This heartfelt paean to a broken community finds Springsteen drawing upon Civil War imagery as he paints a picture of a town that's been ravaged not by "cannon ball" or "powder flash." Instead, he blames the villainous bankers, or as Springsteen describes them, "the robber barons." "They destroyed our families, factories, then they took our homes," Springsteen sings. "Send the robber barons straight to hell." "An outrageous theft occurred that struck to the heart of the American idea," suggested Springsteen at the unveiling of Wrecking Ball in Paris. "And there has been no accountability."
Musically this is an Irish jig disguised as a Rock song. Said Springsteen: "I used a lot of music from the 1800s and the 1930s to show these things are cyclical. The album is resonant with history."
The Celtic-fuelled song finds the narrator describing the way the recession is destroying all he has ever known. It serves as an update of Springsteen's Born In The USA track, "My Hometown."
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