Speed of Life

by Gregg Chadwick Jack of All Trades (Song by Song Review of Bruce Springsteen's New Album - Wrecking Ball) "If it weren't for the message of mercy and pity in Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, I wouldn't want to be a human being. I would just as soon be a rattlesnake." -Kurt Vonnegut Giorgio de Chirico The Enigma of the Hour  oil on canvas 1911 Private Collection A synthesizer wash, p laintive piano, and haunting horns like those found in  Michele Lacerenza 's  Johnny's Theme  accompany the world weary singer in Bruce Springsteen's  Jack of All Trades  (Listen Here) .  The aural landscape is bleak. The world in  Jack of All Trades  seems as if dust blowing in from the 1930's has choked off all color and most of life in the small towns and suburbs of the US.  A hardscrabble emotional landscape remains with little in the way of  work or meaning. The only wage to be found is in odd jobs and small errands. I am reminded of the h...

by Gregg Chadwick Death to My Hometown (Song by Song Review of Bruce Springsteen's New Album - Wrecking Ball) Wisconsin Hometown photo by Gregg Chadwick Last year Bruce Springsteen took a turn as guest vocalist on the Boston based Irish American punk band The Dropkick Murphys' version of  Peg O' My Heart . They played Boston's House of Blues together in March 2011 and the sound seems to have carried over into Springsteen's rollickingly powerful Celtic inspired song  Death to My Hometown  ( Listen Here ).  The Dropkick Murphys and Bruce Springsteen House of Blues, Boston, Mass 2011 Like Springsteen, The Dropkick Murphys have been influenced by Woody Guthrie, going as far as using Guthrie's unpublished lyrics as the basis for their song  I'm Shipping Up to Boston  which   Martin Scorsese used masterfully in his film  The Departed .  We Stand With Wisconsin (Madison, Wisconsin 2011) photo by Gregg Chadwick  Inspired b...