Cynical Publius@CynicalPublius
I grew up in Bruce Springsteen's hometown.
His song "My Hometown" is LITERALLY about my hometown.
Springsteen’s music was the anthem of my teenage years.
The town is called Freehold, New Jersey.
A. & M. Karagheusian, Inc. was a giant carpet mill in Freehold that was once the town’s single biggest employer. It shut down and moved away in 1964. That act of taking away a town’s jobs to move them to where labor was vastly cheaper DEVASTATED that community. Freehold became impoverished and almost a ghost town, taking decades to recover.
All of the themes in Bruce’s early work about the indignities heaped upon the working man stem directly from the pain he, his family and his neighbors experienced when that carpet mill moved away to chase cheaper labor costs elsewhere. The theme of the betrayed working man streams across all of his early albums with a heartfelt sincerity that was borne of painful experience. The albums “Darkness on the Edge of Town,” “The River,” and “Nebraska” in particular resonate with the mournful howls of the betrayed laborer whose calloused hands meant nothing to the bosses who had thanklessly reaped the rewards of his pain and sweat.
Early on, Bruce really and truly did speak for the working man.
But somewhere in Hollywood he lost his way.
Now, it’s 2026 and the singular domestic agenda of President Donald J. Trump is to bring back American manufacturing jobs from offshore and to restore the dignity, pride and wealth of the working everyman.
And Bruce SPITS ON THAT to appeal to his Hollywood cronies.
When you understand this background about Bruce, his behavior comes into sharp focus as perhaps the very most disgusting behavior of any pop star alive in America today. He has betrayed the everyman he once championed.
SHAME ON YOU BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN.
The young man who once wrote these lyrics would find you disgusting:
"Early in the morning, factory whistle blows
Man rises from bed and puts on his clothes
Man takes his lunch, walks out in the morning light
It's the working, the working, just the working life
Through the mansions of fear, through the mansions of pain
I see my daddy walking through them factory gates in the rain
Factory takes his hearing, factory gives him life
The working, the working, just the working life
End of the day, factory whistle cries
Men walk through these gates with death in their eyes
And you just better believe, boy, somebody's gonna get hurt tonight
It's the working, the working, just the working life
'Cause it's the working, the working, just the working life"