The Soundtrack to My Life

On the Road to New York: Part Two

I decided to continue last week’s theme because I couldn’t talk about the relation of music and New York without mentioning Bruce Springsteen. I had visited New York City before September 11, 2001 and had seen the Twin Towers from a distance, but had never been to the actual buildings. I have since been to the World Trade Center site numerous times, and with each visit, I can hear the echo of Springsteen’s words from his album The Rising.

 

Released shortly after the tragedy, Springsteen single-handedly gives the city of New York and the nation a sense of peace. Throughout the album, his themes of darkness and fear transform to themes of light and hope that lift up the wavering spirit. When talking about his album The Rising, Springsteen said, “The album speaks to you about what you need to do.”

 

In the opening song, “Lonesome Day,” Springsteen assures his listeners that “It’s all right,” and that “This, too, shall pass.” In the song “Into the Fire,” Springsteen sings about the brave rescuers who went “Up the stairs, into the fire,” because “Love and duty called you someplace higher.” He celebrates those that risked their own lives to save others on that tragic day by ending the song with a prayer— “May your strength give us strength / may your faith give us faith / may your hope give us hope / may your love give us love.”

 

“Empty Sky” and “You’re Missing” both deal with all the feelings people go through when they lose something that was a part of them. “Empty Sky” starts off with someone waking up in a different world, where the sky is no longer full of light. Springsteen sings, “I hear the blood of my blood crying from the ground.” He confronts the pain and anger he feels from this loss by “wanting an eye for an eye.” “You’re Missing” is the most difficult song for me to listen to on The Rising because the feelings he expresses are so raw and real. Springsteen creates a picture of a home, the way it was left one day, with “Coffee cups on the counter,” “shoes in the hall,” and “a paper on the doorstep,” all “waiting for you to walk in.” He goes through the rituals that are done every day without thinking— “When I shut out the lights, you’re missing / when I close my eyes, you’re missing / when I see the sun rise, you’re missing.” All you can really do is become numb and go through the motions when you have “nothing but teardrops.”

 

“Waitin’ on a Sunny Day” and “Mary’s Place” are both optimistic in their lyrics and music. Springsteen sings, “Everything will be okay” as he embraces the positivity of the brightness of the sun in “Waitin’ on a Sunny Day.” The music is upbeat and is a crowd pleaser because the audience can easily sing along and clap their hands to the beat. “Mary’s Place” takes Springsteen back to what he knows and loves. He created the character “Mary” at the beginning of his career, and she seems to dance throughout his albums, popping in at just the right moments. Whenever fear and sadness is felt, you go back to what comforts and restores you; for Springsteen, this is Mary’s place. Again, he is playing with the idea of darkness, which is his fear, against the sun and horizon, which uplifts him and gives him hope. Mary’s place surrounds him with the people, music, and atmosphere that he loves and in the end, renews his faith. After Springsteen sings, “Your favorite record’s on the turntable / I drop the needle and pray,” the music turns to call-and-response, with a gospel-like answer to Springsteen’s prose, “Turn it up, turn it up, turn it up,” which leads to a crescendo of the band, singers, and Springsteen, the ultimate peak to inspire the energy needed to overcome.

 

Even in the songs that seem hopeless, Springsteen threads in positivity. For example, “Countin’ on a Miracle,” reminds me of the loss of innocence I felt after 9/11.  He compares a hardship, like 9/11, to a fairytale, where happily-ever-after is “come and gone.” When you are a child, fairy tales are always uplifting and have happy endings, but in this story, “We’ve got no fairy-tale ending / in God’s hands, our fate is complete.” There is a definite feeling of a loss of innocence, but in the end, he fully believes in something that he was unsure of in the beginning of the song—miracles.

 

Springsteen’s highest vision is seen through the song “The Rising.” The character starts off with having one goal in mind, to “make [his] way through this darkness.” He carries on his back a “sixty pound stone,” which is everything he works for and believes in. On his journey he “wears a cross of [his] calling,” and hears “bells ringing,” which could be both church bells and sirens. He earns his courage from those “spirits above and behind me,” and ends up with Mary in a “garden of a thousand sighs,” a place where everyone has been. The sky is filled with light, when “a dream of life comes to [him], like a catfish dancin’ on the end of [his] line.” The music comes to a gospel-like climax, with Springsteen and his disciples singing “Li,li, li,li,li,li, li,li,li,” which is an encouragement to sing with him, to pray with him, and to have the courage to “Come on up for the rising.”

 

Springsteen sings his prayers throughout The Rising, which continues to bring a sense of renewal and peace to all those affected not only by September 11, but to anyone that needs an extra prayer of optimism and the energy to overcome. Each time I visit the former site of the World Trade center, I wander over to the two-hundred-year-old church that is across the street. It is a church that withstood the fires around it on that dark day, and was a refuge to rescuers. It currently houses memorials— pictures of those that died, candles to light, and a make-shift cot where the brave men and women had temporary relief.  When I walked through the church and was overcome with both sadness and admiration, I couldn’t help but hear Springsteen’s voice sing, “There’s a blood red circle / on the cold dark ground / and the rain is falling down / the church door’s thrown open / I can hear the organ’s song / but the congregation’s gone / my city of ruins / my city of ruins…come on rise up / come on rise up.”