Bruce Springsteen's Folk-Rock Classic Atlantic City Was Inspired By Violent Mob Hits

The narration of "Atlantic City" reads like dismal urban folklore. According to American Songwriter, the song tells the story of a man who, having falling on irredeemably hard times, resorts to working for the New Jersey mafia in order to make ends meet and feed his starving family. It talks of "rumbles on the promenade," gambling commissioners caught in the crosshairs of mob-oriented financial feuds, and all the grisly byproducts of organized crime's outward effect on a community. 

Near the end of the track, Springsteen remarks, "I've been lookin' for a job but it's hard to find / down here there's just winners and losers who don't get caught on the wrong side of that line," after which the main character accepts a job (or agrees to do a "favor") from a mysterious man who has suggestively commissioned him to carry out an assassination (per Springsteen Lyrics). While much of "Atlantic City's" narrative content is made up for the sake of the song itself, it draws certain allusions to real-life instances of mob violence that took place around the time it was written. 

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