Bruce Springsteen - The Rising
(Sony)
Perhaps Bruce Springsteen really is pissing on the flag on the cover of Born in the USA. In that album's subversive title track, Springsteen sings the chorus of "Born in the USA" over and over again, slyly hiding the verses' tale of a soldier's post-Vietnam disillusionment. Eighteen years later, Bruce isn't pissing on anything. Instead his frontside is pictured, blurred through captured motion, trying to hide all those years that have passed. In The Rising's title track, the chorus that is repeated over and over again hides nothing. The Boss isn't fighting against anything; he may even be trying to rally for something. Riding a midlife crisis as long as it will take him, Springsteen has gotten the band back together, and is ready to tackle the most important event of his musical career. And, frankly, if anyone was going to be "the first artist to tackle September 11th," it might as well have been Bruce Springsteen.
Born in the USA, the last time the E Street Band was together for a studio recording, is a valid point of comparison for The Rising. Both albums offer timely pop songs that fail to be timeless. However, Springsteen, to his own detriment, gives every effort towards making these new songs timeless. When the Boss was trying to hide his message in "Born in the USA," he still sung the words "Vietnam," "Saigon," and "kill the yellow man." But in The Rising, clearly topical lyrics are thinly veiled to give them a more general meaning. There is no mention of the "World Trace Center" or even "New York City," only "The Empty Sky." Compare the story of "Nothing Man," a tale of a soldier returning from a nameless war to find people relatively oblivious to all that is happening, to the comparatively blunt "Born in the USA." "Nothing Man" clearly applies to today but could apply to any military action of the past 20 years, or even events in the future.
However, these darker songs like "Nothing Man" are where the Boss still can be poignant and powerful. Even stripped of a timestamp, "Nothing Man" is a strikingly dark country ballad, like a modern Cash cover, made lush and beautiful by the sleek production. Likewise, the tales of loss like "You're Missing" are appropriately brutal and sad, as specific and direct of a recounting of a victim's spouse's pain and grief that could be sung. When trying to feel and express the pain of others like in these songs, Springsteen is most succesful.
However, when he then follows those sad, dark songs with a strident pop song about returning to the joys of life, it seems saccharine and misguided. With songs like "Let's Be Friends (Skin to Skin)" and "Waitin' on a Sunny Day," Springsteen forces in upbeat pop songs, trying too hard to portray the totality of the experience of 9/11 and ultimately causing the album to lose focus. We now know that birth rates also go up after catastrophic events, however with the tremendous empathy displayed in "You're Missing," the lust and heat of "Let's Be Friends" seems not just out of place but in bad taste. "Waitin' on a Sunny Day" is blanket optimism that unconsciously steals from the theme to Sesame Street; perhaps one could argue that the album needed one song of pure, unfiltered joy, however, the execution here is overdone and cloying. (However, that won't stop the stars-and-stripes Americore scene from singing along.)
Springsteen's pop intentions are much better directed in "Into the Fire" and the album's title track. Both of these songs underline Springsteen's main point on The Rising, praising the congregation for the strength of coming together. "May your strength give us strength, may your faith give us faith, may your hope give us hope" sings Springsteen on "Into the Fire," a song for the rescue workers. "The Rising" seems like an attempt by Springsteen to rewrite "My City of Ruins" for New York City. Both are included here in full band form, the latter being a ode to his old hometown of Asbury Park that seemed oddly appropriate after the towers collapsed. "The Rising" works better as a pop song, turning "My City of Ruins" chorus of "Come on, rise up" into "Come on up for the rising," giving it a more triumphant message and fist-pumping chorus. Unfortunately, this song makes the more direct and powerful "My City of Ruins" seem redundant, the full backing band lessening the bite displayed on the telethon acoustic version.
Songs like "The Rising" and "Into the Fire" are the reason why Springsteen was the right person to try and tackle the emotion of September 11th. No matter what celebrity and fortune his entire 30 year career brought him, he still presents himself as the leader of the best damn bar band on the Jersey Shore. He is the only person who can really sing about what people have gone through without seeming like they are pandering or cashing in. Granted, the album has as many sour moments as it does bright ones, however Springsteen fills his role admirably. While I doubt I'll pull out The Rising to explain to someone twenty years from now what this time was like, it captures the emotions of loss, fear, and hope of the moment at least adequately.
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