Adam Raised a Cain

One of Bruce's most autobiographical song's about returning home and seeing his Father, who Bruce never got along with.

How good are the lines "In the darkness of your room, your mother calls you by your true name"

"Daddy worked his whole life for nothing but the pain Now he walks these empty rooms looking for something to blame"

Once again, Bruce proving he is the greatest song-writer of all time.

"you're born into this life paying for someone else's past"

amazing. that's basically all there is to it.

you inherit the sins YOU INHERIT THE FLLLAAAYAYYYYMEMEZZZZ

haha 100% charged, hard, raspy bruce

dude this is probably the best song off the whole album between the amazing guitar, lyrics and powerful vocals from bruce, he was wasnt even singing, more like moaning and wailing into the mike, so raw and magnificent, only bruce could do it. As for the lyrics, even the title gets you thinking, proposing the idea that it was the father adam that raised cain to be the terrible son he was makes you take a whole other outlook on the story, plus he worked this idea into his own relationship with his father. the best lines by far are:He was standin' in the door I was standin' in the rain With the same hot blood burning in our veins Adam raised a Cain What a picture!!! this is really the guts of an explosive relationship with a father. Kind of like you cant stand your old man, but you are so exactly like him in so many ways, and he is responsible for everything you dont like about yourself... man i could go on but this song does the job

I doubt that Springsteen meant to go too deep into the mythology, but making a metaphor of the two pairs of sons and fathers makes quite a comment on how he sees his family. Cain was the first murderer and Abel was the first person to be killed because they were actually the first human beings (their mother and father were divine creations and the brothers were born of woman). Was Cain evil? If he was, then was Adam also evil? Or was he more like Abel, the "good son"? And is the father/son pair in this song alike only in their bitterness and rage? Or is there something evil about them too?

In the part where he sings about "all the old faces asked you why you're back, etc." I take that to mean the storyteller has come back to his home town to live with his parents, possibly after failing at a dream, and the old faces set him up with a job and he drives to work in his father's car.

The part about "in the darkness of your room your mother calls you by your true name," this is just a guess, but I think Springsteen was Catholic, and in this song the storyteller's mother is calling him by his real name instead of his Catholic name, which his dad might do.

Beautiful song, deep on so many levels. Clearly about Bruce's dad, who I'm sure Bruce was similar to.

I think this is about the difficulty of breaking generational trauma, and choosing a new path; to recognize the problems in you that you want to fix. And it is hard as heck to do it, as you can attest to the raw emotion in Bruce's voice.

Imagine this song without any instrumentation, just Bruce singing. It would sound nuts, eerie, creepy and dark.

The telltale line to me is "All of the old faces ask you why you're back They fit you with position and the keys to your daddy's Cadillac"

He is expected to take the keys to his father's Cadillac, which to me is become just like his dad.

But Bruce hangs on by his fingernails on the edge of a cliff. I love this song and album.

I think this song is about not having a great father and sort of inheriting his problems. You get his bad attitude, his problems, his doubts, his fears, etc. You also know that all his trouble never really got him anywhere.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't these lyrics mistitled? I think the name of the song is "Adam Raised a Cain" not "Adam Raised a Cane"

The song title is self-evident that the title is wrong. Anyway, yes, it is "Cain" referencing Cain and Abel from the Bible.