This guy. This guy is not my kind of guy.

You've been suspiciously quiet on Charles Manson.

I agree. Bottoms up!

See, you've cherry picked a few potent picturesque metaphors from the song to demonstate what an accurate and insightful song it is, and through those very specific metaphors Bruce does convey a certain amount of pathos. My complaint is more comprehensive, more a matter of attitude, namely how from the general spirit…

My nephew can have a conversation looking you in the eye while he's tapping out a text on his phone. He's in med school at U of Pennsylvania.

Flag has something to say, darn it, and you're gonna hear it, by golly by gosh!

Coulter is the antidote to the Male Gaze. Skeletor Hag.

Yes, and that's actually my compaint with those songs, how they impose upon the characters—upon the recipients of the raw deal—a morose, sad temperament. Bruce is expressing his own dejected, doleful, dour emotions, but he's also projecting them onto the people. You see, as harsh and merciless is their condition I…

There ya go, you hit the metaphorical nail on the head. Atantic City even before the arrival of the casinos was never a place glumly, solemnly awaiting its chance for resurrection. The media mouthpieces for the casinos touted their coming presence as such, but the residents, the longtime survivors knew better and had…

But there's so much more to those towns, and the crass, maudlin enticements do not define and wholly support those towns. You can easily avoid the chintsiness and the false facades in those towns, but Atlantic City—the Atlantic City that people know or think they know—is 95% shallow, superficial illusion.

Maybe, maybe not. It depends on how you feel about Bruce's and my description of the town, I suppose.

I don't deny possessing classist prejudices. No, I recognize my argument as expressing a profoundly derrogatory attitude towards the appreciative, enthusiatic pilgrims to the Ersatz Mecca of temptations that is Atlantic City, or was. Yes, I openly brandish my self righteous disdain for the flimsy illusion that is…

But that sad, ugly, faux-glamor doesn't make me sad, which is the tone of the song. The chintsy crappy illusory con that is Atlantic City makes me laugh, and it makes me a little disgusted, and ocassionally it makes me angry. For me to feel sad I'd have to believe that AC had somehow let me down, not lived up to my…

Hey Mr. Fawlty, please see my response to Much Loved Character. Thank you.

I appreciate that the Atlantic City of Bruce's song is a metaphorical image with abstract, subjective associations, but I feel it's a much less effective metaphor than the ardent fans do. If Atlantic City had ever been anything more than a purposely built mediocre place then I'd respond to Bruce's lamentation. It's…

First, allow me to commend you on your admirable and compelling defense of the noble, valiant common man. Good show.

Ok, that's a fair point. I always assumed Bruce was applying the same bittersweet nostalgic/romantic eye to AC that he did to the Asbury Park boardwalk, and to the dream of escaping his life in a fast car, and to being a retro folk poet/troubadour. Nothing wrong with any of that, but there's been more than a hint of…

I'd sort of like to hear one of those self righteous, self empowered right wing media whores such as Palin or Coulter review this film. Would they ideñtify with the plucky heroinne's noble plight, applaud her implacable spirit in the face of formidable, seemingly overwhelming male oppression, or would they fault her,…

If anyone knows cheap, shallow floozies, it's Barney.

OK, here's why that song and even whole album are overrated. Atlantic City was never a wonderful, special, magical place. From nearly its inception it was a relatively cheesey, hokey, less than dignified destination for budget conscious, lower middle class holiday revelers. Long before it became the crass, gaudy cheap…