Bruce Springsteen is still Working on a Theme.

Actually, it’s more or less the same theme he’s been working on at least since Darkness on the Edge of Town in 1978, when the theme morphed from, essentially:

This town is full of losers. Let’s you and me pull out of here to win!

Into this:

Chin up, You. And chin up, America! Yes, things are bad. Real bad. I know how bad they are. Mary’s pregnant again, your ’69 Chevy is up on blocks, you just got laid off from the ree-fine-her-rhee, you got debts no honest man can pay. I get it. But because I care enough to mention these details — and because of the steadiness of “Mighty” Max Weinberg’s backbeat, and the gale force bluster of Clarence “Big Man” Clemmons’s sax, and the garage-rockitude of “Miami”-cum-“Little” Steven Van Zandt’s axe — you can trust me when I tell you that This Too Shall Pass.