i haven't heard the record so i don't know which is more correct but your inconsistent choice of words just made me scratch my head

The new stuff I've listened to is outight poppy, not just generically "pop," which is where I hear the subversion. And I'm up for some examples of directly, explicitly *political* lyrics in pop music. I don't think it happens that often, but maybe I'm too tired to think of examples.

Haven't heard it but I guess what Josh is saying is that the lyrics are not only direct but anti-establishment. It's not a staple of pop music to have anti-establishment lyrics set to radio-friendly tunes.

Yeah, this. Sorry for being unclear.

The country-folk stomper "Shackled and Drawn" has lyrics that could have almost come from the Woody Guthrie songbook: "Gambling man rolls the dice, workingman pays the bill/ It’s still fat and easy up on banker’s hill/ Up on banker’s hill, the party’s going strong/ Down here below we’re shackled and drawn."

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/exclusive-stream-bruce-springsteens-new-song-shackled-and-drawn-20120221

You'll find examples in lots of country music (e.g. Brad Paisley's "Welcome to the Future"). Springsteen's done it himself: "My Hometown," "Radio Nowhere," "Badlands."

Radio Nowhere and Badlands are pretty oblique, I think. My Hometown is explicit, yeah, but it's also totally downbeat and hardly what I'd consider "poppy." Paisley is a good example, I guess, but even he is kind of cagey about what he's singing about, equating the wonder of playing video games on his phone with having a black president.