|
CounterPunch
August
31, 2002
Springsteen's
The Rising
No
Surrender
by Dave Marsh
I've avoided talking in detail about The
Rising but not because there's nothing left to say. To
start with, someone needs to get around to the music and relating
it to Springsteen's previous work, particularly the wordy, rhythmically
static, melodically parched recent work. To me, the rejuvenation
that produced The Rising resembles Bob Dylan's recent records
and U2's All That You Can't Leave. Each of these is anchored
in the artist's classic musical approach, with slight modifications
that in some sense-this is hardest to hear with Dylan, easiest
with Bruce-modernize it. On The Rising, Brendan O'Brien provides
the key by getting get Bruce to rely on guitar, rather than letting
the keyboards dominate.
I heard The Rising about 25 times before
I ever read the lyric sheet (doing which cost me my favorite
line, "Musta been your science degree," which turned
out to be merely "musta been you sighin' so deep").
My favorites tracks here are "Sunny Day," "Mary's
Place," "Worlds Apart," "You're Missing,"
and "My City of Ruins," each except "Misising"
registering as sound more than story. I still don't know or care
very much about what "Worlds  Apart" says; I do care about the
way the voices and instruments crash into each other.
Most of what's been written about The
Rising mentions the music only in passing but set these lyrics
down as poetry and they aren't very interesting. As statements
about 9/11 or 9/12, you could even call them evasive. Nevertheless,
the lyrics of "You're Missing" and "Paradise"
rank with Springsteen's best. They sing beautifully--there are
no false steps, no attempts to cram too many syllables into a
line ("hy-dree-ot-ic acid" anyone?). Bruce does the
best singing of his career here, which can be demonstrated by
comparing songs like "Mary's Place," "Sunny Day"
and "Countin' on a Miracle" with their obvious antecedents--"Rosalita,"
"Hungry Heart," "Leap of Faith" (the last
a stretch).
The evasions make Springsteen's point.
Fans commonly explain that The Rising's topic is not 9/11 but
9/12. But that's not really it, either. The 9/11 attacks and
fragments of their aftermath provide Springsteen a setting but
The Rising isn't trying to be Guernica or even Born in the U.S.A.
The Rising's really returns Springsteen to one of his central
preoccupations, the war about choosing life or death that rages
in his everyman.
Springsteen eschews the politics of the
attacks in part because he's pretty conservative personally,
but also because they're a distraction from his real interests.
Compare "Paradise" to Steve Earle's controversial "John
Walker Blues." Both do the same thing, which is restore
humanity to a character presumed to be inhuman-in this case,
the suicide bomber of the first verse. But Springsteen's focused
on a whole other drama. In the second verse, he unequivocally
equates the bomber with a character mourning a loved one. There
are a batch of different ways to read the third verse-it could
be either of the characters in the first two verses, it could
be both of them, it could be anybody trapped by a false vision
of paradise, who dives into the treacherous waters.
What matters is that the swimmer in that
verse lets himself see that paradise is empty. So he fights back
into the sunlight of the everyday.
The next thing you know, he's back on
the night-lit streets of Asbury Park, another symbol of false
paradise, where young men rot away without anyone's second glance.
If these men's strength gave you strength, their hope gave you
hope, their love gave you love, you'd be hollowed out.
Does Springsteen understand what it really
means to encourage such people to "rise up"? It'll
take an album good enough to follow in this one's footsteps to
find out. Meantime, we are left, as always at the end of a gospel
song, with some choices to make for ourselves.
DeskScan
(what's playing in my office)
1. The
Rising, Bruce Springsteen (Sony)-Everybody who understands
why that catfish dances on the end of his line, raise your hand.
The rest of you, back to the last verse of "Paradise."
2. Jerusalem,
Steve Earle (E Squared)-The sound goes back to "Copperhead
Road." The politics come out of a future we'd hoped to avoid.
3. Adult
World, Wayne Kramer (MuscleTone).
4. White
Lightnin' Struck the Pine, Cedell Davis (Fast Horse Recordings)-The
most rockin' record Peter Buck ever played on, for sure. Maybe
the deepest musical statement of the Mississippi hill country
blues aesthetic, too.
5. Rockin' the Blues, Wynonie Harris
(ProperUK) 4 disc box set from the greatest R&B shouter of
the late '40s, originator of "Good Rockin' Tonight,"
among many others. Bargain price--$25 or less. (Try rootsandrhythm.com)
6. Plenty
Good Lovin', Sam Moore (2KSounds/EMI)
7. Imagine,
Eva Cassidy (Blix Street)-Cassidy finds angles on overdone songs
like "It Doesn't Matter Anymore" and "Who Knows
Where the Times Goes, even "Tennessee Waltz," that
refreshes our interest in them, as well as her, an achievement
both modest and monumental Here, she gets that far even with
Billie's "You've Changed" (though not the title track).
8. Easy,
Kelly Willis (Rykodisc)
9. Down
in the Alley, Alvin Youngblood-Hart (Memphis International)
10. Jesus Is the Name: The Tender Female
Gospel 1947-1952 (P-Vine, Japan; rootsandrhythm.com)
- Features Willie Mae Ford Smith and at least a dozen other great
singers you've never even heard *of*.
11. Essential
Collection, Shorty Long (Spectrum UK)-Funkiest of all
Motown artists, as in "We servin' egg foo yung and barbecue,
and then chicken'n'dumplings 'n' kidney stew, 'n' then heap big
fun 'til the break of dawn...Pull a shotgun on the rooster and
draw him to crow." But mainly, it's the bass lines.
12. It's
All Relative: Tillis Sings Tillis, Pam Tillis (Epic/Lucky
Dog)-That means she gets to sing "Detroit City" and
"I Ain't Never," as well as another 11 songs by her
daddy.
13. 1000
Kisses, Patty Griffin (ATO) 14. Viva El Mariachi: Nati
Cano's Mariachi Los Camperos (Smithsonian Folkways)
15. American
Breakdown, Troy Campbell (M. Ray)
16. A
Cellarful of Motown: Rarest Motown Grooves (Motown)
17. Stax Instrumentals, Booker T. &
the MGs/The Mar-Keys (Ace UK)
18. A
History of Garage and Frat Bands in Memphis 1960-1975, Vol. 2
(Shangri-La Projects)-Sixties Seattle, with okra.
19. Hard
Candy, Counting Crows (Geffen)
20. Irony
Lives, Paul Krassner (Artemis) 20. One All, Neil Finn
(Netwerk)
Dave Marsh coedits
Rock and Rap Confidential.
Marsh is the author of The
Heart of Rock and Soul: the 1001 Greatest Singles.
He can be reached at: marsh6@optonline.net
Weekend Features
Gavin Keeney
Return to the Charterhouse of Parma
David Vest
Porkland:
Confronting Republicans & Police in Portland
Ralph Nader
The Highway
Lobby
M. Shahid Alam
CNN Reporting
(poem)
Neve Gordon
Sharon's
Subjugation Strategy
Dr. Susan Block
The Gangbang
Asthete
The Sexual Life of Catherine M.
Jensen / Mahajan
Iraq Debate:
Ultra Hawk vs. Hawk
Kurt Nimmo
Clueless
at the State Dept.
Weekend Features
Gavin Keeney
Return to the Charterhouse of Parma
David Vest
Porkland:
Confronting Republicans & Police in Portland
Ralph Nader
The Highway
Lobby
M. Shahid Alam
CNN Reporting
(poem)
Neve Gordon
Sharon's
Subjugation Strategy
Dr. Susan Block
The Gangbang
Asthete
The Sexual Life of Catherine M.
Jensen / Mahajan
Iraq Debate:
Ultra Hawk vs. Hawk
Kurt Nimmo
Clueless
at the State Dept.
home / subscribe
/ about us
/ books
/ archives
/ search
/ links
/
New Print
Edition of CounterPunch Available Exclusively
to Subscribers:
- War Talk As White Noise:
Anything to Get Harken and Halliburton
Out of the Headlines;
- First Hilliard, Then
McKinney: Jewish
Groups Target Blacks Brave Enough to Talk About Justice in the
Middle East; Intimidation
is the Name of the Game; Smearing
"Insane" McKinney As Muslims' Pawn;
- The Missing Terrorist?
Calling Scotland
Yard: "Where's Atif?"
- They Never Booed Dylan!:
Tape Transcript Shows
Famed Newport Folkfest Dissing of Electric Dylan Not True. The Catcalls were for Peter
Yarrow!
- New Shame from the Liffey
Shrike
Remember, the CounterPunch website is
supported exclusively by subscribers to our newsletter. If you find our site useful please: Subscribe
Now! Or Call Toll Free 1-800-840-3683
home / subscribe
/ about us
/ books
/ archives
/ search
/ links
/
|
August 30,
2002
Alexander
Cockburn
American
Journal:
Hitchens, Kissinger, Springsteen, Haggard & Elvis
August 29,
2002
Chris Floyd
The Secret
Sharers:
The CIA and the Murder of Frank Olson
August 28,
2002
William Ring
War on Iraq:
The Brightest Scenario
August 27,
2002
Sam Bahour
The Violence
of Curfew
Wenonah Hauter
From Johannesburg:
Pacts with the Devil: Public-Private Partnerships and the Global
Environment
Jerre Skog
Wanted:
"Our Kind of Guy"
in Iraq!
Uri Avnery
Letter
to a Pilot
August 26,
2002
Sami Al-Arian
Fighting
for the Right of
Dissent and Due Process
Ruebner /
Turaani
What
is Israel Hiding?
Norman Madarasz
Brazil
and the IMF:
Democracy and Emerging Market Liberalism
Robert Fisk
War Crimes:
Reporters Aren't Prosecutors
Douglas Valentine
Phoenix,
CIA and Maj. Gen. Bruce Lawlor: From Vietnam
to Homeland Security
August 24
/ 25, 2002
Susan Davis
Proverbial
Wisdom:
Of Clogs and Enron
Falk / Krieger
No War
Against Iraq
Ceylon Mooney
Fasting
for Iraq
Jonathon
Wright
Police
Brutality in Atlanta
Ralph Nader
Congress's
Pay Raise Scam
Jeffrey St.
Clair
Chainsaw
George
Alexander
Cockburn
Alterman
Cheapens Holocaust
August 23,
2002
Dave Marsh
Selling
Out?
Anthony Gancarski
Super-Duper:
Oil, al-Qaeda and a West African Adventure
William Hughes
Lieberman's
Conflict
of Interest?
Kurt Nimmo
The Lapdog
Conversion of CNN:
They Didn't Want to "Criticize" a Popular War
Sean Donahue
Hardline
in Colombia
August 22,
2002
Sean Donahue
Hardline
in Colombia
Wayne Madsen
Crushing
Congressional Dissent: The Fall of Hilliard, Barr and McKinney
Gilad Atzmon
The Zionist
Lobby and
American Foreign Policy
Robert Johnson
Right
Wing Doves?
Alexander
Cockburn
Taking
Down McKinney
August 21,
2002
Gary Leupp
The Return
of Mani
Romi Mahajan
Bhopal
on $40 a Day
Jerre Skog
Bush and
Europe:
Fun, Profit & Betrayal
Tom Crumpacker
The
Politics of the Cuba Embargo
August 20,
2002
Kathleen
Christison
Israeli
Tilt: the NYT
and Palestine
August 14
/ 19, 2002
Susan Davis
Played
Out: a Journey to Central City, Colorado
CounterPunch
Staff
Our Favorite
Films
Jeffrey St.
Clair
Usonian
Utopia's:
Frank Lloyd Wright, Working Class Housing and the FBI
Gilad Atzmon
Sharon and the Iron Wall
Uri Avnery
A Phone
Call from Hell
Wendy Brinker
Racism
is Alive and Well in the South Carolina Death House
Hamit Dardagan
The
Unbearable Lightness of Bombing
Ahmad Faruqui
The Legacy
of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Philip Farruggio
Leading
by Example
Anthony Gancarski
Union
Jackass: Richard Perle's UK Charm Offensive
Jeff Halper
Fortress
Israel: the Message of the Bulldozer
Robert Jensen
Our Failures
are Borne by the Palestinians
Gary Leupp
An Open
Letter to Bruce Springsteen about Bush's War on Terrorism
Dave Marsh
Sing a
Simple Song
Rashmi Mayur
To Johannesburg
in Search of Hope
Steve Perry
Another Fine Mess:
Martha Stewart and Paul Wellstone
Anis Shivani
What's
Next...Concentration Camps?
Edward Said
Punishment
by Detail
Jeff Taylor
Paul Wellstone's
Legacy
August 10/11,
2002
Walt Brasch
The Bush
2 Legacy...So Far
August 9,
2002
Mokhiber
/ Weissman
Corporate
Crime:
More Shareholder Power
Not the Solution
Ansar Ahmed
The Waning
of the
Pax Americana
Alexander
Cockburn
War,
the Military and the Hunt for the "Violence Gene"
Resources:
100s of Links
About 9/11
CounterPunch:
Complete
Coverage of 9/11 and Its Aftermath
Five
Days That
Shook The World:
Seattle and Beyond
By
Alexander Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
Photos by Allan Sekula
(Click Here to Order from CounterPunch
Online at 20% Off Amazon.com's price!)
Read
Whiteout and Find Out
How the CIA's Backing of the Mujahideen Created the World's Most
Robust Heroin Market and Helped to Finance the Rise of the Taliban
and Osama bin Laden
Whiteout:
CIA, Drugs & the
Press
by Alexander
Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
|