Orel Family

A few days ago, an article appeared in the Hollywood Reporter. The headline read, "Bruce Springsteen's New Album Is His 'Angriest' Yet." Uh-oh. Bruce Springsteen is "liberal." When he goes off, self-described "conservatives" go wild. Laura Ingraham wrote a book called Shut Up & Sing: How Elites from Hollywood, Politics, and the UN are Subverting America. It was a best seller, even. I don't personally know anyone who actually read it, but that doesn't matter: When Bruce speaks out, there's inevitably a chorus of comments across the country: "Shut Up and Sing!" Sometimes, it goes a bit further. In March, 2011, Springsteen wrote a letter to The Asbury Park Press, commenting on a story that had appeared in the paper 4 days earlier. The letter read, in part, "Thank you for your March 27 front-page story by Michael Symons. 'As poverty rises, cuts target aid.' The article is one of the few t...

Bruce Springsteen's "Working On a Dream" is due to be released on January 27. It finally leaked all over the internet today, so I've spent an some time with it this evening. Some of the early chatter I heard for this album was pretty bad. So... it's, it's, it's not as bad as that. How 'bout that? There are a few high points, and maybe at this point that should be enough. From the beginning. ok, there's "Outlaw Pete." What is this thing? I listen, and for whatever reason I'm hearing "Funeral for a Friend" or some such. But while I suppose a song can repeat the same 5 notes over and over and over, and over and over and over again and again and again, and be interesting and good ("Born in the USA," for example), "Outlaw Pete," isn't. At least not yet. To me. On first listen I don't really take in the lyrics, but with a terrible clunker in the 2nd verse ("a mustang pony he did st...