submissions
| Bruce Springsteen – The Rising Lyrics
| 9 years ago
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I am a huge fan of Springsteen, probably closest thing to a religion in my world when I was younger (although Morrissey as well, and to a lesser extent Van Morrison, U2, Paul Simon). Anyway, I was never a huge fan of this album, mainly because I felt it was light on in-depth story telling (compared, for example, to the level of detail explored in Ghost of Tom Joad) -- also have mixed feelings on the whole topic because it is so real, especially at the time. Definitely as a New Yorker the closest I've been to a topic that dominates an album. In any event, have been listening to it a bit lately and appreciating a number of the songs quite a bit more, particularly the Rising. I never made the connection in the first verse that he was talking about the oxygen tank, hose, and firefighter climbing the steps until a recent listen when it clicked (the idea of climbing steps that everyone else is running down is so stark in Into the Fire, which I like very much, but more subtle and metaphoric in the Rising. Only thing I will add to what has been said in the other posts that I quickly perused is that I had always thought the Come on Up for the Rising refrain was about souls going to heaven. Mostly just talking about being a part of a mass of souls rising up to heaven at the same time, and using that notion to look at the event through a positive and beautiful lens. And then I think attendant to that are concepts like rising up again after a tragedy, etc., although I think it is in City of Ruins where he speaks more directly to that concept, even if that song is about Asbury and not NY. |
submissions
| The National – Hard to Find Lyrics
| 11 years ago
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I just discovered the National -- after hearing Don't Swallow the Cap and Graceless on FUV in NY. I haven't made it past those two songs, plus Hard To Find, the first track and the one after Graceless (I am obsessive that way). But I had the same reaction to this song, obviously it is massive, but I somehow thought it was about Newtown even though it is a long time after. Which compelled me to google the meaning of the lyrics, and I was so surprised to see that someone had posted the same thing. I already thought the song was great, but knowing it is about Newtown, I am sure it will be heartbreaker to listen to in the future. On a side note, for whoever reads this, I saved an article about Newton on my computer at work -- I look at it from time to time when I am wasting energy worrying or obsessing over things that are meaningless in the grand scheme of things. Anyway, the part I saved reads this way: "As the children were coming down the street, little by little, classroom by classroom all holding hands, parents were claiming their children," says Corbo, the first assistant fire chief at Newtown Hook and Ladder No. 1. "After a little while, once they claimed their kid and signed them out ... they left. There were some sticking around and that's when we realized that they're probably not going to be leaving. They're gonna get the confirmation soon enough that they're not gonna be grabbing their child and hugging them and taking them home."
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