BORN TO EARN: The new Forbes magazine...

BORN TO EARN: The new Forbes magazine report of entertainers’ earnings lists Springsteen as the top money maker among rock acts, with a $56-million income over the last two years. That news will no doubt add fuel to Springsteen skeptics who have long complained that the guy shouldn’t sing songs about the hardships of the working class when he’s making tons of money singing rock songs.

But it looks as if the singer is about to answer those skeptics with a song on his upcoming “Tunnel of Love” album, due out in early October.

According to a spy who’s heard the record, the first song on “Tunnel of Love” isn’t about a factory worker or a grease monkey--rather, it’s about a filthy-rich rock star who’s got fancy cars, big houses, people staring at him on the street and loads of women chasing him. And if that description makes it sound as if Bruce’s tongue was firmly in his cheek when he wrote “Ain’t Got You,” these sample lyrics will probably make it doubly clear that the guy is having a little fun with the song:

I got the fortunes of heaven in diamonds and gold

I got all the bonds, baby, that the bank could hold

Well, I got houses ‘cross the country, honey, end to end

And everybody, buddy, wants to be my friend

Well, I got all the riches, baby, any man ever knew

But the only thing I ain’t got, honey

I ain’t got you.

Our source also reports, though, that the tune contains another line that may well sum up Springsteen’s own view of his success: “I’ve been across the world and around the seven seas / Been paid a king’s ransom for doing what comes naturally.”