“We Take Care of Our Own” finds the left-leaning Jersey rocker masking his criticism behind an easily misinterpreted chorus.
Undoubtedly, more people will hear the chorus’ repeated confident, supportive cry, but miss the connection to lines such as “The road of good intentions has gone dry as a bone.”
It’s a reminder of other clever messages from The Boss. He has a gift for parables that show the difficulties Americans face, particularly veterans.
One that comes to mind is “Born in the U.S.A.,” which is not a patriotic anthem, despite its title. It’s an ironic stab about difficulties service members faced when they returned from Vietnam — “Come back home to the refinery / Hiring man said, ‘Son, if it was up to me . . .’ ”
A scene from “Highway Patrolman,” too, speaks an unfortunate truth: “Franky went in the Army back in 1965. . . . Franky came home in ’68 and, me, I took his job.”
With no job and a penchant for trouble, Franky finds himself on the run from the law by the song’s end.
It’s sad that songs Springsteen wrote 30 years ago are still relevant or bear striking similarity to modern issues.
Actually, that seems to be true of a number of protest songs. Woody Guthrie’s scathing, Dust Bowl-era cries are oddly relevant in a global economy that is the worst since the Great Depression.
The best protest songs have that spirit, a malleable, timeless quality. Their truths are applicable from one generation to the next, sadly. The characters are often dealing with forces bigger than themselves that they can’t control, unfortunate circumstances that they must accept because they can’t change.
In Springsteen’s songs, veterans — some of the “own” The Boss suggests we’re actually not taking care of — often get little help from the country they defended.
Simply changing the dates in “Highway Patrolman” would make Franky’s story applicable to a different generation, for example.
Some veterans who have served tours in Iraq and Afghanistan during the last decade are struggling. More than one-fifth of homeless are veterans, according to the National Coalition for the Homeless. United States Bureau of Labor statistics show the unemployment rate higher for veterans since 9/11 than nonveterans. Suicide rates among soldiers showed declines in 2011 after climbing to record heights, recent statistics released by the Army show.
With “We Take Care of Our Own,” “Highway Patrolman,” “Born in the U.S.A.” and more, Springsteen has made a career out of holding up a mirror to our institutions and said, “This is what you really look like, America.”
However, many people will miss that, feeling nationalistic pride as The Boss’ chorus rings out: “Wherever this flag’s flown, we take care of our own.”
Hopefully, people can look past The Boss’ ironic song titles and anthemic choruses to take a closer look at our reflection.
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