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On Bruce Springsteen

At the same time Bruce Springsteen released "The Rising," he released a lesser song, "Lonesome Day," which I also enjoyed:

Baby, once I thought I knew
Everything I needed to know about you
Your sweet whisper, your tender touch
But I didn't really know that much
Joke's on me, it's gonna be okay
If I can just get through this lonesome day
Lonesome day

 I like these lines first because they're funny. "I didn't really know that much": A slogan for the human condition! I also like that the speaker is sort of old and wise; he can laugh at himself. ("Joke's on me.") And these lines also set up a problem we'll follow through the song: how to get through a lonesome day.

Hell's brewing, dark sun's on the rise
This storm will 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, darling, yeah, I'm gonna pray
Right now, all I got's this lonesome day
Lonesome day

 We get some cliches, but there's playfulness, if you ask me. The dark sun, the hidden viper, the storm: Who could fail to relate? I love that the narrator ponders "a little revenge" as a cure. We're not talking about a saint.

Better ask questions before you shoot
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
Let kingdom come, I'm gonna find my way
Yeah, through this lonesome day
Lonesome day

 Here, the narrator seems to question whether he should go through with his tentative revenge plan. Maybe revenge won't help with erasing "that taste on your tongue." And I love that Springsteen doesn't resolve the issue. That's what it's like to endure loneliness: make a plan, abandon it, return to it, abandon it. A little portrait of chagrin. Maturity, or semi-maturity--tested.

Springsteen captures a sense of ambivalence and weakness. He paints a struggle with some standard, often Biblical, images: bitter fruit, a scalded tongue, a gun with a beckoning trigger. His work is an expression of empathy: He isn't preaching to us. In that sense, he is so different from many lesser songwriters.

Not "The Rising"? Well, we're dealing not with a guy in a burning tower, but simply with a guy who is a jilted date. There's nothing really transcendent, and some of the work in the verses feels a bit stale. (That said, yes, I understand that the "jilted date" in question may be--one one level--America itself, licking big wounds after 9/11)

Anyway, "Lonesome Day" is one B-level Springsteen effort that has delighted me for many years. "It's all right....it's all right....it's all right...yeah....."
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