Thursday, March 15, 2012

Bruce Springsteen's New Album

I spent about 3 hours today in the car listening the Bruce Springsteen's new album "The Wrecking Ball." It is dark, defiant, poetic, infused with a profound sense of history, and deeply spiritual. Almost every song merits multiple plays and close lyrical analysis. I feel a deeply personal connection to it because it touches on almost every theme I am trying to get across in my Worker in American Life glass. The spirit of Woodie Guthrie guides Springsteen's hand in song after song there is a tribute to the late Clarence Clemons in the liner notes that alternately reduced me to tears and reinforced my determination to live every day as if it were my last. I will listen to this album over and over again and share it with everyone I love and everyone who needs a helping hand to get through the travails of life. This album epitomizes what it means to Bear Witness, to stand up for justice even when justice cannot be achieved, and to speak in behalf of the powerless even when the arrogance of power seems to rule unchecked. Somehow, though the darkest of thoughts are expressed here without embellishment or compromise, I felt much less alone, and oddly, more hopeful, listening to it than I did before. This truly is art in the service of humanity

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