Springsteen vents his anger on new album
YoU can never go wrong in rock 'n' roll when you're p***ed off", according to Bruce Springsteen.
In Paris yesterday to unveil his new album, Wrecking Ball, to the world's media, Springsteen admitted it had been written in a spirit of political anger.
"My work has always been about judging the distance between American reality and the American Dream," the star who plays the RDS this summer said.
Right now, he suggested, the distance was greater than it had ever been in his lifetime.
With the financial crisis, "an enormous fault line cracked the American system wide open and its repercussions are just beginning to be felt."
Wrecking Ball is the 17th studio album from America's blue-collar rock icon who plays Dublin this summer as part of a European tour.
Befitting troubled times for the working man, it is Springsteen's most overtly political collection of songs.
The title, he said, reflects "the flat destruction of some American ideals and values over the last 30 years. It seemed like a good metaphor".
While the album is underpinned by a dark fury, in person Springsteen was relaxed, amusing and philosophical.
Brutal
Asked if he felt that his role as voice of protest was a burden, he laughed out loud. "I'm terribly burdened at night when I'm sleeping in my big house. It's killing me," he joked. "The rock life is brutal, don't let anyone tell you different."
Actually, he conceded, just to be a musician was "a charmed life. That's why they call it playing".
On a poignant note, the new album also features the last sax solo from his long-time sparring partner, the late Clarence Clemons.
hnews@herald.ie
- Jonathan Gray
