Bruce Springsteen may be the last angry man in rock and roll. While the nation nearly collapsed from financial wrongdoing and unjust war in Iraq, most music artists sang silly little love songs. But not “The Boss.”

Springstein is reportedly almost ready to release a new album with the E. Street Band, and it could be his angriest yet. Bruce is expected to take aim directly at the establishment, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

“He gets into economic justice quite a bit,” someone who’s hear the music told the magazine. “It’s very rock’n’roll. He feels it’s the angriest album he’s ever made. Bear in mind, though, that [Springsteen] wrote and recorded the majority of the album before the Occupy movements started, so he’s not just setting headlines to music.”

Bruce taps a full panoply of sound, not only from his own rock ‘n roll past, but also from outside sources from hip-hop to electronica and even Irish folk rhythms. Ron Aniello ( Patti Scialfa, Jars of Clay) produced. No release date has been set. But The Reporter speculated that Springsteen may release around the South-by-Southwest music conference in March.

“He gets into economic justice quite a bit,” the source said. “It’s very rock’n’ roll.”

David Bowie at 65; Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

Hard to believe, but the thin, white duke has hit that seminal age. For those of you who grew up listening to his songs like “Changes,” “Jean Genie,” “Space Oddity,” ”Let’s Dance” and “Fame,” it was an odd moment for reflection.

He’s successfully done some much in so many styles, to me, that’s the mark of a true original. As John Lennon said he’s “the last original.” Sidelined by the effects of a block artery circa 2005, he is sorely missed ion the music scene.

One of his many biographers, David Buckley said of Bowie: “His influence has been unique in popular culture; he has permeated and altered more lives than any comparable figure.” His last album was Reality, which he supported with a tour.

In the BBC’s 2002 poll of the 100 Greatest Britons, Bowie was placed at number 29. In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked him 39th on their list of the “100 Greatest Artists of All Time”, and 23rd on their list of the best singers of all-time. Throughout his career he has sold an estimated 250 million albums.

In the United Kingdom, he has been awarded nine Platinum, 11 Gold and eight Silver albums. In the United States, he picked up five Platinum and seven Gold albums. In 2004, Bowie was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

One of the best articles I’ve yet read on him appeared in the U.K.’s Guardian last week. Bowie’s music was never about nostalgia, always the present, or, even better, the future, it reads.

Names in the News

Vito Bruno, Freddy Bastone, Chris Gilman, Lee Jeske, Bruce Grakal, Michele Grant, Wayne Avers, Steve Walter, Victor Kastel, Angelo Barbaro, Gary Rhamy, Larry Vanetta, Jacqueline Boyd-Dolenz, David Salidor, CFS