One Track Mind: Bruce Springsteen, "Jack Of All Trades" (2012)

Share this:

Against a backdrop of a slow waltz toward disappointment and death comes a familiar story — that of a man trying to scratch out a living any way he can. The emotion is amplified with great subtlety by some swelling horns, which fade away for the last verse to reveal a lone cello as Bruce sings:

So you use what you’ve got/And you learn to make do/You take the old/You make it new/If I had me a gun/I’d find the bastards and shoot ’em on sight/I’m a jack of all trades/We’ll be alright

Those last two statements are repeated as the horns make a ghostly return, leading into a blistering Tom Morello guitar solo takes the whole thing over the top.

“Jack Of All Trades” is streaming all day today over at Spin.com.

Next up: Death To My Hometown

Mark Saleski