Bruce Springsteen – The Red Pen of Doom

The lesson here might be: don’t do something so heinous and evil that Bruce Springsteen spends his Saturday writing a song about it, his Sunday recording that song, and his free time giving free concerts explaining how badly you screwed up.

There’s a long history of protests songs, and an art to them.

They can’t be too on-the-nose, hitting the audience on the head with the message. But they can’t be so poetic and obscure that people don’t know what you’re really singing about. A tough balance.

Here are the other nine, and I’m not counting down to the best one. They’re all good.

Number 9

Number 8

Number 7

Number 6

Number 5

Number 4

Number 3

Number 2

Number 1

Music videos typically feature a rock band (a) in concert, (b) playing their instruments in some kind of industrial warehouse or (c) smoking cigarettes and wearing tight jeans as they stroll through the streets of London or whatever.

Such music videos are not creative. THEY BORE ME.

Pop music videos aren’t much better. Oh, look, it’s the bubblegum blonde singer dancing while lip-syncing, and she’s got a bunch of backup dancers trying not to dance way, way better than the singer!

Bruce the Springsteen showed us how it’s done, way back when, with this little music video.

Simple song. Simple lyrics. The camera isn’t flying all over the place. And it tells a story that’s deeper and more interesting than “Baby, baby, I want to be your baby.”

Bruce, I salute you.

Hey little girl is your daddy home
Did he go and leave you all alone
I got a bad desire
Oh-oh-oh, I’m on fire

Tell me now baby is he good to you
Can he do to you the things I don’t do
I can take you higher
Oh-oh-oh, I’m On Fire I’m on fire

Sometimes it’s like someone took a knife baby
Edgy and dull and cut a six-inch valley
Through the middle of my soul

At night I wake up with the sheets soaking wet
And a freight train running through the
Middle of my head
Only you can cool my desire
Oh-oh-oh, I’m on fire