Tuesday, March 06, 2012

Easy Money

by Gregg Chadwick

Easy Money
(Song by Song Review of Bruce Springsteen's New Album -  Wrecking Ball)

In 1958, The Coasters slyly sang in Yakety Yak about bringing in the dog and letting out the cat. In Bruce Springsteen's Easy Money (Listen Here), off of his new album Wrecking Ball, a couple finds themselves letting out both the dog and the cat on what might be their last night on the town. 

Gregg Chadwick
The Mirror Dreams
40"x30" oil on linen 2012

A percussive stomping beat drives the song, playfully making light of the downtrodden couple's last ditch attempt to pull off a score:

There's nothing to it mister
You won't hear a sound
When your whole world comes tumbling down
And all them fat cats they'll just think it's funny
I'm going on the town now looking for easy money

Like bluegrass played on a summer's night, fiddles and acoustic guitar swirl and twang. But the  song turns ominous when Springsteen sings:

I got a Smith & Wesson .38
I got a hellfire burning

This .38 is pointed at a bigger mark than the couple imagines. Wall Street is the target of Springsteen's venom. Class warfare has never sounded so soulful, as Easy Money builds into a sort of Irish soaked, down home sing along. 

William Powell in Jewel Robbery

Like William Powell in the pre-code comedy, Jewel Robbery, the would be gunman in Easy Money seems destined to turn the tables on the wealthy fat cats. Robbery in this instance seems to be no more violent than a bad loan or a defrauded investor, but the human cost remains to be tallied. 





 All lyrics from Easy Money -  Copyright © Bruce Springsteen (ASCAP)



More at:

"Bruce Springsteen's widescreen vision of America on Wrecking Ball is filled with terror, tension, tenacity and above all else, triumph which may not replenish your bank account, but it will replenish your soul."
-Anthony Kuzminski, Bruce Springsteen - Wrecking Ball, antiMusic
All Things Shining by Hubert Dreyfus and Sean Dorrance Kelly
The Working Man's Voice - The Wall Street Journal
Bruce Springsteen, Théatre Marigny press conferenceParis, February 2012

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