Bruce Springsteen
Working on a Dream

When this album hit the shelves in 2009, it was propelled by a strong promotional campaign, nearly matching that of a global success, with the icing on the cake being the participation in the Super Bowl, with a breathtaking performance in front of a sea of people.

In my opinion, this overshadowed an album that was born in a far-from-easy moment for Springsteen, grappling with the passing of his musical brother, Danny Federici, an extraordinary organist/keyboardist/accordionist, with him even before the ESB.

Springsteen tries to hide a veil of melancholy and sadness, which he evidently needed to exorcize, within a particularly sunny stylistic framework: thus, between the two extremes of the album, the initial Outlaw Pete and the final The Last Carnival and The Wrestler, which are musically alien to the rest, there is a pop album of three-minute pieces each, very simple both in their lyrical structure and musical composition, very far from Springsteen's history, at least as far as the official discography is concerned, since this author has always produced top-notch pop, as evidenced by many pieces from the monumental Tracks (especially the fourth CD) and the entire beautiful album The Promise made up of pieces discarded from the historic Darkness on the Edge of Town precisely because of their less rock nature.

Even the cover, for the first time comic-like, combines the "joy" of the cartoon drawing with the melancholy of the colors: the dominant midnight blue and the background behind Springsteen, made of a starry sky, yet laden with dark clouds approaching over a gloomy and choppy sea. The drawing shows a man with a relaxed face hinting a smile, a man who "saves" himself, with the most joyful music he could compose, from the turmoil of a troubled soul.

The album was written in a burst, in a short time, starting from What Love Can Do, composed in the studio during the recording of the previous Magic and immediately appeared to Springsteen and the entire staff to be very different from what was about to be published: the song is a sufficiently powerful rock piece, between Tom Petty and The Byrds, dominated by the sound of Rickenbacker guitars and the harmonica that accompanies them, at times creating an atmosphere reminiscent of certain 60s rock psychedelia. The lyrics speak of love as a solution to evil, portrayed throughout this album either by the abominations of politics, as in this song ("Here where it's blood for blood and an eye for an eye, let me show you what love can do"), or by the marks left by the inexorable passage of time.

Here is the beautiful Kingdom of Days, in my opinion among the most beautiful songs written by Springsteen who never, as in this piece, lays bare his physical frailty, and does so with the same "swagger" with which at twenty-five he declared wanting to flee his arid land speeding with a car on a road that would take him to the promised land: here the road is even longer, it is the time made of passing seasons, and the vehicle is love, a powerful antidote to sadness. Musically, the track is a triumph of pianos, soft guitars, and violins building a light yet intense atmosphere. The intensity of the piece is perhaps better captured in some acoustic live performances, with guitar and harmonica, which help to better understand the inspiration (always very high) from which these songs emerge, despite the arrangements that might be liked or not, depending on the listener's personal taste.

My Lucky Day, Working on a Dream, Queen of the Supermarket, This Life, Life Itself, Surprise Surprise, all follow the template of the two tracks described: pop-rock with references to the music of the 60s, among The Byrds (already mentioned), The Beach Boys, and The Beatles, modernized also thanks to the skillful production of Brendan O’Brien.

Tomorrow Never Knows musically deviates, being, despite sharing a title with an extraordinary pop piece from the Beatles' masterpiece Revolver, a great country track, unusually played by the ESB, with country drums and bass, pedal steel guitar, and rustic violin bringing to mind the masterpieces of Hank Williams and John Denver: even Springsteen’s vocal performance is very beautiful and unusual for the tone used. This text also speaks of time passing, but here optimism is absent, rather the author looks at the future with concern because in "tomorrow there is never certainty". More country than that!

Another track outside the "chorus" of this album is the bluesy, and extremely so, Good Eye, sung into a bullet mic; the lyrics are heavy, like the music, telling of a grim man whose only seeing eye looks into the dark, while the blind eye looks at the sun and because of this physical incapacity continues to make mistakes, to do harm… could be one of the many "bad guys" populating the masterpiece Nebraska.

The Last Carnival and The Wrestler are two acoustic pieces that could musically fit well in The Ghost of Tom Joad or Devils & Dust. The Last Carnival is an emotional lament for voice and guitar, with a hint of that accordion which was Federici's hallmark, here played by his son Jason. The track is Springsteen and the ESB's goodbye to Danny Federici, who here is Billy, the owner of the wandering circus in Wild Billy's Circus Story: Billy is gone, but his circus will continue to live, the ESB and Springsteen's music in general are now eternal, like the stars drawn on the album cover.

The Wrestler, the soundtrack of the eponymous film with Mickey Rourke, is a true masterstroke, one of Springsteen's most beautiful songs, an acoustic ballad for guitar and piano, with lyrics that are poetry: the outcasts, the rejects, return to the center of Springsteen's songs, "if you've ever seen a dog limping, then you've seen me": yet despite everything, this man tries to rise again, "I can make you smile when that blood hits the ring, tell me friend, could you ask for more?"

I close with what is the first track: Outlaw Pete, a long song, eight minutes, with a country-rock progression, a meeting between Neil Young and Sergio Leone. The track has faced harsh criticism regarding the alleged plagiarism, which, in my view, does not exist, with the very famous I Was Made For Lovin' You by Kiss. The lyrics describe the entire life of Springsteen through the figure of Cowboy Pete, in an ironic key. Here too, towards the end of the track, the figure of the lost friend Federici returns:

"Hunter Dan (Danny) appeared, found Pete (Bruce) peacefully fishing on the riverbank,

drew his gun to aim well,

and said: Pete, you think you've changed, but you're not."

A warning, a threat, to continue to win with the weapon of music.