There's a layer of meaning to this song that Springsteen may or may not have been intended - but it's there. MusicLover-MRM points out that the River is figuratively meant as "belief in how good things would always be". The river offers a baptismal soul-cleansing. When the narrator was young it never mattered how bad things in life got because he (and Mary) could go down to the river and somehow that would make everything alright - at least for a little while.
This is why the symbolism towards the end of the song is so damn heartbreaking. In the end even the river isn't there anymore. It dried up. Now there's no escape, no source of redeption for the narrator. You grow up and there's nothing that can make things right anymore. Springsteen is a pretty switched-on writer - and I think he's hip to the multiple layers of meaning that can be contained in a rich powerful song like this.
@juancircled , is this a springsteen written song? the writers as mentioned above the song are listed as "The River" as written by Martin Terefe and Katie Victoria Tunstall.
@juancircled , is this a springsteen written song? the writers as mentioned above the song are listed as "The River" as written by Martin Terefe and Katie Victoria Tunstall.
@robert1160 Unless Martin Terefe and Katie Victoria Tunstall were, like, preposterously talented -- being 11 and 5 years old, respectively, when "The River" was released -- I think we can assume that Springsteen penned this one himself (as any other source anywhere would corroborate).
@robert1160 Unless Martin Terefe and Katie Victoria Tunstall were, like, preposterously talented -- being 11 and 5 years old, respectively, when "The River" was released -- I think we can assume that Springsteen penned this one himself (as any other source anywhere would corroborate).
There's a layer of meaning to this song that Springsteen may or may not have been intended - but it's there. MusicLover-MRM points out that the River is figuratively meant as "belief in how good things would always be". The river offers a baptismal soul-cleansing. When the narrator was young it never mattered how bad things in life got because he (and Mary) could go down to the river and somehow that would make everything alright - at least for a little while.
This is why the symbolism towards the end of the song is so damn heartbreaking. In the end even the river isn't there anymore. It dried up. Now there's no escape, no source of redeption for the narrator. You grow up and there's nothing that can make things right anymore. Springsteen is a pretty switched-on writer - and I think he's hip to the multiple layers of meaning that can be contained in a rich powerful song like this.
@juancircled , is this a springsteen written song? the writers as mentioned above the song are listed as "The River" as written by Martin Terefe and Katie Victoria Tunstall.
@juancircled , is this a springsteen written song? the writers as mentioned above the song are listed as "The River" as written by Martin Terefe and Katie Victoria Tunstall.
@robert1160 Unless Martin Terefe and Katie Victoria Tunstall were, like, preposterously talented -- being 11 and 5 years old, respectively, when "The River" was released -- I think we can assume that Springsteen penned this one himself (as any other source anywhere would corroborate).
@robert1160 Unless Martin Terefe and Katie Victoria Tunstall were, like, preposterously talented -- being 11 and 5 years old, respectively, when "The River" was released -- I think we can assume that Springsteen penned this one himself (as any other source anywhere would corroborate).
@juancircled Thinking about it, it so bloody heartbreaking actually
@juancircled Thinking about it, it so bloody heartbreaking actually