Review: Bruce Springsteen – ‘We Take Care Of Our Own’

You don’t need to be told why this is important. If you know this man, you’ve probably already got the shakes just clicking ‘play’ on the video link.

The Boss is back, and not in a “flogging a 30 year old album with bonus out-takes” kind of way. Yes, ‘The Promise‘ was a wonderful little goodie bag, yes, it tided us over another year without a new album, but it didn’t have anything to knock the stuffing out of us quite like ‘We Take Care Of Our Own‘.

A 1-2-3-4 crack of thunder from the Max Weinberg drum kit gives us the first kick; he settles into a steady heartbeat between battle cry choruses, but somehow that intro makes it the real thing. What kind of sound would ‘Hungry Heart‘ or ‘Badlands‘ have had without this signal to arms Weinberg has somehow made his trademark?

Easy, tiger. We’re not invoking the classics on a whim here. This really is coming from the same stable as ‘Badlands’; lyrically, musically, botanically, however the hell you want to define it. Sure, this is half a lifetime later. Of course Bruce Springsteen’s older, but he’s angrier too, rolling up the sleeves for another fight. All the hallmarks of an anthem for the working man are here, ringing loud with hope and anger and insubordination. He’s been “knocking on the door that holds the throne”, and you believe it, coming from Springsteen.

There’s a certain sense of betrayal lurking beneath the flag-waving refrain – the kind famously ‘hidden’ in the verses of ‘Born In The USA‘. Wherever he looks, hearts have turned to stone; help is a long time coming, if it ever comes at all. This is a man beaten down, but not broken.

With an American election coming up, all this talk of flags and cavalry is just as likely to be singled out for jingoistic ‘Support Our Troops’ rhetoric as ‘Born In The USA’ was in 1984. So don’t be surprised, and don’t be fooled. Everybody wants to claim Springsteen as one of their own, but he was only ever in the underdog’s corner, exactly where ‘We Take Care Of Our Own’ finds him today.

This is the most powerful stuff he’s written in recent memory, a good few steps further than the wistful ‘Working On A Dream‘ material was willing to go. Better still, there’s more to come. ‘Wrecking Ball‘ is out in March and he’s touring from spring right through 2012.

Feel free to punch the air, if you haven’t already done so, about fifty times listening to this song.

(Simon Moore)