Tuesday, March 28, 2023, Entry #53
Before I leave Washington D.C., I’d like to reflect on the last time Bruce Springsteen performed in this city before the concert I attended with Gabe in March. January 2021 was an anxious and tense time in the history of our nation. The COVID-19 pandemic had crippled society and though vaccines had been developed by then, the rollout was proceeding slowly. Joe Biden, the Democratic candidate for President, had defeated President Donald Trump in November, but shockingly, even after several Federal court rulings stating that there was no evidence of his claims of widespread voter fraud, Trump had refused to concede. On January 6, the day Congress was set to certify Biden’s victory, normally a pro-forma affair, a pro-Trump demonstration turned into a riotous mob that literally invaded the U.S. Capital. Before the trespassers were finally forced out, America spent many excruciating hours watching home-grown insurrectionists battling police with makeshift weapons and congresspeople hiding in safe rooms while their offices were being occupied and desecrated. There seemed to be a distinct possibility that the rioters’ goal of stalling the democratic transfer of power might be achieved. It was all unprecedented, and a truly disorienting and anxiety-ridden day for most Americans.
Fortunately, the traumatized members of Congress eventually brushed themselves off, worked late into the night, and bravely finished their job. Trump, momentarily deflated, did leave the White House “on time,” and the nation limped toward inaugurating the new President.
After record numbers of people attended the historic 2009 inauguration of President Obama (when Springsteen performed at a huge pre-inaugural event), and considering the spectacle of President Trump’s inflated claims of attendance at his 2017 swearing-in, crowd numbers at these dignified rituals of democracy had become something of a big deal. But, because of COVID, there were no audiences at all on Biden’s big day in 2021, held just two weeks after the terrifying but thankfully failed insurrection.
There was still an inaugural celebration, a 90-minute televised affair filmed live from a cold and empty Lincoln Memorial. There was a lineup of musical and spoken-word performances, capped by a grand fireworks display watched by the new president and his family from the White House balcony.
Springsteen, a fierce critic of Trump, who nevertheless tried not to vilify the former president’s supporters (“The con man from Queens does not deserve your good soul and honest commitment.”), was wisely (in my opinion) tapped to kick off the patriotic event and he therefore set the tone. The Boss did not disappoint. Wearing a blue pea coat and jeans, wielding an acoustic guitar, his breath visible as steam as he sang in the winter night, Springsteen cut a very solitary figure. He launched into “Land of Hope and Dreams,” a 1999 song that had become a staple at his concerts. The song is a particular favorite of mine, and I remember the very first time I heard it, while being debuted on the E Street Reunion Tour. I was totally blown away, realizing immediately that I was experiencing a brand-new classic. The song is about inclusion, acceptance, togetherness, faith, and it’s evocative of all the storied train songs throughout folk and rock history (performing it live, Springsteen often weaves the classic Curtis Mayfield verse “People get ready, there’s a train a-coming” into this song), but drenched in the sweeping, uplifting strokes of gospel music. Springsteen recently called “Land of Hope and Dreams” a “hymn, one of my best songs of the past 20-30 years.” It was the song Springsteen played for Clarence Clemons as his dear friend and musical partner was dying in the hospital. A reviewer of a Springsteen concert once noted:
“A new song, “Land of Hope and Dreams,” was pure secular gospel. About the time Springsteen got around to giving a heavenly shout-out to “whores and gamblers,” along with the rest of us tramps, you might have been thinking that if church felt half this honestly redemptive, you’d be paying through the schnozz for a nosebleed seat there too.”
Whenever Springsteen sings at this point of his career, his voice carries with it the history, politics, geography, struggles and triumphs of our place and time, and the six decades (!) of his observing, participating in, and singing about the American societal landscape. In my mind, Springsteen has achieved Woody Guthrie storyteller-of-the-people troubadour status. Hearing from him at this most prominent of national events in the aftermath of such societal turbulence communicated to me that our fragile ship of state had finally been steadied, at least for a moment. It all felt so incredibly cathartic, reflective, compelling, and hopeful. After so much division, isolation, distortion, anger and fear, “Land of Hope and Dreams” was the perfect antidote, portraying us all as boarding the “train” that is our national ethos, moving forward together to a better place, not leaving anybody behind. (“Tomorrow there’ll be sunshine, and all this darkness past.”/”This train, dreams will not be thwarted, this train, faith will be rewarded.”/”This train, bells of freedom ringing!”/“All aboard!”) Once more, Bruce Springsteen was part of giving voice to the spirit of rebuilding and redemption. To paraphrase a song he delivered to all of us in the aftermath of another American crisis, the attacks on 9/11, ‘after the city is in ruins, all you can do is rise up.’
Grab your ticket and your suitcase
Thunder’s rollin’ down this track
Well, you don’t know where you’re goin’ now
But you know you won’t be back
Well, darlin’ if you’re weary
Lay your head upon my chest
We’ll take what we can carry
Yeah, and we’ll leave the rest
Big wheels roll through fields
Where sunlight streams
Meet me in a land of hope and dreams
Well, I will provide for you
And I’ll stand by your side
You’ll need a good companion now
For this part of the ride
Leave behind your sorrows
Let this day be the last
Tomorrow there’ll be sunshine
And all this darkness past
Big wheels roll through fields
Where sunlight streams
Oh meet me in a land of hope and dreams
This train, carries saints and sinners
This train, carries losers and winners
This train, carries whores and gamblers
This train, carries lost souls
I said this train, carries broken hearted
This train, thieves and sweet souls departed
This train, carries fools and kings
This train, all aboard
This train, dreams will not be thwarted
This train, faith will be rewarded
This train, hear the steel wheels singing
This train, bells of freedom ringing
-Bruce Springsteen, Land of Hope and Dreams