In 1981, Bruce and Steve Van Zandt produced Dedication, a comeback album for one of their musical heroes, Gary U.S. Bonds. It worked: Bonds indeed came back to the charts, leading off with Bruce’s original song “This Little Girl,” which peaked at #11 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Dedication worked so well that the trio decided to do an encore. In 1982, Bonds released his follow-up album–also produced by Bruce and Steve–entitled On the Line.
Dedication included three original songs written by Bruce; for On the Line, Bruce contributed a whopping seven.
Only one of those seven songs became a hit single though: the comical but slyly topical “Out of Work,” which reached as high as #21 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the summer of ’82.
Even if you’ve never heard it before, “Out of Work” might sound a bit familiar. That’s because Bruce built it on the chassis of “Hungry Heart.” Give it another listen and you’ll hear what I mean.
That’s not the only aspect of “Out of Work” that rings familiar, though: that’s a bona fide E Street Band backing track, with the entire band credited except for Bruce–who nevertheless is still audibly present on backing vocals. This is Bruce and the E Street Band at their River-era peak, complete with a classic Big Man sax solo.
Lyrically, “Out of Work” is sneaky: it starts out like an homage to the doo wop classic “Get a Job” but takes a sudden political turn in the last verse.
8 A.M., I’m up and my feet beating on the sidewalk
Down at the unemployment agency, all I get’s talk
I check the want ads but there just ain’t nobody hiring
What’s a man supposed to do when he’s down and
Out of work
I need a job, I’m out of work
I’m unemployed, I’m out of work
I need a job, I’m out of work
I go to pick my girl up
Her name is Linda Brown
Her dad invites me in
He tells me to sit down
The small talk that we’re making
Is going pretty smooth
But then he drops a bomb
“Son, what d’ya do?”
I’m out of work
I need a job, I’m out of work
I’m unemployed, I’m out of work
I need a job, I’m out of work
Yeah, yeah, yeah
Hey, Mr. President, I know you got your plans
You’re doing all you can now to aid the little man
We got to do our best to whip that inflation down
Maybe you got a job for me just driving you around
(I’m out of work)
These tough times, they’re enough
To make a man lose his mind
(I’m out of work)
Up there you got a job but down here below
I’m out of work
I need a job, I’m out of work
I’m unemployed, I’m out of work
I need a job, I’m out of work
A few months ago, we traced the evolution of “The River,” starting with Bruce’s unreleased 1979 outtake “Oh Angelyne.” That was where we first heard the influence of the rapidly receding economy on Bruce’s songwriting.
By 1981, the U.S. was experiencing its third straight year of double-digit inflation. By 1982, the year that Bonds released “Out of Work,” the U.S. unemployment rate had topped 10% for the first time since the Great Depression. So while “Out of Work” may today sound akin to a novelty song, if you heard it on the radio at the time you likely winced while you laughed.
Bonds always understood the barbed truth hidden beneath the song’s surface. In 2020, just a few weeks in to the Great Shutdown, he released an updated version of “Out of Work,” with cleverly re-written lyrics. (I’m sure Bruce didn’t mind.)
Bonds’ new version was even more under the radar than his original version, but it was also way more resonant.
Fans who caught it no doubt had the same laughing-through-tears reaction as radio listeners in the summer of ’82.
Out of Work
Recorded: Early 1982
Released: On the Line (1982)
Never performed
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