Nebraska, Springsteen, Reagan
One
of the gutsiest lps ever. An opera to the downtrodden, released right
when Reagan was declaring "Morning in America" and the theft began in
earnest.
NEBRASKA, BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN
The country went batshit nuts, and never recovered. I remember taking a train from Hartford to New York in early 1980, and there was a girl with some sort of pin on that said she was from Boston. I was leaning toward Ted Kennedy at the time, and assumed she was for him as well. She got very pissy with me and gave me some screed about killing babies. She was all Reagan. It was before the primaries.... I remember thinking..."uh oh"...At that moment, I knew we were all fucked.
The album was released in 1982. We were all expecting another great rock 'n roll epic. What we got was so much more powerful, considering the zeitgeist of the times. For that one shining moment, Bruce was the Woody Guthrie of the modern age. He's returned to the themes since, (consider, for instance, Youngstown) but that first blast, when the nation was getting ready to blame the poor for being poor, was amazing for its candor.
It's 34 years after my meeting on the train, 32 years after the release of Nabraska. The album is still haunting. And the ghost of Ronnie Reagan is still killing us.
Here's an article that got me thinking of where we came from, and where we're going:
The Middle Class Myth
It got me remembering trains, and Reagan, and loss of youth, and Bruce. And Nebraska.
It's 5:07 AM, New Year's Day, 2014. We need to regain what we gave up so cheaply.
"Hey Mr. DJ, won't you hear my last prayer. Hey Ho, Rock and Roll, deliver us from nowhere"
"Mister, the day my number comes in, I ain't gonna ride in no old used car again"
(Thanks to Tom Fawkes for the inspiration)
NEBRASKA, BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN
The country went batshit nuts, and never recovered. I remember taking a train from Hartford to New York in early 1980, and there was a girl with some sort of pin on that said she was from Boston. I was leaning toward Ted Kennedy at the time, and assumed she was for him as well. She got very pissy with me and gave me some screed about killing babies. She was all Reagan. It was before the primaries.... I remember thinking..."uh oh"...At that moment, I knew we were all fucked.
The album was released in 1982. We were all expecting another great rock 'n roll epic. What we got was so much more powerful, considering the zeitgeist of the times. For that one shining moment, Bruce was the Woody Guthrie of the modern age. He's returned to the themes since, (consider, for instance, Youngstown) but that first blast, when the nation was getting ready to blame the poor for being poor, was amazing for its candor.
It's 34 years after my meeting on the train, 32 years after the release of Nabraska. The album is still haunting. And the ghost of Ronnie Reagan is still killing us.
Here's an article that got me thinking of where we came from, and where we're going:
The Middle Class Myth
It got me remembering trains, and Reagan, and loss of youth, and Bruce. And Nebraska.
It's 5:07 AM, New Year's Day, 2014. We need to regain what we gave up so cheaply.
"Hey Mr. DJ, won't you hear my last prayer. Hey Ho, Rock and Roll, deliver us from nowhere"
"Mister, the day my number comes in, I ain't gonna ride in no old used car again"
(Thanks to Tom Fawkes for the inspiration)
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