Bruce Springsteen: "Death to my Hometown"

[Adenoid_Hynkel]

Another track from this week's 'Wrecking Ball' release.

On his new album, the Boss takes on the 'robber barons' and 'greedy thieves' and tells of the damage they've done to America.

[Tunkamerica]

1. sounds a little irish?

[Hissyspit]

2. Springsteen is quarter-Irish, I think

His father was Irish/Dutch, his mother, Italian ancestry.

"The Rising" has Celtic/Irish music construction. "American Land" from the Seeger Sessions is blatantly Irish-sounding.

Mostly it sounds angry, I think, like most of the album, which is good.

[Tunkamerica]

3. there's a specific irish group (probably a specific song) it reminds me of that I

can't quite think of right now.

[Hissyspit]

4. Here's at least part of what might sound familiar, according to Backstreets.com:

Origin of the sample used in the song:

http://www.backstreets.com/newsarchive51.html

BEHIND THE SAMPLES
As heard in "Death to My Hometown," the Alabama Sacred Harp Singers' "The Last Word of Copernicus," recorded by Alan Lomax. M.I.A. gives this one the thumbs-up, too.
- February 23, 2012

[Tunkamerica]

5. nope, it's the pogues.

[Hissyspit]

6. Yeah, later the other night I was thinking I should have said

Or it's The Pogues or Lucero.

[Waiting For Everyman]

7. Lyrics:

No cannonballs did fly
No rifles cut us down
No bombs fell from the sky
No blood soaked the ground
No powder flash blinded the eye
No deafening thunder sounded
But just as sure as the hand of god
They brought death to my hometown
They brought death to my hometown

No shells ripped the evening sky
No cities burning down
No armies stormed the shores for which we’d die
No dictators were crowned
High off on a quiet night
I never heard a sound
The marauders raided in the dark and brought death to my hometown, boys
Death to my hometown

They destroyed our families’ factories and they took our homes
They left our bodies on the plains
The vultures picked our bones

So listen up, my sonny boy
Be ready when they come
For they’ll be returning sure as the rising sun

Now get yourself a song to sing and sing it ’til you’re done
Yeah, sing it hard and sing it well
Send the robber baron’s straight to hell
The greedy thieves who came around
And ate the flesh of everything they’ve found
Whose crimes have gone unpunished now
Walk the streets as free men now

And they brought death to our hometown, boys
Death to our hometown, boys
Death to our hometown, boys
Death to our hometown