The 2002 album Bruce Springsteen said needed to be perfect: “Trying to get it as right”
Every Bruce Springsteen song was never meant to be phoned in whenever he made one of his records.
He liked to keep his audience guessing on where he was going to go, and even if he was used to making some of the best heartland rock that the world had ever heard, he wanted to also make sure that he never lost that same blue-collar energy that he had when he first started hashing out tunes with the E Street Band. So after spending time on his own musical journey, he was going to need something a little bit more to bring him and his country out of the doldrums.
Because ever since Born in the USA, Springsteen’s records had been more than a little bit morose every single time he went back to the studio. Sure, Born in the USA wasn’t exactly the most sunshine-y record to begin with if you look at the lyrics, but you could at least try and put blinders on and ignore the fact that the title track was about the horrors of America rather than its great successes.
But after Tunnel of Love, Springsteen actually trying to sound happy wasn’t really going to go over well. Human Touch did have its heart in the right place, but considering most of the E Street Band wasn’t on it, it was hard to get that worked up about it, especially since the songs just weren’t the same kind of righteous rock and roll that everybody had been used to for the past few years.
‘The Boss’ wasn’t about to roll over and go back to the E Street Band for the hell of it, but by the time that 9/11 happened, he knew that there were bigger things happening here than his own hangups with his bandmates. The entire country was suffering, and if he was going to make a record again with his musical family, he was going to need to make sure that every single part of it sounded absolutely perfect.
You have to remember that the years leading up to the Iraq War were more than a little bit tense, and Springsteen understood that he needed to make something more than the average E Street record, saying, “It was pretty instinctive. I was thinking that I had to write as thoughtfully as I could. That was my main concern over the next few months. Checking each song and trying to get it as right as I could and hopefully that would come through on the record.”
And while some songs like ‘Land of Hope and Dreams’ needed a little more time before it was officially released on an album, The Rising is still a towering achievement. You can feel the sorrow, grief, and heartache across every one of those songs, and even if Springsteen didn’t have the same experience as someone who lost a family member in the attacks, he managed to capture the kind of energy that everyone picked up on but could never really put into words.
A lot of people wanted to lash out in anger, but that’s not where Springsteen’s headspace was at that particular moment. He had written entire songs about soldiers that went off to fight wars that they didn’t believe in, and while everyone tried to rally around the flag and blow those terrorists to smithereens, ‘The Boss’ knew that it was a time for everyone to reflect and to hold each other together than try and lash out in anger.
Those intense emotions demand to be felt, but even if America was licking its wounds, the reason why The Rising works so well is because you can hear the real hunger in Springsteen’s voice back again. He was never going to turn his back on the American people, and in making this kind of record, he showed everyone that it was possible for someone to stand up for their country without having to resort to violent rhetoric.
