For 40 years, Bruce Springsteen has managed to keep himself in the public eye while making his efforts seem like a natural outgrowth of his art. Recently he (or someone in his employ) turned the hype machine up a little too high.

The result, after much buildup, was about 80 seconds of “Working on a Dream” shoehorned into an NFL halftime show, and buried under football noises. Following the inevitable backlash, the formal release of the song was greeted mostly with shrugs.

Now, another new song has emerged. No NFL hoo-hah this time, just a possibly unauthorized posting of “The Wrestler” on Youtube. So far, it’s still up — and unlike “Working on a Dream”, this one is drawing raves on the message boards. Is this a true bootleg, or just the Springsteen organization going viral instead of mass-media?

Thanks to Steve Duin , of The Oregonian here in Portland, for the Youtube alert.

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