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Bruce Springsteen
Of all the recording artists alive today, Bruce Springsteen is surely the most qualified to comment on the horrors of September 11. Throughout his recording career, he has created vignettes of ordinary lives confronted with circumstances that lead to some type of self-awareness. Usually, this results in a moral crossroads, or the loss of innocence (“Racing in the Street”, “Stolen Car”, “Highway Patrolman” “Straight Time” - the list is endless). The Rising is very much the same, except the events that cause this self-reflection are much more extraordinary, and much more real. The aftermath of 9/11 hovers over almost every song on this album like a gray cloud, informing each narrative with a deeply ingrained sense of loss that almost nothing can vanquish. The song titles are both telling and provocative; “Lonesome Day”, “Into the Fire”, “Empty Sky”, “You’re Missing”, and “My City of Ruins” all speak of the stark self-awareness that is surely felt by the families and friends of each victim. Few artists have the stature or the talent to tackle this subject without resorting to rhetoric or judgmentalism, but Springsteen is different. Where other writers would try to somehow encompass that day by panning back and presenting some type of comprehensive emotional overview, Springsteen pans in tight and focuses on one individual soul. Each song is told from the perspective of one survivor made victim by the loss of a loved one.
Make no mistake; The Rising is not an easy listen. It forces you into a claustrophobic world where each song’s narrator is drawn so deeply into a state of self-reflection that it ultimately affects their view of the world. For the listener, this is a haunting, lonely and disconcerting experience. “You’re Missing” is but one example, where Springsteen recounts the ordinary surroundings of a typical home and family, made extraordinary by the absence of a loved one. “Into the Fire” is much the same, as it recounts the recurring vision of a firefighter’s spouse who imagines the heroic attempted rescue. As a listener, you are forced to realize that this is but one story. There are two thousand others. Despite the overwhelming sadness of these songs, Springsteen doesn’t abandon the listener and seeks out resolution and ultimately, redemption. He sings “May your strength give us strength” with the determination of a survivor, while the album’s title track implies the resilience of the human spirit. On “My City of Ruins”, he resolves the lonely verses with a gospel chorus that builds to a climactic repetition of the words, “Come on, rise up! Come on, rise up!” While our collective visions of that day inevitably involve images of collapse, Springsteen reverses it. The Rising offers us a Baptism by fire, where we confront unintelligible evil and somehow learn to live with it. But it isn’t easy.
Recurring images of the redemptive power of a kiss, and the pain felt by the sudden loss of that kiss, overwhelm the album, appearing on no less than eight of the album’s fifteen tracks. “I need your kiss, but love and duty called you someplace higher” (“Into the Fire”), “Your kiss was taken from me, now all I have is this…” (“Countin’ On a Miracle”), “I want a kiss from your lips, I want an eye for an eye” (“Empty Sky”), and “Without your sweet kiss, my soul is lost, my friend. Tell me how do I begin again?” (“My City of Ruins”) are but a few examples. This repetitive imagery has the collective effect of tearing out your own heart and beholding it, alone but encumbered by the memory of what was. Ultimately, it is both chilling and overwhelmingly sad, making The Rising almost too much to bear, especially for a listener who is vulnerable to these emotions; I can barely imagine the effect this album would have on those who lost someone dear. The case is made that we are all vulnerable, but the means for survival remain embedded within our hearts. Not through hate, but through faith, hope and undying love.
Grade: 
 
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