On Side 6 of “Live/1975-85” Springsteen performs a wonderful version of “This Land Is Your Land”, Woody Guthrie’s critical answer song to Irving Berlin’s schmaltzy, patriotic “God Bless America”. While introducing “This Land…” Bruce says “There’s a book out right now. It’s called “Woody Guthrie: A Life”. It’s by this fella Joe Klein…and it’s really, it’s really a great book”. Finally ,after almost 40 years, I got around to  reading it and Pete Seeger features heavily in Woody Guthrie’s story. 

Pete Seeger was born in New York in 1919. His father was a Harvard educated composer and musicologist, his mother was a concert violinist trained at the Conservatoire de Paris and later a teacher at Juilliard so I guess music was always gonna be a thing with Pete. He originally started playing the Ukelele as a child and from there developed into one of America’s most important folk singers, songwriters and social/political activists. His songs (including “If I Had A Hammer”, “Where Have All The Flowers Gone”, “Turn!Turn! Turn!” and of course “We Shall Overcome”, an arrangement of a spiritual that became the anthem of the Civil Rights Movement led by Dr. Martin Luther King) and performances with the likes of the Almanac Singers and The Weavers sparked the Folk Music revival that ultimately led to the rise of Bob Dylan, Joan Baez and Joni Mitchell in the 1960’s. Pete Seeger is an American musical legend.

“We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions” is Bruce Springsteen’s tribute to Seeger, his first album not featuring any songs written by himself, it contains 13 songs popularised by Seeger. It also features an almost entirely new band, headed up by future E Street Band violinist Soozie Tyrell. The Sessions Band, as it came to be known, was made up of lesser known musicians from around New Jersey and New York led by Tyrell, Patti Scialfa and the Miami Horns. One musician of note in the Sessions band is keyboard and accordianist Charlie Giordano who, following the Sessions Band tour, has stepped in to the shoes of the late Danny Federici in the E Street Band (he also played on Jerry Joseph’s album “The Man Who Would Be King” that we covered a few months back).

This whole album was recorded in Bruce Springsteen’s living room, live with no rehearsals, over 3 one day sessions and it sounds like…well it sounds like everyone involved was having one helluva great time. This was confirmed by a BBC broadcast of a Seeger Sessions show from St Luke's Church, London where you could absolutely see that everybody was having a total blast playing in this band.

“We Shall Overcome…” is real Americana, songs gathered from and popularised by the folk singers of the 1940’s and onwards  that originated from 19th century black face troupe’s (“Old Dan Tucker”), from Gospel music (“We Shall Overcome”) to traditional folk tunes (“Shenandoah”) and even a song celebrating the building of the New York State Barge Canal which would see modernisation and the transition from mule power to engine power when it opened in 1918 (“Erie Canal”). The instrumentation is almost entirely acoustic (there is some electric organ) and the sound harks back to traditional American Folk Music (if you are at all familiar with Folkways Records legendary “Anthology Of American Folk Music” you’ll know the sound here). And yes, for one or two acquaintances that have taken the piss, it does include “Froggie Went A-Courtin’” and yes he has played it live !

My favourite is “John Henry”, the epic tale of a freed African slave who went on to work as a “steel man” on the railways, hammering in the steel “pins” that kept the rails attached to the sleepers. He was so proficient that he entered into a race against a steam powered hammer. He won the race only to die with his hammer in his hand as his heart gave out from the stress. In the song John Henry proudly tells us he’s “Swingin' thirty pounds from my hips on down, Yeah, listen to my cold steel ring, Lord, Lord, Listen to my cold steel ring”. It’s a song that has been performed in one arrangement or another by many artists. I have versions by Johnny Cash, Steve Earle and the Drive-By Truckers and there are others by Woody Guthrie, Van Morrison, Jerry Lee Lewis, Lonnie Donegan, Pete Seeger of course and many, many others. Bruce Springsteen’s tilt at it has a real party swing about it (in as much as a song about a man working himself to death can be considered a party song), the sound of a gathering out on the porch fuelled by moonshine.

“We Shall Overcome…” is a homage to American Folk music, the conclusion of Springsteen’s fascination with the likes of Woody Guthrie that stretches back to his introduction of Woody’s “This Land Is Your Land” and the nod to Joe Klein’s book”Woody Guthrie: A Life” on “Live / 1975-85” (when Springsteen appeared on BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs in December 2016 his book choice was Joe Klein’s tome). It’s also (in the main) a great happy singalong party as you’ll see if you check out that BBC St Luke’s Church gig.

John Henry - https://youtu.be/bqxjHzff-Qo?si=ayq-qaMKQgiWoGMm

The Sessions Band, St Luke’s Church, London 9 May 2006 - https://youtu.be/dFTDkS6xUE0?si=-McyBVejoeKsF5S_

“Devils & Dust” is Springsteen’s 3rd “Acoustic” album, sharing loose stylistic roots with “Nebraska” and “The Ghost Of Tom Joad”. It isn’t however the overtly acoustic album that those two musical cousins are. We do get gentle introspective songs but there’s some full band “rockers” involved too. What is often regarded as a solo acoustic record doesn’t have any completely solo performances on it.

It was released in 2005 but the writer admitted that many of the songs had been written 10 or more years prior. “All The Way Home” was written for Southside Johnny in 1991; the wonderful “Long Time Coming” and “The Hitter” are from the “…Tom Joad” period. Waste not want not I guess. 

The title track sees us post 9/11. Written in the early years of the resulting 2nd Iraq war, the writer sings from the point of view of a soldier in that war who is questioning his feelings toward his (and his countries ?) involvement and, importantly, his part in things. He’s seen his friend die in action (“Well I dreamed of you last night, In a field of blood and stone”) and is now wrestling with what the war is doing to him (“I got God on my side, I’m just trying to survive, What if what you do to survive, Kills the things you love…It’ll take your God filled soul, And fill it with devils and dust”). This is all set within acoustic guitars and strings in a way that harks back to “…Tom Joad”.  There are some powerful ideas expressed in this song, ideas rarely discussed in a country which so often defines itself by its military.

“All The Way Home” shatters any notion that this is another acoustic collection. It’s a full band workout, a bit of a rocker, whereas when first recorded by Southside Johnny it was a soulful ballad. This sets up the 1-2 punch that most of “Devils & Dust” adheres to, solo Bruce followed by Bruce and Band, until we get toward the end.

The lyrically explicit “Reno” caused quite the controversy. Springsteen’s wife, Patti Scialfa, has said of it “”My artistic side said, ‘That is so brave.’ Then, just thinking right from the heart, I was like, ‘What are you writing about that shit for? Are you fucking crazy?’ ”. Without sugar coating what’s happening “Reno” tells of an, ultimately disappointing, liaison with a working girl while the punter daydreams of being with Maria somewhere between Guatemala and Peru and having everything he needs but “Somehow all you ever need's never really quite enough”. Amongst all that it’s a bloody gorgeous song and a fabulous performance. Incidentally on the vinyl release “Reno” sits at the end of Side 1, while at the end of Side 2 we find “Maria’s Bed” in which we’re told “I was burned by the angels, sold wings of lead, Then I fell in the roses and sweet salvation of Maria's bed”.

“Long Time Comin’” might be one of my favourite Springsteen songs. For a rudimentary guitarist like myself (I follow the Joe Strummer method, “I can only play all six strings at once or none at all” !) it’s dead easy to play and sound vaguely like it does on the record. It’s a closing of the book on Springsteen’s father and son songs. There’s a telling section in his biography where, just before the birth of Bruce and Patti Scialfa’s first child, his father, knowing how much his sons life is about to change, visits and offers an apology of sorts for his “parenting” toward his son…something like “you’ve been good to us…I haven’t always been good to you”. This song revolves around a camping trip the Springsteen’s took before the birth of their 3rd child, Bruce trying to be a better Dad to his kids than his had admitted he had been to him, the pivotal admission being “Well if I had one wish in this god forsaken world, kids, It’d be that your mistakes would be your own, Yeah your sins would be your own”.

“Leah” covers some of the same ground. A man now ready to accept that he can love and be loved, released from (some of) his demons by his fathers apology perhaps. The brighter outlook is underlined with its beautiful TexMex horns. 

The record ends on “Matamoros Banks”, laying out the pain of a Mexican, drowned trying to cross the Rio Grande to the US, being returned to Mexico. Both these songs have that TexMex colour to them that we encountered on “The Ghost Of Tom Joad”. It’s an atmosphere that we’ll find in many Springsteen songs from here on.

“Devils & Dust” hit #1 in the US and was supported by the solo “Devils & Dust tour”, just Springsteen (well, him and a couple of Roadies playing keyboards offstage) and an array of instruments. The album has an overall feel of the great outdoors, the range, America’s wide open country about it. It's more along the road of musical themes that will coalesce in a few years on one of his finest records.

Reno - https://youtu.be/8TXYAaJeSS0?si=JhuD4wbu08_c4xs-

The story goes that in the days after the attack on the World Trade Centre in 2001 Bruce Springsteen was standing by the river in New Jersey looking across the Hudson to the smoking city of New York. As a car drove past him someone shouted from the vehicle “Bruce, we need you now”. Bruce did the only thing he could, he reconvened the E Street Band and made an album.

I have to confess as we’d gone through the ’90’s I’d had a very loose connection with Springsteen and his music. “Human Touch” and “Lucky Town” had been something of a disappointment to me and in the 10 years twixt those two and this one he’d only released “The Ghost Of Tom Joad” when it came to new music. The fanfare around a new record with the E Street Band is what piqued my interest in this record. “The Rising” was the first album Springsteen had recorded with the E Street Band since “Born In The USA” in 1984, 18 years previously (all of the band played on 1987’s “Tunnel Of Love” but didn’t all play together on the same songs). They had played a reunion tour through 1999 and 2000 and Springsteen had already written some of the songs that appear on “The Rising”, "Further On (Up The Road)" was performed on the reunion tour, “Waitin’ On A Sunny Day” and “Nothing Man” were written in the ‘90’s.

Many people look upon "The Rising" as Springsteen’s “9/11” record and in part that’s the case, it’s recording was certainly sparked by those events. But we already know that some of these songs were in play before that fateful day. One of those is very likely “Lonesome Day”, the all important Track 1 Side 1, but this time it’s not only kicking off the new album it’s re-introducing us to the E Street Band. On first hearing I was a little taken aback, to me the E Street Band has Professor Roy and the Big Man up front but here they’re not. The guitars are up front now and so is new E Streeter Sister Soozie Tyrell’s fiddle, with some extra added other strings. This is the wall of sound of “Born To Run” and the chest thumping of “Born In The USA” but updated for the 21st Century. Many people hear it as a 9/11 song on the back of the 2nd verses lyrics (“Hell’s brewing, dark sun’s on the rise, This storm will blow through by and by, House is on fire, viper’s in the grass, A little revenge and this too shall pass”) but that ignores what had been said in verse 1 (“Baby, once I thought I knew, Everything I needed to know about you, Your sweet whisper, your tender touch, But I didn't really know that much”) and Springsteen’s ability to write lyrics that aren’t always entirely literal (he might be singing about cars and girls but he’s not necessarily singing about cars and girls…ya dig ?). I hear it as much more of a broken relationship song that wouldn’t have been out of place on “Tunnel Of Love”, and has become a great live favourite.

If you’re looking for comment on that day in September 2001 then look no further than the last song written for the album “Empty Sky”. In a very concise lyric Springsteen lays out the pain of having lost someone that day (“I woke up this morning, I could barely breathe, Just an empty impression in the bed where you used to be, I want a kiss from your lips, I want an eye for an eye, I woke up this morning to an empty sky”). The line about “an eye for an eye” would elicit cheers from US audiences and at a 2003 concert in Atlantic City Springsteen was prompted to explain the lyric was meant to express the pain of the protagonists loss and was “never written as a call for blind revenge or blood lust”. The State of New Jersey named its 9/11 memorial Empty Sky.

The most overtly 9/11 focussed songs come in a triptych toward the end of the record. Part one is “You’re Missing”, the sentiment is obvious, right ? Your shirts and shoes are still there, the baby is still here, we still have coffee cups, the papers still get delivered, the TV is still on, we’re waiting for you to walk in but…You’re Missing…a simple statement of loss and not knowing. When he performed it at Old Trafford Cricket Ground in 2003 my wife Deb was only 5 weeks past suddenly losing her Dad and this song got to her, the tears came…the power of music huh ?

That’s followed by “The Rising” (the song) which has become a permanent fixture in Springsteen’s live set. He’s performed it every time we’ve seen him since this albums tour in 2003 when it was second on the setlist after “Born In The USA”, now that was an opening salvo ! It’s a huge singalong, cathartic crowd pleaser but allied to a deeply ambiguous lyric wrapped up in religious imagery. As it opens it is almost obviously about a firefighter entering one of the towers

Can't see nothing in front of me, Can't see nothing 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 half mile of line

Can’t see nothing, this darkness, how high I’ve climbed, on my shoulder a half mile of line, all things you’d imagine a firefighter  entering a burning building might experience. But what is this “chain that binds me” and what is it binding him to ? A little later in the song we hear

There's spirits above and behind me, Faces gone black, eyes burning bright
May their precious blood bind me, Lord as I stand before your fiery light

Is our firefighter rescuing survivors or does this lyric reveal him at the very moment he himself has succumbed to the flames and the buildings collapse and here he is caught between “worlds” by the “chain that binds me”, that being his wife, children, family, friends…a life he doesn’t want to let go ? In his sets these days Springsteen uses the song as the crescendo to an emotional build-up throughout the show, it gives the crowd the opportunity to sing along, express and expel some of the emotion that he’s been feeding them for the last couple of hours…you bust a lung singing along to the  “Li Li, Li Li Li Li, Li Li” refrain, after that we can party. The past 3 occasions we’ve seen him live “The Rising” has been followed by “Badlands”, then the two “Born…” songs and some mix of “Dancing In The Dark”, “Tenth Avenue Freeze Out”, “Bobby Jean”, “Glory Days” and other songs and covers that you can dance and sing and shout along to. Springsteen understands the emotional power of “The Rising” and that after that we all need some release/relief.

The third part of the trio is “Paradise”. A quiet, contemplative song, Bruce plays all the instruments, Patti can be heard briefly on backing vocals. There are are 3 scenes, one appearing to be in the Middle East, one in Virginia, the last by a river. In all the scenes Paradise is sought, whether that is Christian Heaven or Islamic Jannah or something else is never specified. Written in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, Springsteen himself isn’t sure what it’s about “I wasn’t sure what I was saying when I wrote this song…an intuitive thing that fell together in a certain way”. Like Steve Earle later (see “Rich Man’s War”) Springsteen stirred controversy with this song as the first verse was seen as being sympathetic toward terrorists. But like the couple in “Nebraska” going on a murderous rampage across Nebraska and Wyoming, Springsteen was trying to understand.

The album ends on the statement “My City Of Ruins” which might seem like a song obviously written about the attack on New York but it was in reality written and performed almost a year before 9/11. 

“The Rising” (the album) arrived at a time when Bruce Springsteen had been relatively quiet for 10 or so years. He was seen as of the past, maybe not as culturally or artistically relevant as in the past. This album and and its accompanying 120 show, 82 city, 14 month world tour returned him to the forefront of people’s minds and reminded them of what a powerful songwriter and performer he is. The albums over the ensuing 20 years have been patchy in places but the tours and gigs have been a joy to attend, many centred around this records title song.

The Rising - https://youtu.be/6i-fiRgbpr4?si=IGuCRF7PakNdXR_1