Revisiting New Jersey's son, Bruce Springsteen lately. With raised unemployment, his early '80s tunes on recession regain relevance. There's the title track, "The River" from his 1980 LP. Bruce empathizes there with a working man dreaming of nights on the river as a young man with his young woman. 'Cause in the present-day, "there ain't been much work on account of the economy." 2 years later on his acoustic album, Nebraska his "Atlantic City" protagonist's "been lookin' for a job but it's hard to find...." and finds questionable employment, 'cause he's "got debts that no honest man can pay." All I can say is that unless you're dealing with cutthroats and bookies and the law won't help, then bankruptcy is the honest and legal solution.

The album Born in the U.S.A. had a hefty share of depression in its storytelling. Bruce's Vietnam vet alter-ego (Bruce, himself failed his physical and wasn't drafted) comes "back home to the refinery, Hiring man says, Son if it was up to me." The pessimism doesn't stop there. In "Downbound Train," the Boss intones he had a job and a girl, but "got laid off down at the lumber yard." And the girl, she went the way of the job. In "My hometown," they closed the textile mill and from the foreman's mouth, "these jobs are going boys and they ain't coming back...."