The River

I come from down in the valley
where mister when you're young
They bring you up to do like your daddy done
Me and Mary we met in high school
when she was just seventeen
We'd ride out of that valley down to where the fields were green

We'd go down to the river
And into the river we'd dive
Oh down to the river we'd ride

Then I got Mary pregnant
and man that was all she wrote
And for my nineteenth birthday I got a union card and a wedding coat
We went down to the courthouse
and the judge put it all to rest
No wedding day smiles no walk down the aisle
No flowers no wedding dress

That night we went down to the river
And into the river we'd dive
Oh down to the river we did ride

I got a job working construction for the Johnstown Company
But lately there ain't been much work on account of the economy
Now all them things that seemed so important
Well mister they vanished right into the air
Now I just act like I don't remember
Mary acts like she don't care

But I remember us riding in my brother's car
Her body tan and wet down at the reservoir
At night on them banks I'd lie awake
And pull her close just to feel each breath she'd take
Now those memories come back to haunt me
they haunt me like a curse
Is a dream a lie if it don't come true
Or is it something worse
that sends me down to the river
though I know the river is dry
That sends me down to the river tonight
Down to the river
my baby and I
Oh down to the river we ride


This is a more haunting exposition of the slavery to nostalgia that is present in so many lives than the satire of Glory Days. Here the protagonist is trapped in the present by the memories of his youth (things which seemed to important), but ironically it is the very choices of his youth that have reaped his present disappointment. All he has are his dreams which are but empty shells of true fulfillment. The hopelessness is profound (is there a faint allusion to suicidal thoughts? - "Is a dream a lie if it don't come true, Or is it something worse that sends me down to the river"). The apparent nightmare of his current life nearly overwhelms him.
How can this slavery to the past be overcome? Can our dreams of a real fulfillment become true?

My city of Ruins

There is a blood red circle
On the cold dark ground
And the rain is falling down
The church door's thrown open
I can hear the organ's song
But the congregation's gone
My city of ruins
My city of ruins

Now the sweet bells of mercy
Drift through the evening trees
Young men on the corner
Like scattered leaves,
The boarded up windows,
The empty streets
While my brother's down on his knees
My city of ruins
My city of ruins

Come on, rise up! Come on, rise up!
Come on, rise up! Come on, rise up!
Come on, rise up! Come on, rise up!

Now's there's tears on the pillow
Darlin' where we slept
And you took my heart when you left
Without your sweet kiss
My soul is lost, my friend
Tell me how do I begin again?
My city's in ruins
My city's in ruins

Now 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
We pray for your love, Lord
We pray for the lost, Lord
We pray for this world, Lord
We pray for the strength, Lord
We pray for the strength, Lord

Come on
Come on
Come on, rise up
Come on, rise up
Come on, rise up
Come on, rise up
Come on, rise up
Come on, rise up
Come on, rise up
Come on, rise up
Come on, rise up


For those who would say the boss hasn't produced anything great since the 80's (they're talking rubbish!), this song stands as a great challenge. I say if the boss had only recorded this song since the 80's that would be enough.
It is the final track from the album 'The rising' which, except for this track interestingly, was written after september 11, 2001. The album is one of the most moving and nuanced commentaries on that event that has been produced.
This track is outstanding, and for our purposes is a perplexing testimony to the need for resurrection (It is almost a modern exposition of Ezekiel 37). The reality of death and desolation; the need for renewal and new birth; the powerlessness of man and the prayers for divine intervention are all beautifully witnessed. When connected to the september 11 attacks and the experience of New York as a city, the impact of the poetry is amplified.
We need a new land; a new place free from the evil, destruction and desolation of this world. How can we possibly get there?
"With these hands, I pray for the strength, Lord. With these hands, I pray for the faith, Lord. We pray for your love, Lord. We pray for the lost, Lord. We pray for this world, Lord."

Devils and Dust

I got my finger on the trigger
But I don't know who to trust
When I look into your eyes
There's just devils and dust
We're a long, long way from home, Bobbie
Home's a long, long way from us
I feel a dirty wind blowing
Devils and dust

I got God on my side
I'm just trying to survive
What if what you do to survive
Kills the things you love
Fear's a powerful thing
It can turn your heart black you can trust
It'll take your God filled soul
And fill it with devils and dust

Well I dreamed of you last night
In a field of blood and stone
The blood began to dry
The smell began to rise
Well I dreamed of you last night
In a field of mud and bone
Your blood began to dry
The smell began to rise

We've got God on our side
We're just trying to survive
What if what you do to survive
Kills the things you love
Fear's a powerful thing
It'll turn your heart black you can trust
It'll take your God filled soul
Fill it with devils and dust

Now every woman and every man
They want to take a righteous stand
Find the love that God wills
And the faith that He commands
I've got my finger on the trigger
And tonight faith just ain't enough
When I look inside my heart
There's just devils and dust

Well I've got God on my side
And I'm just trying to survive
What if what you do to survive
Kills the things you love
Fear's a dangerous thing
It can turn your heart black you can trust
It'll take your God filled soul
Fill it with devils and dust

It'll take your God filled soul

Fill it with devils and dust


This brilliant song by the Boss is written to express the devastating experience of young American soldiers in the Iraq war. It is a painful, stark and honest description of the way in which violence and fear can corrupt the soul. This is certainly the road away from the promised land; it is hope destroyed, love undone and faith exhausted.

The Promised Land

On a rattlesnake speedway in the Utah desert
I pick up my money and head back into town
Driving cross the Waynesboro county line
I got the radio on and I'm just killing time
Working all day in my daddy's garage
Driving all night chasing some mirage
Pretty soon little girl I'm gonna take charge

CHORUS
The dogs on Main Street howl
'cause they understand
If I could take one moment into my hands
Mister I ain't a boy, no I'm a man
And I believe in a promised land

I've done my best to live the right way
I get up every morning and go to work each day
But your eyes go blind and your blood runs cold
Sometimes I feel so weak I just want to explode
Explode and tear this whole town apart
Take a knife and cut this pain from my heart
Find somebody itching for something to start

CHORUS

There's a dark cloud rising from the desert floor
I packed my bags and I'm heading straight into the storm
Gonna be a twister to blow everything down
That ain't got the faith to stand its ground
Blow away the dreams that tear you apart
Blow away the dreams that break your heart
Blow away the lies that leave you nothing but lost and brokenhearted

CHORUS
I believe in a promised land...


Its impossible to know eaxctly what 'the promised land' that the narrator believes in is like.
We know he feels entitled to it is some way ("I've done my best to live the right way; I get up every morning and go to work each day").
We know he feels a need for it ("But your eyes go blind and your blood runs cold. Sometimes I feel so weak I just want to explode...").
He knows there will be some sort of testing he will have to endure ("Gonna be a twister to blow everything down, That ain't got the faith to stand its ground...")
This is faith in the goodness of the future, and hope in the self. It is psychologically sustaining faith and hope, but is it true and ultimately substantial faith and hope? How do we judge that?

Glory days

I had a friend was a big baseball player
back in high school
He could throw that speedball by you
Make you look like a fool boy
Saw him the other night at this roadside bar
I was walking in, he was walking out
We went back inside sat down had a few drinks
but all he kept talking about was

Glory days well they'll pass you by
Glory days in the wink of a young girl's eye
Glory days, glory days

Well there's a girl that lives up the block
back in school she could turn all the boy's heads
Sometimes on a Friday I'll stop by
and have a few drinks after she put her kids to bed
Her and her husband Bobby well they split up
I guess it's two years gone by now
We just sit around talking about the old times,
she says when she feels like crying
she starts laughing thinking about

Glory days well they'll pass you by
Glory days in the wink of a young girl's eye
Glory days, glory days

Now I think I'm going down to the well tonight
and I'm going to drink till I get my fill
And I hope when I get old I don't sit around thinking about it
but I probably will
Yeah, just sitting back trying to recapture
a little of the glory of, well time slips away
and leaves you with nothing mister but
boring stories of glory days

Glory days well they'll pass you by
Glory days in the wink of a young girl's eye
Glory days, glory days


A great southern rock tune from the Boss. Again his lyrics are so helpful in identifying the parody of hope and the future that exists in so many lives. Have our best days already been? Is the future nothing more than disappointment? Does life consist simply in 'boring stories'?

Land of Hope and Dreams

Grab your ticket and your suitcase
Thunder's rolling down the tracks
You don't know where you're goin'
But you know you won't be back
Darlin' if you're weary
Lay your head upon my chest
We'll take what we can carry
And we'll leave the rest

Big Wheels rolling through fields
Where sunlight streams
Meet me in a land of hope and dreams

I will provide for you
And I'll stand by your side
You'll need a good companion for
This part of the ride
Leave behind your sorrows
Let this day be the last
Tomorrow there'll be sunshine
And all this darkness past

Big wheels roll through fields
Where sunlight streams
Meet me in a land of hope and dreams

This train...Carries saints and sinners
This train...Carries losers and winners
This Train...Carries whores and gamblers
This Train...Carries lost souls
This Train...Dreams will not be thwarted
This Train...Faith will be rewarded
This Train...Hear the steel wheels singin'
This Train...Bells of freedom ringin'
This Train...Carries broken-hearted
This Train...Thieves and sweet souls departed
This Train...Carries fools and kings
This Train...All aboard

This Train...Dreams will not be thwarted
This Train...Faith will be rewarded
This Train...Hear the steel wheels singin'
This Train...Bells of freedom ringin'


Another brilliant song by the Boss! The image of a train carrying all people towards a better future is fantastic. This is 'the land of hope and dreams'. It taps deeply into American cultural resevoirs containing both christian and democratic, egalitarian language.
But does having hope and dreams of a better future necessarily lead to that future becoming a reality? If it doesn't, is the community that is created by shared hopes ultimately of any value? Why would faith simply in a better future be rewarded? Who rewards? What sort of freedom does living with hope and dreams bring, or do we just become captives to our ability/inability to act on our hope and dreams?

Thunder road

You will recall one of our definitions of The promised land was;
a place or situation believed to hold ultimate happiness.

Thunderoad
The screen door slams, Mary's dress sways
Like a vision she dances across the porch as the radio plays
Roy Orbison singing for the lonely,
Hey that's me and I want you only.
Don't turn me home again, I just can't face myself alone again.
Don't run back inside, darling you know just what I'm here for.
So you're scared and you're thinking
That maybe we ain't that young anymore .
Show a little faith, there's magic in the night;
You ain't a beauty, but hey you're alright.
Oh and that's alright with me.
You can hide `neath your covers and study your pain;
Make crosses from your lovers, throw roses in the rain.
Waste your summer praying in vain
For a saviour to rise from these streets.
Well now I'm no hero, that's understood,
All the redemption I can offer, girl, is beneath this dirty hood.
With a chance to make it good somehow,
Hey what else can we do now?
Except roll down the window and let the wind blow back your hair.
Well the night's busting open
These two lanes can take us anywhere.
We got one last chance to make it real,
To trade in these wings on some wheels.
Climb in back, Heaven's waiting on down the tracks .

Oh-oh come take my hand,
We're riding out tonight to case the promised land.
Oh-oh Thunder Road, oh Thunder Road, oh Thunder Road.
Lying out there like a killer in the sun,
Hey I know it's late we can make it if we run.
Oh Thunder Road, sit tight, take hold, Thunder Road.

Well I got this guitar and I learned how to make it talk,
And my car's out back if you're ready to take that long walk,
From your front porch to my front seat
The door's open but the ride it ain't free.
And I know you're lonely and there's words that I ain't spoken,
But tonight we'll be free, all the promises'll be broken .
There were ghosts in the eyes of all the boys you sent away
They haunt this dusty beach road
In the skeleton frames of burned out Chevrolets.
They scream your name at night in the street,
Your graduation gown lies in rags at their feet.
And in the lonely cool before dawn
you hear their engines roaring on,
But when you get to the porch they're gone
On the wind, so Mary climb in
It's a town full of losers and I'm pulling out of here to win.


For those of you who have not heard this song, I can only ask, have you truly lived?
What is noteworthy for our purposes is The Boss's treatment of 'The promised land'. It is a reference to a local drag racing spot (likely illegal). More than that, as the song reveals, it is a memory of youthfulness and life free from care. An opportunity to fulfill dreams, to be a hero. It's a place to show off your girl, show off your 'wheels', break away from the drudgery of daily life. I think he speaks deeply about a common human sentiment; the disappointment with what life has become, the romanticising of the past or other peoples experiences and the desire to escape.
Is this really the way to the promised land?