CD Review
by Richard Compean
Deliverance From 9/11 Evil:
Loss, Healing, and Redemption in Bruce Springsteen's The Rising
One year after the tragedy
of September 11, 2001, America remembers and strives to move on. And while time may
heal all wounds, to heal the deeper emotional scars we need something more than a
year of time and a day of remembrance.
Very much aware of this need for something more, Bruce Springsteen invites us to
"rise up" beyond the losses and pain of last September through the music
and songs of his new CD, The Rising. Springsteen's touching and moving songs on this
CD promise to take us beyond what Wordsworth called "the still, sad music of
humanity." And Springsteen delivers on that promise!
In five rising circles or sets, the songs and music of The Rising deliver us through
the pain of loss and remembrance of heroes to a realistic hope and seeking of understanding.
Through that understanding the songs and music teach us to move on with love through
darkness and rain, through loss and pain, to a healing and rising in a radical world
beyond the ruins.
"Lonesome Day," the opening song, describes a personal loss of someone
whom the singer "didn't really know that much" and loss also of his own
innocence: "House is on fire, viper's in the grass." He recognizes "deceit
and betrayal," but simply hopes that "this too shall pass" as he tries
to find his way "through this lonesome day." The second song describes
a beloved hero whom "love and duty" called upstairs and "Into the
Fire." The singer prays that this hero's "strength give us strength,"
his "faith give us faith," his "hope give us hope," and his "love
bring us love." The final song of The Rising's initial trio offers a glimmer
of hope, however simplistic. Its singer recognizes that "It's rainin'"
without a cloud in the sky, but assures his would-be lover not to worry, for (especially
with her) "we're gonna find a way." Hard times come to us all, but her
smile brings "the morning light" and "lifts away the blues."
The second trio of songs on The Rising adds complexity by giving us other, more realistic
views of heroism, of hope, and of understanding. "Nothing Man" is a deeply
moving first-person portrait of a hero who can't understand the notoriety and, even
more important, why nothing has changed. We can buy him a drink or shake his hand,
but real courage, he tells us, is resisting the gun ("pearl and silver")
on his night table: "It's just me, Lord, pray I'm able." The singer of
"Counting On A Miracle" believes in neither fairy tales nor magic. His
"happily ever after" has "forever come and gone." Unlike Sleeping
Beauty, his loved one's "kiss was taken from me." They've "got no
fairy tale ending," for their love has turned to the "dust beneath my feet."
But if he's "gonna live," he'll live his life for her and count only on
a miracle. "Empty Sky" is a song of incomprehension and wanting to understand
both the now empty sky and the "empty impression / In the bed where you used
to be." For the "Blood on the Streets" and the blood "Cryin'
in the ground" he seeks "an eye for an eye," not understanding the
bow cut, "On the plains of Jordan" from "the wood / Of this tree of
evil / Of this tree of good."
The central set of songs on Bruce Springsteen's The Rising move beyond the losses,
and heroes, and hope to find answers in an understanding of differing worlds, in
friendship and love, and in movement through the darkness and beyond. "Worlds
Apart" moves beyond American rock ‘n roll to add the ecstatic sounds of Qwalli
(mystical Sufi vocal music) by Asif Ali Khan and his group as two lovers seek to
let love conquer all, even the truth that "'Neath Allah's blessed rain"
they "stand worlds apart." It is a passionate appeal to a different truth
("in this kiss/ In your skin upon my skin, in the beating of our hearts")
and a hope that "the living let us in, before the dead tear us apart."
"Let's Be Friends" lightens up the appeal to love, still seeking "skin
to skin" contact and letting "the past be history," with a reminder
that "Good times got a way of coming to an end." "Further On (Up the
Road)" again explores the darkness that must be gone through -- the dark way
and the cold night -- to get to the morning light.
Having elevated us beyond the losses, in the fourth set of songs on The Rising, Bruce
Springsteen takes us past the darkness to explore quiet love in a world where a fuse
is now permanently lit, to party in spite of the rain, and yet to never forget the
loss. "The Fuse" suggests that with the terrorist acts of September a permanent
fuse was lit -- "The fuse is burning." Despite this fuse, life goes on
-- including funeral processions, courthouse proceedings, even weddings ("With
this ring, will you be mine?"). On a "quiet afternoon," in "an
empty house" two people can still make love. At "Mary's Place" there
is still going to be a party says the singer of the next song. He has "seven
pictures of Buddha," "Eleven Angels of mercy," a "picture of
you in my locket," and "seven candles in my window." He knows the
right questions to ask: "How do you live broken-hearted?" and "How
do we get this thing started?" Yes, 9/11 has happened. Yes, he's lost his loved
one ("Your loving grace surrounds me"). But he's willing to "Let it
rain, let it rain, let it rain." And he extends a joyous invitation to "Meet
me at Mary's place," where "We're gonna have a party." "You're
Missing," one of the most poignant songs on The Rising, does not let us forget
the darkness, the fuse, the rain. It is a simple, but powerful reminder of the impact
of the loss of a husband and father whose house hasn't changed much ("Everything
is everything"), whose "house is waiting / For you to walk in," whose
family is still experiencing "nothing but teardrops."
The final set of The Rising carries us to new levels of understanding and redemption.
It begins with an invitation to an evangelical rising, explores three views of paradise,
and pleas for the resurrection of a city. "The Rising" is an open invitation
by an evangelical figure ("wearin' the cross of my calling") to "come
on up for the rising," to come stand before a sky no longer empty, but now filled
with blackness and sorrow but also with love, with tears and glory, with sadness
and mercy, with fear and memory, with "longing and emptiness" and "fullness"
and "blessed life." "Paradise" presents hauntingly moving vignettes
of three people seeking paradise -- a suicide terrorist, a victim, and a loved one
left behind. The terrorist and victim both "wait for paradise." The loved
one starts to drown, then decides to rise: "I break above the waves / I feel
the sun upon my face." It is another kind of individual rising. The final song,
"My City of Ruins," depicts rain still falling on a church empty of congregation
and on empty streets, on a city in ruins. One of its lonely souls, also bereft of
a loved one, asks, "Tell me, how do I begin again?" "With these hands,"
the singer prays for strength, for faith, for love. These, as we have seen on previous
songs, provide a partial answer, as does the final exhortation (and the whole CD):
"Come on, rise up."
Bruce Springsteen's The Rising rises up through five sets of songs that move us,
musically and spiritually, through loss, through heroism, through realistic hope,
through healing, through understanding, through friendship and love, past the loss
and pain, the darkness and rain, to redemption, to teaching us how to live -- even
broken-hearted -- in a post 9/11 world. One could do worse than spending time listening
and rising with it before, on, or long after September 11, 2002.
Richard Compean earned his doctorate in English from the University
of California at Davis. He is a member and trustee of Grace Cathedral,
an avid reader and a fan of great music.
Related Links
Sorrow and Joy: Two Easter Songs by One Rolling Stone
In this Lenten special, Grace Online's Richard Compean finds resurrection in the
lyrics of Mick Jagger.
Review.
