Musical Doomsday

Please forgive me, folks, because I know I’m about to take a very non-conventional approach to this assignment.  Or perhaps it’s not that unconventional; it’s just not to the letter of the assignment.  You see, I did not get to see a “doomsday” movie this weekend.  I was hanging out with a group of friends and saw “The American,” with George Clooney, but that was not a doomsday film, nor can I remember any symbols that had to do with doomsday or the Book of Revelation.  I also had a few spare minutes to see the y2k episode of Family Guy, but there were no revelation-esque images there.  Of course, there were odd, nuclear-waste-created creatures, but these certainly were not Heaven- (or hell-) sent, as the beasts and other creatures in Revelation were.  So there went that idea.

So, faced with a deadline and no time to see a movie remaining in my busy schedule, what was I to do?  And like a light bulb shining above my head, it came to me – I’d write about Bruce Springsteen’s “The Rising” album.  Granted, this is not a movie, but the imagery is so vivid and intense in the lyrics, and I’m so incredibly familiar with the songs, that I could write this entry and treat it as if I’d just seen a movie.  So for those not familiar with the album, a little background info:

The album was released in August of 2002, and was very much a 9/11 album.  That is to say, it was the first major album to be released post-September 11th, dealing with the events of that day, reactions to that day, consequences of the day, and the emotions attached to all of those things.  This is a doomsday album, then, in that it deals with an event that meant the end of the world as we knew it, and the aftermath of that event.  That is, it dealt with the end of our world, and the initial developments of the new world that has begun to develop since then.  To me, it is one of the most beautiful albums ever made – certainly one of my “desert island” albums, as it were.  I’ve included the official link to the album site here – you can see a track list there and from there can see the lyrics to each song and, I believe, listen to the songs as well.  Anyway, on to the point: the images from Revelation that one might find in the album.

In the first song on the album, “Lonesome Day,” we find “Hell’s brewin’ dark sun’s on the rise,” something clearly meant to indicate that Revelation is almost upon us.  That is to say, it is meant to evoke that feeling, whether the singer believes it to actually be true or not is immaterial – it is the feeling that he has deep inside, thanks to what has happened – a feeling echoed in those around him, no doubt.  He continues with

this storm’ll blow through by and by
house is on fire, viper’s in the grass
a little revenge and this too shall pass
this too shall pass, I’m gonna pray
right now all I got’s this lonesome day.

To me, this seems indicative of the struggle that has either started or is imminent, and the singer will make it through; he’s pure, and will make it through to the other side – the New Jerusalem that this new world is to be, so to speak.  This seems to be finalized by the last line in the song, “Let Kingdom come, I’m gonna find my way, through this lonesome day.”  There’s also references to earlier Biblical times, if you’re so inclined to believe them, where he mentions “deceit and betrayal’s bitter fruit / it’s hard to swallow, come time to pay / that taste on your tongue don’t easily slip away.”  This to me actually seems referential to Revelation (“come time to pay…”), where they must account for their sins, while the part about the taste on your tongue could either be a reference to Adam and Eve having a further craving for knowledge, if that’s what you’d call it, or it could be a reference to Revelation – you try to erase all the sins from your body, but there are some that you can’t hide – the taste on your tongue don’t easily slip away – you crave more, even.

It is much harder to find Revelation in the next song, “Into The Fire,” as it is very clearly a song written about and to pay tribute to the firefighters and various others who climbed into the towers to rescue people, only to perish therein.   There are parallels to be found, sure, in that those brave young men and women may be compared to Christ – sacrificing themselves for the sake of their brothers and sisters in mankind, but that is not where I’d choose to focus here.  If anything, the first line is the closest to imagery we’ve seen in Revelation: “The sky was falling, and streaked with blood.”

The next two songs have little to nothing to do with Revelation, but they are fantastic songs and I earnestly suggest you listen to them.  Honestly, I suggest you listen to the whole album.  If you’d like, I’ll burn copies of it and bring them to class the next time we meet.

Then there’s “Countin’ On A Miracle.”  There is no direct imagery from Revelation here, but the ideas of lost and found faith are quite obvious, albeit implicitly so.  This is a man who’s lost his wife, or lover, or whatever you want to call her, and has thereby lost his faith in God.  However, he is “counting on a miracle to come through,” in that he hopes God will bring her back – so he hasn’t lost his faith completely.  He maintains this belief in God because he wants to believe that she’ll be coming back to him.  The last verse in particular (before the four repetitions of the chorus that end the song) seems to be close to Revelation-like images, or rather, images that would have been seen in the lead-up to Revelation (thereby building on what’s been done in the first song, where the singer believes Revelation is imminent) – “I’m running through the forest / with this wolf at my heels / my King is lost at midnight / when the tower bells peal.”

In “Empty Sky,” we once again find Bruce mourning the loss of his lover, but here we see a different attitude – one that is mourning not only the emptiness of the home, but the emptiness of the skyline, as well.  And here we see the first explicit statement of a lover’s desire for vengeance – “I want a kiss from your lips / I want an eye for an eye.”  Revelation comes in via the second verse – “Blood on the streets / yeah blood flowin’ down / I hear the blood of my blood / cryin’ from the ground.”  The imagery of a sea of blood has been transferred to what I’d consider (and clearly Bruce would consider, at least in this case) the modern sea – the roads – the roads, which have become in America this means of escape that has been found for others in the sea.  So this is a purely American derivation of the imagery in Revelation.

Next, “Worlds Apart,” where despite the end of the world and a forbidden love, these two from “enemy” worlds (the West and the Mideast) will still find each other and be together.  But this is not a Revelation song, so we’ll skip it.

The next song is “Let’s be Friends,” which I can only imagine as a Revelation-esque song if we take the main theme of the song  – “don’t know when this chance might come again / good times got a way of slippin’ / Let’s be friends, baby let’s be friends.”  The feeling of the regular people at endtimes may be one of loss, but they don’t know when they might get another chance to repent, if they ever will, so they will now and be friends – that is, find their way into New Jerusalem.  But that may be a stretch.

Look to the second and third verses of the next song, “The Fuse,” and you’ll see, once again, a declaration of Revelation’s imminence.

In “Mary’s Place,” we have the repeated use of the number seven – “seven pictures of Buddha,” “seven days,” “seven candles,” etc.  Also, there’s the idea of going to Mary’s place to have a party – one of redemption, of renewal, of new and everlasting life with other redeemed souls (though explicitly he means souls saved by music, there are those saved by the one who he mourns in this song, or those who are saved in religious terms).  Surely New Jerusalem would be the proverbial “Mary’s Place,” whether this is because of the Virgin Mary, mother of Christ, ruler of New Jerusalem, or not, cannot be known, but the imagery seems to work together quite well.

“You’re Missing” deals with the image of an empty house, from a widow’s point of view – but there is no Revelation imagery that I can think of at this time.

“The Rising” is, right from it’s title, a song derived from imagery at the end of Revelation.  Nearly every part of the song is steeped in it, and it’s impossible for me to go over it here.  I’ll give a quick listing here, and then will talk about it more another time (I think this song alone could be a paper in it’s own right [who knows? I could make it a final paper for this class, maybe? Or perhaps it could be a large part of my honors thesis, if not the basis for the entire thesis! How exciting!]).  Revelation in “The Rising”: the title, making his way through darkness and not feeling anything but the chain that binds him, suffering en route to salvation, the chorus – being and sticking together with loved ones and those around you for when the final salvation is here, bells ringing filled the air, cross of calling, wheels of fire, the entire third verse (“spirits above and behind me”), Mary, holy pictures of children, dancing in the sky filled with light, a dream of life (maybe a reference to the dreaming of John of Patmos?), and the entire “sky of” verse.

Paradise is a song that switches perspectives between a suicide bomber, his mother, his lover, and whatnot.  No real Revelation imagery, though.

Finally, there’s “My City of Ruin,” a song of redemption, as it were.