Bruce Springsteen's "Wrestler" Video Another Reminder of Oscar Snub

The new video for Bruce Springsteen's "The Wrestler," his contribution to the Mickey Rourke film of the same name and a bonus track on his five-star Working on a Dream, has premiered, as if to serve as a reminder for all those Academy Awards voters who snubbed the Jersey rocker of an Best Original Song nomination at this year's Oscars.

We thought "The Wrestler" worked perfectly soundtracking a black screen and rolling credits at the end of The Wrestler, but it's just as harrowing as a music video. Springsteen stands center ring, caressing the ropes of one of those old school boxing rings you'd see Rocky training in. Add a montage of poignant Wrestler clips and this doubles as both the best movie trailer ever and a "Vote Rourke for Best Actor" campaign video.Unless Springsteen is Rourke's date at the Academy Awards (sadly Rourke's Chihuahua Loki died yesterday so the actor likely needs some accompaniment), Bruce likely won't be attending this Sunday's ceremony. Despite winning the Golden Globe for Best Original Song, "The Wrestler" was inexplicably snubbed from Oscar contention as the voting committee only went with three nominees in the category: a pair of Slumdog Millionaire tracks and Peter Gabriel's "Down To Earth" from Wall-E. Gabriel says he won't perform to protest the ceremony's 65-second-per-song rule, and the show's producers are so desperate for performers they've even offered M.I.A., who gave birth a week ago today, a bed from which to sing Slumdog's "O Saya." So in retrospect, the Oscars effed up.

Related Stories:

• Peter Gabriel Not Performing At Oscars Out of Protest
• Oscars Snub Springsteen, Celebrate "Slumdog" As Nominations Are Announced
• Album Review: Bruce Springsteen's Working on a Dream

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Song Stories

“All Along the Watchtower”

The Jimi Hendrix Experience | 1968

Jimi Hendrix got hold of Bob Dylan's early John Wesley Harding tapes and in late 1967 recorded a version of "All Along the Watchtower" with the Experience in London. Dissatisfied with that first development, Hendrix brought those tapes with him to New York in early 1968 when he began work on Electric Ladyland. Eddie Kramer, Hendrix's engineer at the time, told Rolling Stone that Hendrix "was still looked upon by his basically white audience as the mammoth black guitar hero. There was a constant fight within him to expand himself." Hendrix's successful take on Dylan's work has long been recognized by the songwriter. "I liked Jimi Hendrix's record of this and ever since he died I've been doing it that way," Dylan wrote in the liner notes to his Biograph box set. "Strange how when I sing it, I always feel it's a tribute to him in some kind of way."

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