Just heard (half of) the new Bruce song as I entered the parking lot—“we take care of our own/wherever our flag is flown,” or something like that anyway. Huh? Mr. Question Authority? Now sounds as reflexively patriotic as the most predictable country songwriter. Have you heard it?
[Me: Yes, equal parts boring and vaguely jingoistic. But I dunno—hasn’t that been his thing for a while? He is deep in his mindless heartland phase…]
Well, I thought he just had a passing fancy thing with all those “heroic” police and firefighters on 9/11. And they were brave … . I wonder if Bruce is burning his bridges with the boomer generation that made him famous. We can be sentimental for bravery, but we (I) have mixed feelings about chest-thumping and flag-flying. We protest wars, don’t celebrate them. Who will buy these songs?
My mother is (still) a better music critic than I am. (via zachbaron)
Closer to folk, in the old-fashioned Woody Guthrie populist sense, than country, to my ears. I totally hear the song as being about the same idea of freedom as in Fleet Foxes’ “Helplessness Blues,” as in Jonathan Franzen’s Freedom, as in Obama’s speeches: “We believe that in order to preserve our own freedoms and pursue our own happiness, we can’t just think about ourselves.” Yes, it might appeal to the construction workers as well as to the war protesters, but that’s sort of the point. Bruce is being a uniter, not a divider.
(via desnoise)
This was initially my reaction too, but the “wherever our flag is flown” part strikes me as kind of imperial. Would you say that if you were just referring to America? This makes it come off more like “support your troops overseas” than “support your neighbors.”
(via desnoise)
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davebloom reblogged this from desnoise and added:
That last line is Guthrie all over.
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am.” — —Almost thirty years after “Born In The USA” became one of the most misappropriated songs in pop history, some...
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