Bruce Springsteen “We Take Care of Our Own” released

We Take Care of Our Own Bruce Springsteen

Writer(s): Bruce Springsteen (see lyrics here) Released: January 19, 2012 First Charted: February 4, 2012 Peak: 11 AA, 1 DF (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 10.5 video, -- streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: Bruce Springsteen’s seventeenth album, Wrecking Ball, was released in 2012. It was viewed as his “Occupy” album, a reference to a socio-political movement that was opposed to social and economy inequality. That message was front and center on the album’s first cut and lead single, “We Take Care of Our Own.” The “anthemic up-tempo rocker” SF treads similar territory as Springsteen’s 1984 classic “Born in the U.S.A.” Both songs were misunderstood by some as rah-rah patriotic anthems when they were really scathing indictiments of the government letting the disenchfranchised slip through the cracks. In that sense, “much of the song’s lyrical content appears to contradict its title.” SF NPR’s Ann Powers described “We Take Care of Our Own” as a bitter anthem” in which “Springsteen brings out big emotions and then demands we drop the delusions that often accompany them.” WK Springsteen said of both songs, “I write carefully and precisely…If you’re missing it you’re not quite thinking hard enough.” SF A New York Times reader said in a letter that the song specifically was a rebuke of the American government’s inaction to disaster relief in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina. Indeed, Springsteen sings at one point “From the shotgun shack to the Super Dome / There ain’t no help, the cavalry stayed home.” The message, said the reader, “is not that Americans take care of one another, but that we should – and don’t.” WK Resources: DMDB encyclopedia entry for Bruce Springsteen SF Songfacts WK Wikipedia Related Links: First posted 2/28/2023.