BEST OF 2012 - #1 - BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN "WRECKING BALL"

I wrote about Bruce Springsteen's Wrecking Ball when it was released.  I wondered if it would be seen as the classic that The Rising is;  I still wonder about that. I think it will be.

The album seems inspired by the financial crisis, and what so many Americans are going through. That's part of the album's story. Of course, there's also context: Bruce did a lot of campaigning for President Obama the first time around. Like many Americans, he probably felt that there were going to be huge changes in the country after the election.  "Hope And Change" was a powerful slogan, and may have given people super high expectations. And while The President accomplished a lot, it still felt like a lot of things didn't change: no one was prosecuted in the financial crisis.  More time and money was spent on trying to figure out if Lance Armstrong did steroids or not. Stuff like that made it feel like Bush was still president. That thought seems to haunt this album.

I think those are the kinds of things that inspired the album, but it's not what the album is about, per se.  I believe Springsteeen was trying to write a modern folk album.  Not the way he did on Devils And Dust or The Ghost Of Tom Joad, by playing quietly, but by writing songs that are easy to get into and sing along to.  This is more like a modern version of his Seeger Sessions album. This isn't chin-stroking folk, but fist pumping folk.   He not only used rock instruments to record these songs, but also had some even more modern touches, like loops and samples, and on "Rocky Ground," a guest MC rapping a verse.

I've listened to this album a lot since it's release, and I've seen Bruce in concert twice on this tour (in April and in September). I've decided that I think Wrecking Ball is a classic: "We Take Care Of Our Own" is amazing.  But I also love "Death To My Hometown," "Shackled And Drawn," "Easy Money," "This Depression" and "We Are Alive; they are all amazing songs.  There's also the previously released songs:  I actually don't love the title track, but it's grown on me, as has "Land Of Hope And Dreams," a song that I never felt really "worked" but is also starting to grow on me.  But one of the bonus tracks, "American Land," is one of his top 25 songs in my mind.

I was surprised and pleased to see that Rolling Stone agreed with me, and named it their number 1 album of the year as well. I'm just sorry that the Grammy Awards only gave him three nominations, and none in the major categories.  But this album is bigger than awards and polls.  I don't know how Darkness On The Edge Of Town did with the critics or at the Grammys and it doesn't really matter anymore.

STORIFY VERSION OF BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN TOUR OPENER

I'm new to Storify, and I'm using this to experiment with it. I wasn't able to go to opening night of Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band's tour for Wrecking Ball, so I have been following the show on Twitter and Instagram. Storify allows you to use people's public social media posts to tell a story, so this is how I'm telling the story of the concert I wish I'd attended tonight!

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN "WRECKING BALL"

Bruce Springsteen's Wrecking Ball is, I guess, to the financial crisis as The Rising was to 9/11. Does it hold up to The Rising?  Tough to say, time will tell.  This Rising is a classic.  It also dealt with an event that was much more cut and dried than the meltdown. We were attacked by terrorists, people died that day. Despite that, Bruce sounds a bit angrier on Wrecking Ball, because, of course, this time we were attacked from within.  This time the attackers aren't on the run hiding in a cave; they're giving themselves bonuses, paying non-union workers to clean their yachts, bending the rules, and generally being celebrated by a large portion of the country.

I just painted in broad stroke, and that's what Bruce is doing on this album, he's not being too subtle. "Wherever this flag's flown/We take care of our own" is very slogan-y, but it works for me. We need rallying cries right now. And, in this era where people are calling basic heath care and retirement benefits "entitlements" (while arguing against any government regulation to any business, regardless of the harm certain businesses do to the environment, economy or our health)... I think reminding people that in America, some of us do want to take care of our own is a lovely, strong and ballsy sentiment. It's one that might have been echoed by a pretty high authority, as Bruce points out on "Jack Of All Trades": "We'll start caring for each other, like Jesus said that we might."

When I listen to the album, I think of the guy from "Factory," off of Darkness On The Edge Of Town. In that song, there was no real sense that things could get better, but it's shocking how much worse that they've actually gotten.  I think that that is sort of the theme of the album.   The mansions of fear and the mansions of pain are tough enough, now you're tellin' me they might not be here tomorrow, because you can get someone to work the working life for even less money? And if I get cancer, I'm out of luck?

Throughout the album, fat-cats steal money and party. It's not too thinly veiled, and it seems like some critics lament this lack of nuance.  I get it: but at the same time, sometimes you fight with finesse, and other times you're just so enraged you go for the roundhouse punch.

I do love that he ended the album with "American Land," which he first started playing on the Seeger Sessions Band tour, and is the one song from that era that he's brought to the E Street Band. It's one of my favorite Bruce songs, and, in my mind, a modern day folk classic. It ends the LP on a somewhat upbeat and optimistic note, which I think we needed.  It reminds me of "Reason To Believe" closing Nebraska.

Sonically, the album is a bit different for Bruce.  I was surprised that he didn't make the LP with producer Brendan O'Brien, who produced The Rising, Devils & Dust, Magic and Working On A Dream. Instead, he went with Ron Aniello, who produced one of Patti Scialfa's albums, and is more known for mainstream pop like Guster, Sixpence None The Richer and Jars Of Clay. Bruce and Ron recorded most of the tracks themselves, with a number of musicians helping out, including some members of The E Street Band. Max Weinberg plays drums on three tracks, Little Steven plays mandolin and sings on "American Land," Patti is all over the album, and there are even two solos by Clarence Clemons (on "Wrecking Ball," which the band performed towards the end of their last tour, and "Land Of Hope And Dreams," which they've been playing since the 1999 reunion tour). Extended E Street Band members show up: keyboardist Charlie Giordano is on a number of tracks (but Roy Bittan isn't on the album at all) as is violinist/singer Soozie Tyrell.  There are other familiar names including Steve Jordan, Lisa Lowell and even Bruce fan #1 Tom Morello. Bruce combines the big-band-party-like-it's-1939 sound of the Seeger Sessions Band with the anthemic power of E Street.  I suspect that if this was 10 or 15 years ago, he may have thought about using a different band on the road, but with the passing of Clarence and Danny Federici, I don't think Bruce wants to take another band on the road, and push back the next E Street tour a few more years.

He knows that to bring his most powerful messages to the people, he needs the E Street Band. Doesn't matter if the band didn't make the music, they are the best band to deliver it.  And really, who else is bringing it the way Bruce does, and has been doing, for decades?

These days, "selling out" and not "selling out" are almost antiquated ideas.  The very idea of worrying about it seems quaint. But I'm glad Bruce is still out there not selling out and keeping the faith. Since he did "41 Shots" on the reunion tour, Bruce has been expressing his beliefs and standing behind them, no matter what the cost in fans, dollars or headaches, and I'm glad he's still doing it.