Springsteen Discusses the Angry Patriotism at the Heart of 'Wrecking Ball'

From The Guardian

Bruce Springsteen: 'What was done to my country was un-American'. The Boss explains why there is a critical, questioning and angry patriotism at the heart of his new album Wrecking Ball.

At a Paris press conference on Thursday night, Bruce Springsteen was asked whether he was advocating an armed uprising in America. He laughed at the idea, but that the question was even posed at all gives you some idea of the fury of his new album Wrecking Ball. Indeed, it is as angry a cry from the belly of a wounded America as has been heard since the dustbowl and Woody Guthrie, a thundering blow of New Jersey pig iron down on the heads of Wall Street and all who have sold his country down the swanny. Springsteen has gone to the great American canon for ammunition, borrowing from folk, civil war anthems, Irish rebel songs and gospel. The result is a howl of pain and disbelief as visceral as anything he has ever produced, that segues into a search for redemption: "Hold tight to your anger/ And don't fall to your fears … Bring on your wrecking ball." "I have spent my life judging the distance between American reality and the American dream," Springsteen told the conference, where the album was aired for the first time. It was written, he claimed, not just out of fury but out of patriotism, a patriotism traduced. "What was done to our country was wrong and unpatriotic and un-American and nobody has been held to account," he later told the Guardian. "There is a real patriotism underneath the best of my music but it is a critical, questioning and often angry patriotism." The tone is set from the start with the big, bombastic We Take Care of Our Own – a Born in the USA for our times – where the most sacred shibboleth of Ordinary Joe America is sung with mocking irony through clenched teeth by a heart that still wants it to be true. "From the shotgun shack to the Superdome/ There ain't no help, the cavalry stayed home." It is a typical Springsteen appeal to a common decency beyond the civil war he sees sapping America. Like Born in the USA, which got pressed into service as the anthem of the first Gulf war, he's aware it has the potential to be hijacked by the angry right. But Springsteen says that to anyone who cares to listen to the lyrics, the message is clear. "A big promise has been broken. You can't have a United States if you are telling some folks that they can't get on the train. There is a cracking point where a society collapses. You can't have a civilisation where something is factionalised like this." Springsteen plunges into darker, richer musical landscapes in a sequence of breath-taking protest songs – Easy Money, Shackled and Drawn, Jack of All Trades, the scarily bellicose Death to My Hometown and This Depression with Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine – before the album turns on Wrecking Ball in search of some spiritual path out of the mess the US is in. But it is also an ode to hard work, to the dignity it brings, and the blue-collar values he claims made America: "Freedom son's a dirty shirt The sun on my face and my shovel in the dirt A shovel in the dirt keeps the devil gone I woke up this morning shackled and drawn" Asked where the fury of this lyric had come from, he talks movingly of his father who had been "emasculated by losing his job" in the 70s and never recovered from the damage to his pride. "Unemployment is a really devastating thing. I know the damage it does to families. Growing up in that house there were things you couldn't say. It was a minefield. My mother was the breadwinner. She was steadfast and relentless and I took that from her. "Pessimism and optimism are slammed up against each other in my records, the tension between them is where it's all at, it's what lights the fire." Hope is there. But it is a tempered hope. Land of Hope and Dreams is a plea for America's newest immigrants, those risking their lives to ride the trains up from central America. "This train … carries saints and sinners … losers and winners … whores and gamblers … Dreams will not be thwarted … Faith will be rewarded." Springsteen, 62, says he is not afraid of how the album will be received in election-year America: "The temper has changed. And people on the streets did it. Occupy Wall Street changed the national conversation – the Tea Party had set it for a while. The first three years of Obama were under them. "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 … In Easy Money the guy is going out to kill and rob, just like the robbery spree that has occurred at the top of the pyramid – he's imitating the guys on Wall Street. An enormous fault line cracked the American system right open whose repercussion we are only starting to be feel. "Nobody had talked about income inequality in America for decades – apart from John Edwards – but no one was listening. But now you have Newt Gingrich talking about 'vulture capitalism' – Newt Gingrich! – that would not have happened without Occupy Wall Street." Having previously backed Obama, Springsteen says he would prefer to stay on the sidelines this time. "I don't write for one side of the street … But the Bush years were so horrific you could not just sit around. It was such a blatant disaster. I campaigned for Kerry and Obama, and I am glad I did. But normally I would prefer to stay on the sidelines. The artist is supposed to be the canary in the cage." Obama hasn't done bad, Springsteen says. "He kept General Motors alive, he got through healthcare – though not the public system I would have wanted – he killed Osama Bin Laden, and he brought sanity to the top level of government. But big business still has too much say in government and there has not been as many middle- or working-class voices in the administration as I expected. I thought Guantanamo would have been closed but now, but he got us out of Iraq and I guess we will soon be out of Afghanistan." The album is the last on which Clarence Clemons, the legendary saxophonist from the E Street Band, played on before he died last year. "When the sax comes up on Land of Hope and Dreams," Springsteen says, "it's a lovely moment for me."

• Wrecking Ball is released on 5 March via Columbia.

Boehner Reads Polls, Caves on Payroll Tax Break Extension

Faced with criticism from across the political spectrum and abandoned by Senate allies, House Republicans bowed to political reality Thursday and agreed to a two-month extension of a payroll tax cut for 160 million Americans. After promising to hold their breath, hoping to die and sticking a needle in their eye until they got further cuts to programs benefitting those in need, their bluff was called. The tax break is backed by President Barack Obama, and was initially brought up as part of his job stimulation program. The break involves keeping payroll taxes down by 4.2 percent until February, continuing extended unemployment benefits and maintaining the present Medicare reimbursement rates for doctors. A similar deal was rejected by the Republican-dominated House of Representatives on Tuesday after being approved by the Senate. This time House Republicans supported the bill since their political suicide was pointed out to them by their wingnut collegues in the Senate. When Mitch McConnell becomes a voice of reason, you know you've really lost control of the conversation.

Why Do Republicans Hate Americans?

On the very day President Obama met with leaders of the business world to figure out how to put Americans back to work and all agreed that infrastructure is the key to our economic revival, exactly the key to Obama’s job plan, last night, the jobs bill was defeated because of yet another Republican filibuster. Every single Republican voted no. The 50 page report submitted to the president by this jobs council said there’s no market for anything they’re selling so they’d like to modernize our tunnels, railways, ports, dams, schools, airports, electric grids, water and waste water systems, and expanding our broadband networks.

The filibuster came as no surprise, that’s been the standard practice for the Republicans since this man was sworn in, but what I find upsetting is two Democrats joining them, Ben Nelson of Nebraska and Jon Tester of Montana. From what I’ve read, Harry Reid had to do some serious arm twisting to get Claire McCaskill and Jim Webb to vote yes. What has happened to the Democratic Party? This was the party of the people. And while they’re not as egregiously obvious that they’re in the back pockets of the rich and the powerful, it’s clear that some of them are. As Bill Maher said on Rachel Maddow’s show last night, (not this clip) there are probably 40 good Democrats, but 13 who can’t be trusted to act as Democrats.

If the thousands of Americans protesting the corporate greed from coast-to-coast aren’t making a difference, I’m not sure anything can. I have to say, my stress level and depression are increasing as time moves on. I still have very high hopes for Occupy Wall Street and Occupy wherever, but I’m saddened that there are some Democrats who are more interested in their own jobs than 24 million unemployed Americans. All the 99% want is fairness. Basic fairness has been missing from our system for 30 years. This movement has more in common with the original Boston Tea Party than the racists with tri-cornered hats, carrying guns, screaming about the Muslim Marxist, Nazi from Kenya.

John Stanton of Roll Call discusses the vote with Rachel Maddow.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

*Rachel made the correction after the break to Stanton’s report where he misnamed Webb as a no vote instead of Tester.

Had Enough Yet?

Just wondering if Democrats or people left of center in general are finally getting it, that the right wing plays for keeps. They will stop at nothing to get total power. They lie, they cheat, they steal. There is no equivalency in what their side does and what our side does. They are organized in deceiving people to an alternate reality. They own the airwaves. It's why we can't stay in power, they fight dirty while our side tries to take the high road (ex. Dukakis, Gore, Kerry, Obama). There is no equivalency that Fox and MSNBC are opposite sides of the same coin. Fox IS the Republican Party and they created the tea party with the Koch roaches. Their one "liberal" Alan Colmes is nothing more than a punching bag for their right wing thugs, which include the Stepfaux Blondes. On the other hand, MSNBC allows Scarborough three hours every day to bash the administration. It gives Mrs. Greenspan (Andrea Mitchell) an hour to question the administrations decisions. And it employs racist, bigot Pat Buchanan is a contributor. These right wing lunatics only believe in the first amendment when it's them doing the talking. They love the Constitution so much they want to change it. If they're waving a flag and carrying a Bible, be afraid, be very afraid.

Please read: Revealed: Fake Facebook Identity Used By Military Contractors Plotting To Hack Progressive Organizations

Republican Spin Cycle In Overdrive

Surprise! Not really. Republicans are trying to steal credit for President Obama's magnificent victory for our national security, and maybe more importantly, national psyche. They are besides themselves with lies and innuendo trying to say that Obama just continued Bush policies and Bush is the reason the world has rid itself of Osama bin Laden. An article from the New York Times in 2006 disproves all that baloney...in addition to the video of GWB, six months after 9/11 telling the country he didn't care where bin Laden was and he doesn't lose sleep over him, etc...

And let's suppose, for just one second that my analogy is wrong (it's not, we have the tape), let's think about how it would've went down. If Dumbya had cared about finding OBL, which he clearly didn't, the mission wouldn't have been covert. His overcompensation and large ego wouldn't have allowed that. Nope, he would've sent the army in, guns-a-blazin'; we would've had multiple U.S. casualties and our poor excuse of a media would've drooled over what a tough commander-in-chief he is. Shock-and-Awe, baby! Shock-and-Awe! Our media, with a couple exceptions sucks.

You know what is irritating? After we got hit in 2001, Americans on both sides of the aisle supported GWB. What does it say about the other side, that they will not afford that same courtesy? Finally, here's a question to all these idiots on the right. Had this mission failed, who would've got the blame?

I loved this interview Cenk Uygar conducted with Joan Walsh today. It is totally correct.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

,

Eight Years Later, Mission Really Accomplished

Saturday night, our cooler-than-cool President laughed and joked at the White House Correspondents Dinner all while knowing exactly what he had activated, a mission to kill Osama bin Laden. He's restoring confidence in many of us. I surely hope he can maintain this ascension. I'm starting to believe the chess/checkers analogy again.

On May 1, 2003, GWB stood on an aircraft carrier wearing a flight suit and pronounced, "Mission Accomplished." Of course, that was a lie. Yesterday, on the eighth anniversary of that proclamation, under the guidance of President Barack Obama, "mission accomplished" was realized to a certain extent. There was no arrogant swagger, no tough talk, no bravado, just a president who understood this is not theatre, this is real.

He had directed CIA Director Leon Panetta to find Osama bin Laden in June 2009. By August of 2010, they were reasonably sure they knew where he was. The Navy SEALS began training. Once their plan was practiced non-stop to perfection for months and they were confident this mission would succeed, they announced they were ready. On Friday, April 29, 2011, the green light was given, on Sunday, May 1, 2011, the mission was accomplished to perfection. Osama bin laden was killed by Navy SEALS...textbook.

Today it's time for America to see who the real National Security party is...it's the Democrats. GWB was a miserable failure. His leadership allowed OBL to escape from Tora Bora, and the foolish invasion of Iraq for oil is still aggravating. Thousands of people died as a result. And still, beltway media claimed Democrats are soft on terror, we must trust Republicans for our safety. WRONG!  Democrats have a very strong tradition of being the party that gets things done on national security. Look at history instead of listening to what our corporate media is spewing.  Bin Laden is dead. He is dead as a result of the hard work of Special Forces. He is dead because the commander-in-chief, Barack Hussein Obama – a member and the current leader of the Democratic party – made the final order. Donkey's having been cleaning up Elephant crap for decades. When will our ill-informed voters figure that out?



Well done, Mr. President.

Obama Rules The White House Correspondents Dinner

In case you missed the event, President Obama was quite funny from start to finish. His presentation started after former wrestler Hulk Hogan's patriotic anthem, "Real American," played. Images of Americana from Mount Rushmore to Uncle Sam were shown on the screen, while images of his "long form birth certificate" flashed intermittently. He then offered to show his live birth video, which turned out to be a clip from the Disney film, "The Lion King." He then advised Fox News, it was a joke. The presidents comedic timing and delivery are quite good. Seth Meyers had a tough act to follow.



SNL comedian Seth Meyers was next. In one segment (at 13:45) regarding Trump's "I have a good relationship with the blacks" comment; Meyers quipped, "unless 'the blacks' are a family of white people, I'll bet he is mistaken. Video of "The Donald" during Meyers routine showed a very displeased casino mogul.