Bruce Springsteen reunited with the E Street Band to take part in healing a nation with hope, strength, faith, and love with this artistic response to the events of September 11, 2001. It had been seven years since the release of his last album 'The Ghost of Tom Joad' and eighteen since the last studio album with the entire E Street Band, 'Born in the USA'. The band had reconvened in 1999 for a tour; but the tragedy provided the impetus for new songs. Springsteen admits: "Yeah, I picked up a guitar. That's my life preserver." Days after the tragedy, Springsteen was leaving the beach at Asbury Park when a man rolled down his car window, yelled "We need ya!", and then drove on. "And then I thought, 'Well, I've probably been a part of this guy's life for a while'; and people wanna see other people they know; they wanna be around things they're familiar with. So he may need to see me right about now. That made me sense, like, 'Oh, I have a job to do.' our band, hopefully we were built to be there when chips are down. That was part of the idea of the band, to provide support. The most fundamental things I heard, constantly, is, 'Man, you got me through' - whatever it might be 'My divorce. My graduation. My high school. This part of my life. That part.' And I usually wanna say back, 'Well, you know, you guys got me through quite a bit yourselves!'"
All of the songs on 'The Rising' deal with grief from varying perspectives with a sense of redemption. Springsteen says: "The verses are the blues, the chorus is the gospel...After the 11th, I think one of the things people were shocked at was that that was alive in some fashion. I think that we live in a particular pop culture moment, that there's a theatre of humiliation on TV and on the radio, a reflection of self-loathing. I don't think anyone could imagine these sacrifices...You have to come to grips with the real horrors that are out there; and then all people have is hope. That's what brings the next day and whatever that day may bring. You can't be uncritical, but just a hope grounded in the real world of living, friendship, work, family, Saturday night. And that's where it resides. That's where I always found faith and spirit. I found them down in those things, not some place intangible or some place abstract. And I've really tried to write about that basic idea my whole life...I've been at my best when I'm connected to what's going on in the world outside. I have a sense of what my service to my audience is going to be. It's the true nature of work in the sense that you're filling a place. And that place comes with its blessings and its responsibilities."
'The Rising' was recorded with Springsteen on lead guitar, vocals, acoustic guitar, baritone guitar, and harmonica; Roy Bittan on keyboards, piano, mellotron, Kurzweil, pump organ, Korg M1, and crumar; Clarence Clemons on saxophone, and background vocals; Danny Federici on Hammond B3, Vox Continental, and Farfisa; Nils Lofgren on electric guitar, Dobro, slide guitar, banjo, and background vocals; Patti Scialfa on vocals; Garry Tallent on bass guitar; Steven Van Zandt on electric guitar, background vocals, and mandolin; and Max Weinberg on drums. Producer Brendan O'Brien also played hurdy gurdy, glockenspiel, and orchestra bells. The sessions also included Soozie Tyrell on violin and background vocals; Larry Lemaster, Jere Flint and Jane Scarpantoni on cello; plus the Nashville String Machine; Asuf Ali Khan and group; Alliance Singers; and The Miami Horns.
'The Rising' went to number twelve in New Zealand; four in Australia; two in Ireland; and number one in Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, and the UK. It made its debut at number one in the US with over half a million copies sold in the first week. It won the Grammy Award for Best Rock Album and was nominated for the Album of the Year. Springsteen confesses: "I'm always fighting against that feeling of helplessness. I can be overwhelmed by ambivalence, by the despair of the day. That's what people use music and film and art for; that's its purpose. Its purpose is to pull you up out of that despair, to shine a light on new possibilities. And I think if you look at it pretty hard-eyed, it helps. That's where the living is, that's where life is. Regardless of what's going on externally, those are the powers that you find within yourself to keep going and change things. To try to make some place for yourself in the world."
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The song 'The Rising' is the emotional centerpiece of the album. Bruce says: “Yeah, well, I’m a good.... Well, I was a good Catholic boy when I was little, so those images for me are always very close, and they explain a lot about life...What I was trying to describe, one of the most powerful images of the 11th, that I’d read in the paper, some of the people coming down were talking about the emergency workers who were ascending. And you know, that was just an image I felt left with, after that particular day. The idea of those guys going up the stairs, up the stairs, ascending, ascending. I mean you could be ascending a smoky staircase, you could be in the afterlife, moving on.” It won Grammy Awards for Best Rock Song and Best Male Rock Vocal Performance of the year, and was nominated for Song of the Year.
Can't see nothin' in front of me
Can't see nothin' coming up behind
I make my way through this darkness
I can't feel nothing but this chain that binds me
Lost track of how far I've gone
How far I've gone, how high I've climbed
On my back's a sixty pound stone
On my shoulder a half mile line
Come on up for the rising
Com on up, lay your hands in mine
Come on up for the rising
Come on up for the rising tonight
Left the house this morning
Bells ringing filled the air
Wearin' the cross of my calling
On wheels of fire I come rollin' down here
Come on up for the rising
Come on up, lay your hands in mine
Come on up for the rising
Come on up for the rising tonight
Li,li, li,li,li,li, li,li,li
Spirits above and behind me
Faces gone, black eyes burnin' bright
May their precious blood forever bind me
Lord as I stand before your fiery light
Li,li, li,li,li,li, li,li,li
I see you Mary in the garden
In the garden of a thousand sighs
There's holy pictures of our children
Dancin' in a sky filled with light
May I feel your arms around me
May I feel your blood mix with mine
A dream of life comes to me
Like a catfish dancin' on the end of the line
Sky of blackness and sorrow (a dream of life)
Sky of love, sky of tears (a dream of life)
Sky of glory and sadness (a dream of life)
Sky of mercy, sky of fear (a dream of life)
Sky of memory and shadow (a dream of life)
Your burnin' wind fills my arms tonight
Sky of longing and emptiness (a dream of life)
Sky of fullness, sky of blessed life (a dream of life)
Come on up for the rising
Come on up, lay your hands in mine
Come on up for the rising
Come on up for the rising tonight
Li,li, li,li,li,li, li,li,li
'Into the Fire' eulogizes the firemen and rescue workers that gave their lives to help evacuate the towers.
May your strength give us strength
May your faith give us faith
May your hope give us hope
May your love give us love
The experimental Middle Eastern 'Worlds Apart' speaks to a relationship between a soldier and an Afghan woman and suggests the global issues behind the tragedy. It features Qawwali singers Asuf Ali Khan and group.
'Mary's Place' evokes 'The Wild, the Innocent, and the E Street Shuffle' and finds a reason to celebrate the living at a house party.
Familiar faces around me
Laughter fills the air
Your loving grace surrounds me
Everybody's here
Furniture's out on the front porch
Music's up loud
I dream of you in my arms
I lose myself in the crowd
Let it rain, let it rain, let it rain
Let it rain, let it rain, let it rain, let it rain
Meet me at Mary's place, we're gonna have a party
Meet me at Mary's place, we're gonna have a party
Tell me how do you live broken-hearted
Meet me at Mary's place
'My City of Ruins' ends the album like a prayer with its refrain of "Come on rise up!" It was originally written about Asbury Park, but came to take on deeper significance after 9/11.
With these hands,
With these hands, With these hands,
With these hands, I pray Lord
With these hands, With these hands,
I pray for the strength, Lord
With these hands, With these hands,
I pray for the faith, Lord
With these hands, With these hands,
I pray for your love, Lord.
full album:
1. "Lonesome Day" 00:00
2. "Into the Fire" 04:08
3. "Waitin' on a Sunny Day" 09:13
4. "Nothing Man" 13:32
5. "Countin' on a Miracle" 17:56
6. "Empty Sky" 22:40
7. "Worlds Apart" 26:16
8. "Let's Be Friends (Skin to Skin)" 32:22
9. "Further On (Up the Road)" 36:43
10. "The Fuse" 40:36
11. "Mary's Place" 46:14
12. "You're Missing" 52:21
13. "The Rising" 57:29
14. "Paradise" 1:02:22
15. "My City of Ruins" 1:07:58
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