Bruce Springsteen – “We Take Care of Our Own”
Photo by Jo Lopez
Bruce Springsteen is the type of artist where you actually pay attention to their lyrics, looking for meaning, story, and opinion. In “We Take Care of Our Own,” The Boss spits some anger. Anger about a country worn out on politics, where the task of helping your fellow man has to be questioned, debated and argued about. Saying: “Where the eyes, the eyes with the will to see / Where the hearts, that run over with mercy / Where’s the love that has not forsaken me / Where’s the work that set my hands, my soul free,” Springsteen is aksing questions many are wondering, and that have yet to be answered.
The Boss’s characteristic guitar chunking away in the background, and heavy use of dark, plucky synths, it is easy to conjure up images of “Born in the USA,” and “Dancing in the Dark,” from “We Take Care of Our Own.” Perhaps most in the words of the chorus: “Where ever this flag is flown / We take care of our own.” Like “Born in the USA,” this may be Springsteen being ironic, but the final moments of the song seem to say otherwise. As the chorus takes its final charge, a gospel choir joins the mix. The song full of anger, and questions suddenly has an air of hope to it. Maybe despite it all, Bruce knows that at the end of the day, it is up to us to make the difference.
“We Take Care of Our Own” is off of Springsteen’s upcoming album Wrecking Ball, which will be available March 6th.
-daneGER
