Bruce Springsteen, 'Wrecking Ball': Can The Boss' New Album Rebuild America?

There are a few words that regularly appear in Bruce Springsteen songs, but one that never loses its significance is "promise," particularly the broken ones which have sparked many of Springsteen's greatest songs. His whole new album 'Wrecking Ball,' in fact, is first and foremost a statement on the broken political promises of Wall Street that have crippled the American economy.

A good chunk of 'Wrecking Ball' carries the kind of rage that inspired people to join the Occupy Movement last year. Springsteen knows his audience all too well, and the unceasing public demand to hold somebody accountable for America's current situation provides the album's pulse.

At the same time, when the promises of every election year purport to refashion the American Dream as his songs have defined it, Springsteen has been compelled to restate his values, and he does that again on 'Wrecking Ball.'

It wasn't always this way. The hysteria over 'Born to Run' in 1975 soon left Springsteen dealing with the inevitable fallout of sudden fame. He found solace in an American mythos forged by the nation's great writers and filmmakers that put the ghosts of his Jersey Shore upbringing into an entirely new context, leading to two albums, 1978's 'Darkness on the Edge of Town' and 1980's 'The River,' that simmered with a different kind of restlessness than 'Born to Run' possessed. These were songs that echoed the core message of one of the post-Vietnam War era's defining films, 'Apocalypse Now' -- never get out of the boat, unless you plan to go all the way.


On Nov. 4, 1980, Ronald Reagan was elected president of the United States. The next night, the E Street Band's tour for 'The River' stopped in Tempe, Arizona, and prior to playing 'Badlands' -- Springsteen's lyrical acknowledgement of Middle America's harsh socio-economic realities -- he was moved to say,,"I don't know what you guys think about what happened last night, but I think it's pretty frightening."

Springsteen plumbed the depths of those fears brilliantly on his next album, 'Nebraska.' But when perhaps the ultimate post-Vietnam statement, 'Born in the U.S.A.,' arrived in 1984 -- the year of Reagan's landslide re-election -- The Boss was out for revenge on the neo-cons who were remaking America in their own image. 'Born in the U.S.A.' was meticulously designed to blast out of every car radio in the country. Mixing populism and politics was a huge gamble, but as the album quickly earned a place among the all-time top sellers, it also became clear that many had missed his point -- including Ronald Reagan, who mistook the angry anthem as an endorsement.

In some ways, those on the right could not be blamed for being seduced by the flag-waving surface of the title track's chorus, while ignoring its depiction of a working-class Vietnam vet's tragic life summed up in a single phrase, "nowhere to run, nowhere to go."

If Springsteen took anything away from that experience, it was the realization of the power he possessed to communicate directly with Americans of all political stripes. From then on he openly supported Vietnam veterans' groups, food banks and Amnesty International, while further exploring his connections to America's great and oft-misunderstood folk troubadour, Woody Guthrie.

When America needed a statement of reassurance following the 9/11 attacks, that responsibility naturally fell on Springsteen and the E Street Band's shoulders. 'The Rising' was all of that and more, drawing its strength from American gospel and, bravely, Sufi devotional music on the track 'Worlds Apart.' The album fulfilled the intention he had for 'Born in the U.S.A.,' to create the unity that his music, especially in live performance, always cried out for.

Over the past decade, as American politics became increasingly divisive, Springsteen diligently strove to keep up. He aligned himself with a new generation of disaffected war veterans on 2005's solo 'Devils & Dust,' while the following year's 'We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions' paid tribute to Guthrie's friend Pete Seeger, who at 92 still carries Woody's torch and joined an Occupy Wall Street march last fall.

Springsteen's reunion with the E Street Band on his last two albums, 'Magic' and 'Working on a Dream,' saw him attempt to temper lofty expectations with the knowledge that time is no longer on his side (nor the band's, which faced the deaths of founding keyboardist Danny Federici in 2008 and saxophonist, The Big Man, Clarence Clemons, last year).

But little of that will make a difference to Springsteen's Wal-Mart audience after they hear 'We Take Care of Our Own,' the lead single from 'Wrecking Ball,' which is primed to be just as misinterpreted as 'Born in the U.S.A.'

Libertarians are sure to claim it's saying that government intervention leads to disaster and Democrats will latch onto its vaguely socialist principles, while Republicans and Tea Partiers will be fuelled by its feel-good melody and "wherever this flag is flown" refrain.