Speed of Life

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 bo th 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 Smi...

by Gregg Chadwick Shackled and Drawn (Song by Song Review of Bruce Springsteen's New Album - Wrecking Ball) In a recent interview session in  Paris , Springsteen described the impetus behind the songs of  Wrecking Ball : "My work has always been about judging the distance between American reality and the American dream." Like the music of Woody Guthrie, a core group of songs on  Wrecking Ball  looks at the status of labor in the United States. And the view isn't pretty. Bruce Springsteen's  Shackled and Drawn  ( Listen Here)  is an homage to Guthrie and an ode to the dignity that hard work engenders. At the same time, underneath the rollicking music,  Shackled and Drawn  mourns for those who have lost their jobs in the current corporate drive to downsize, outsource, and maximize profits:  Freedom, son, is a dirty shirt The sun on my face and my shovel in the dirt The shovel in the dirt keeps the devil gone I woke up this morn...