You cannot have a social contract with enormous income disparity – you’re going to slice the country down the middle. Without jobs, without helping folks with foreclosures, without regulating the banks, without some sort of tax reform… Without addressing those issues in some way, I don’t think the country is going to hold together. I understand the effects of globalization, I understand all that, but at the end of the day, you can’t have a society and you can’t have a civilization without a reasonable amount of economic fairness, full employment, purpose and civic responsibility. — Bruce Springsteen to Jon Stewart, Rolling Stone #1153
Everything dies, baby.
That’s a fact, but our narrator in “Easy Money” ain’t buying it. In his world, there are no consequences.
On first listen, “Easy Money” is so strikingly similar to “Atlantic City” in theme and lyrics that it may take a repeat listen or two before we appreciate how dramatically different they are in outlook.
Both “Atlantic City” and “Easy Money” are socio-economic parables, but whereas the narrator of “Atlantic City” resorts to crime as a last resort, the narrator of “Easy Money” gleefully embraces and celebrates it.
That’s because our narrator is a walking, talking metaphor for an economic system that rewards greed, encourages exploitation, and perpetuates power in the hands of an elite few. As Bruce put it in the same interview with Jon Stewart:
[“Easy Money” is] the street criminalization of the big-money Wall Street hustle. That’s the guy that’s saying, “Everybody else is getting theirs, and not paying for it, I’m going out to get mine.” That hustle has been legitimized over the past four years, when you have the level of risk and greed at the top of the financial industry, and people basically walking away, relatively scot-free, completely unaccountable… No one ever came as close to sinking the U.S.A. as the guys in the pinstriped suits.”
The brilliance of “Easy Money” lies in the way Bruce casts an ordinary joe as the guy in the pinstriped suit. We instinctively recognize the narrator as a violent criminal more viscerally than we would if Bruce had introduced us to an Ivy League banker instead.
The music helps, too: Bruce arranged “Easy Money” as sort of an Irish slide/stomp hybrid, punctuated by Bruce’s jubilant syncopated whoops and platform stomps, carried by Soozie’s merry fiddle, and buoyed by a choir of “na na nas” one can’t help but sing along with.
The lyrical similarities to “Atlantic City” are almost certainly intentional–their familiarity adds extra punch for fans familiar with Bruce’s earlier anti-hero.
You put on your coat, I’ll put on my hat
You put out the dog, I’ll put out the cat
You put on your red dress for me tonight, honey
We’re going on the town now looking for easy money
But it’s the second verse that’s the heart of the song:
There’s nothing to it mister, you won’t hear a sound
When your whole world comes tumbling down
And all them fat cats they just think it’s funny
I’m going on the town now looking for easy money
Bruce’s lyrics are operating on two levels here. Our narrator both assures and warns his victim that he won’t see it coming when his life is destroyed by the actions of a stranger. The comparison to the societal havoc wreaked by reckless high finance is obvious.
The rest of the song sees the metaphor through: our narrator has it made. That his easy money comes at a cost to others is something that doesn’t trouble him.
I got a Smith & Wesson .38
I got a hellfire burning and I got me a taste
Got me a date on the far shore where it’s bright and sunny
I’m going on the town tonight looking for easy money
You put on your coat, I’ll put on my hat
You put out the dog, I’ll put out the cat
You put on your red dress, you’re looking real good, honey
We’re going on the town now looking for easy money
Both “Atlantic City” and “Easy Money” are products of their time. The former was written when America’s economic inequality was just beginning to accelerate; the latter was written at its peak.
In fact, “Easy Money” was the gateway to Wrecking Ball. It came to Bruce almost in a daydream on his way home one day, and fortunately producer Ron Aniello was on hand at Bruce’s home studio (working on another project, most likely Western Stars). When Bruce burst in barely able to contain his creative energy, they arranged and recorded a rough cut of the song within minutes.
Bruce went home that night and wrote “We Take Care of Our Own,” which they recorded the next morning. An album was on the way, and while “We Take Care of Our Own” was its first single, its theme was established by “Easy Money.”
It may have inspired the album, but “Easy Money” was one of the least-played songs on Wrecking Ball, making only 18 appearances since its release a decade ago, all of them during the first six months of the tour.
That’s too bad, because “Easy Money” was both a crowd- and artist-pleaser, judging by how much fun Bruce seemed to have each time he performed it with Patti and the band. Here’s their third-ever performance of “Easy Money,” from the first week of the Wrecking Ball Tour in Tampa, Florida.
Easy Money
Recorded: 2011
Released: Wrecking Ball (2011)
First performed: March 18, 2012 (Atlanta, GA)
Last performed: September 19, 2012 (East Rutherford, NJ)
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