Bruce Springsteen takes on Wall Street
The musician's 17th studio album explores many of the same themes as the Occupy Wall Street movement.
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.
It's a dark album, layered with themes of the common man versus the bankers and fat cats. Rolling Stone was streaming one song, "Shackled and Drawn," on its website Tuesday. The song describes how life is fat and easy on "banker's hill," while the working man is shackled and drawn. Here's the video for the first song from the album, "We Take Care of Our Own." Here's a performance of another, called "Wrecking Ball."
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.
One song is about a man getting ready to kill and rob, which Springsteen says is "just like the robbery spree that has occurred at the top of the pyramid. He's imitating the guys on Wall Street."
So did Springsteen just hand President Barack Obama a campaign soundtrack? Though he supported Obama in the 2008 election, he said he's sitting on the sidelines this time around.
"He kept General Motors alive, he got through health care -- though not the public system I would have wanted -- he killed Osama Bin Laden, and he brought sanity to the top level of government," Springsteen said about the president. "But big business still has too much say in government, and there (have) not been as many middle- or working-class voices in the administration as I expected."
| Tags: | Kim Petersonpolitics |
What is killing America goes beyond Wall Street. It is primarily the Super PACs allowed by none other than our supposedly non-politcal Supreme Court that gave corporations the same rights as ind'l people to contribute to political parties. Unlimited funds, as much as they want. What do you think that leads to, other than influence peddling that completely distorts all our laws and regulations?
Nothing has been more harmful to America than our own Supreme Court, bought and sold now like milk or bread, supposedly unattached to politics but now as deep in it as are the other tainted and compromised arms of the gov't. We are in big trouble until we change that ruling back to what it was before Big Money took America hostage. Or else.
WHAT A JOKE...BRUCE LIVES ABOUT A MILE UP THE ROAD FROM ME IN RUMSON NJ AND HAS ANOTHER HOME ABOUT 5 MILES FROM HERE IN COLTS NECK. THE HOME IN COLTS NECK IS ON 373 ACRES............BRUCE PAYS A COUPLE HUNDRED DOLLARS IN REAL ESTATE TAXES CAUSE HE LETS SOME ONE FARM A FEW ACRES IN THE CORNER OF THE PROPERTY........BON JOVI LIVES ACROSS THE RIVER IN A 20 MILLION MANSION AND PAYS 200 DOLLARS A YEAR IN TAXES CAUSE HE RAISES HONEYBEES..........I GUESS OBAMA WOULD SAY THEY`RE PAYIJG THEIR FAIR SHARE..................WHAT A JOKE.
The problem has never been Wall Street.
It is the the people running this country (into the ground). There will always be the haves and have nots.
We will always have the rich, the poor and everyone in between.
People are the issue.
It is tragic that celebrities talk about "the 1%" when all of them are.
The most tragic thing is the "we are the 99%" BS.
They don't represent me! I work for a living, I do not expect to be given anything. I do not expect anyone but me to pay my debts, I took them on, I pay them off.
If these bums would spend more time focusing on themselves than on trying to get hand outs, they might be able to achieve something.
If you don't work (I do not mean layed off individuals), have not worked or do not have to work because of the wealth that you have either earned or have had given to you...please shut up.
There are jobs out there, they just don't pay a lot and they suck. Not everyone gets to be a CEO.
Bruce should take on the POLITICIANS, there the one's that created the BIG MESS, Allowing all of the OUTSOURCING, and BAILOUTS. What have they done for the WORKING MAN? Higher unemployment , Higher TAXES, more FORECLOSURES, more HOMELESS than ever. We need a GOVERNMENT that truly takes care of there people by making sure there are jobs, NOT GOVERNMENT CREATED JOBS, Keep ILLEGAL'S OUT, KEEP OUR BORDERS SAFE, Give our people something to be proud of. We need POLITICIANS that don't disgrace the office they were ELECTED to, and truly work for the people not SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS or to take care of there RETIREMENT PACKAGE. WE NEED TERM LIMITS.
I hope Bruce sells a million albums.
While I believe that anyone who commits a crime should be prosecuted if not for Wall Street there would be no Apple or Microsoft or even GM.
All companies that employ millions of people both in America and abroad.
In order for business to grow it needs to raise capital which is what Wall Street does for them.
To say Wall Street does nothing is wrong without Wall Street many of these companies and new ones yet to come won't exist.
Just FYI I don't work for Wall Street and other than a few small investments have nothing to do with them thus I believe I'm impartial here.
That said if crimes were committed by anyone in the melt down we just went through as i said above they should be prosecuted.
Quite frankly I believe the government would've by now if there was a case given the groundswell of opinion demanding blood.
It is my guess that there was very little crime jus bad decisions resulting from greed.
Time and history will tell.
The greed, abuse and criminal activity by some of our banker friends, mortgage brokers, rating agencies, etc has wrought havoc on many hard working Americans, weaken our democracy and diminished our reputation around the world. The very heart of capitalism found a way to tarnish and corrupt it's own house. I was living oversees at the time. Frankly, for the first time in a long life, I was embarrassed to be an American.
This kind of behavior and activity does more than anything our enemies might do to weaken our great country.
Is Wall St guilty? Is Bruce right? OH YEAH! Anyone can have an opinion, but I suggest reading a few books about the meltdown on Wall St in '08 for an educated opinion.Wall St sold the worst bundles of investments, telling the ratings agencies to rate them AAA, knowing they wreaked; then to top it off they bet aginst the same bundles. When these investments failed, the company won BIG. So, no, it wasn't legal to do that; the attorney general in NY will try to go after some of them- but as you can imagine, takes a lot of research to really get the goods on them. It's a crime of huge magnitude, it will take some very tenacious, intelligent people to get the bad guys.
Dirty Girl,
Simplistic, left-wing, liberal whining. Bruce is a millionaire. You can bet he has substantial amounts invested in "Wall Street" because he isn't going to stuff all his cash in a pillow under his bed. On other hand, I'd like to think he made his money the old-fashioned way. He worked for it, so we must give him his due.
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