Into The Fire: 9.11 and Bruce Springsteen's The Rising

Words // Scott Pingeton

"We need you now."

As the story goes, those were the words spoken from the open window of a passing car to Bruce Springsteen as he walked the familiar streets of the Jersey Shore in the days immediately following September 11, 2001.  The same streets that in younger, more innocent days were the backdrop of the songwriter's vivid tales of friendship, loyalty and better times ahead.  What America needed was someone to put into words the intense feelings of sadness, uncertainty, anger, pride and loss that we were all feeling at that time.  We needed a song everyone could sing.  And who better than Springsteen, the common man's poet laureate?

Springsteen found inspiration in the stories and emotions that followed in the wake of the attack, channelling his own grief and the grief of an entire nation into songs.  The resulting album, his first with the E Street Band in 17 years was The Rising - popular music's most significant and direct reflection on the events of 9.11.  Like his best work, Springsteen took very personal moments, experiences and emotions and put them into a context we could all relate to, take comfort in and rally around.  The album avoids flag-waving machismo, and instead tells its story through everyday heroes.

The album is full of powerful imagery - none stronger than the them of "rising up". From the title track's refrain of "come on up for the rising" to the gospel-tinged "My City Of Ruins" with its call to "rise up" - this was Springsteen's "We Shall Overcome" message.  It's a powerful image - rising up as a nation, from the ashes of the collapsed towers, the ascent to heaven.  And the album cover - a ghostly black-and-white image of Springsteen with smoldering fire-orange text of "The Rising" bisected by white text, recalling at the same time a crucifix and one of the damaged towers.

Bruce Springsteen - Into The Fire

"Into The Fire", one of the most affecting songs on the album, tells the story of a firefighter lost in the towers:

Well the sky was falling and streaked with blood
I heard you calling me, then you disappeared into dust
Up the stairs, into the fire
Up the stairs, into the fire
I need your kiss, but love and duty called you someplace higher
Somewhere up the stairs, into the fire

But from the depths of despair comes strength and hope as they prayer-like chorus builds to a rousing, inspiring refrain:

May your strength give us strength
May your faith give us faith
May your hope give us hope
May your love bring us love

In a somewhat unexpected twist, the album does not portray the attack and its aftermath solely from the American perspective.  "World's Apart" uses a relationship metaphor to preach compassion and warn against letting the actions of a few drive two entire cultures apart. "We’ll let blood build a bridge/ over mountains draped in stars/ I’ll meet you on the ridge/ between these worlds apart."  On "Paradise", one of the album's most subtle and beautiful songs, Springsteen sings from the perspective of a suicide bomber:

In the crowded marketplace
I drift from face to face
I hold my breath and close my eyes
I hold my breath and close my eyes
And I wait for paradise
And I wait for paradise

And the album isn't without its uplifting moments - afterall, music is supposed to be an escape from the burdens of reality.  "Mary's Place" is a rethinking of Sam Cooke's classic "Meet Me At Mary's Place", with a refrain of "let it rain, let it rain, let it rain" clearly representing a rebirth - washing away the blood and tears and starting anew.  "Waiting On A Sunny Day" is nothing but pure fun - a throwaway song on the album that has become a live staple.

So what is The Rising's legacy? As an album it is far from Bruce Springsteen's best - but it may be his most important.  It's not an album I go back to all that often, but I usually dust it off every year around this time and remember September 11, 2001 - and maybe that is it's legacy.  It serves as a time capsule of a moment, emotions captured just as vividly as magazine photographs and newsreel video.

Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band LIVE - Ullevi Rising (Gothenburg Sweden 6.22.03)