Bruce Springsteen takes on Wall Street in new album! Awesome audio-video previews at these links! [View all]

[Better Believe It]

Bruce Springsteen takes on Wall Street
The musician's 17th studio album explores many of the same themes as the Occupy Wall Street movement.
By Kim Peterson
February 21, 2012

Bruce Springsteen is furious at Wall Street, and he funneled that anger into his newest album, "Wrecking Ball."

The result is a collection of songs about the destruction of the American dream. You don't get too deep into that subject before you hit the financial crisis -- and Wall Street's role in it.

"An enormous fault line cracked the American system wide open, and its repercussions are just beginning to be felt," Springsteen said in interviews promoting the album, which comes out next month.

Springsteen's work echoes some of the themes of Occupy Wall Street, and he credits that movement with changing the national conversation. "Previous to Occupy Wall Street, there was no push-back at all saying this was outrageous -- a basic theft that struck at the heart of what America was about, a complete disregard for the American sense of history and community," he said at a press conference about the album, according to the Guardian.

Read the full article at:

http://money.msn.com/top-stocks/post.aspx?post=7b0d88b3-0ae5-4ace-913b-7cc35afeccb2


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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."

Listen to this recording of "Shackled and Drawn" at:

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

Here's the video for the first song from the album, "We Take Care of Our Own."

Here's a live performance of another song from the album, called "Wrecking Ball" performed on October 2 at Giants Stadium.

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Exclusive: Bruce Springsteen Explains His Experimental New Album
'This is as direct a record as I ever made,' he says
By Andy Greene
Rolling Stone
February 17, 2012

Two years ago Bruce Springsteen told Rolling Stone that he had just written his first song about a "guy that wears a tie." The songwriter had spent much of his career writing about characters struggling in tough economic times, but the financial crisis convinced him it was time to write about the people and forces that brought America to this ugly point.

The result was Wrecking Ball, a scathing indictment of Wall Street greed and corruption and a look into the devastation it has wrought. "This is as direct a record as I ever made," Springsteen tells Rolling Stone. "That's with the possible exception of Nebraska, which this record has a lot in common with."

The stark subject matter is paired with an experimental sonic palette that Springsteen created with producer Ron Aniello. "The record basically started out as folk music – just me and a guitar singing these songs," says Springsteen. "Then Ron brought a large library of sound that allowed me to explore – like maybe a hip-hop drum loop or country-blues stomp loop. The actual drums came later. There was no preconceived set of instruments that needed to be used, I could go anywhere, do anything, use anything. It was very wide open."

Album opener "We Take Care of Our Own" poses a question: Do Americans take care of their own? The songs that follow make the answer clear: The narrator of the slow waltz "Jack of All Trades" struggles to find work, while the anti-hero of the country-folk stomper "Easy Money" decides to imitate "all them fat cats" on Wall Street by turning to crime. The similarly uptempo "Shackled and Drawn," meanwhile, offers a political analysis worthy of Woody Guthrie: "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."

The album's themes shift midway through, as economic despair gives way to a quest for spiritual redemption. It ends on a hopeful note with the ambitious "We Are Alive." The song takes on an Irish-wake feel, as Springsteen celebrates Americans (and aspiring ones) who died fighting for progress: "I was killed in Maryland in 1877/ When the railroad workers made their stand/ I was killed in 1963 one Sunday morning in Birmingham/ I died last year crossing the Southern desert my children left behind in San Pablo… We are alive/ And though we lie alone here in the dark/ Our souls will rise/ To carry the fire and light the spark/ To fight shoulder to shoulder and heart to heart."

Read the full article at:

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/exclusive-bruce-springsteen-explains-his-experimental-new-album-20120217


Bruce Springsteen performs during the 54th Annual Grammy Awards in Los Angeles