September 13, 2023: AmericanStudying The Rising: “You’re Missing” and “Mary’s Place”

[For thisparticular AmericanStudier, there’s no better way to think through anotheranniversary of September 11th, 2001 than to consider some of themany lessons we can learn from the best cultural work depicting that moment: BruceSpringsteen’s album The Rising (2002). Sothis week I’ll AmericanStudy pairs of songs from that vital work—please shareyour own responses, nominations for other vital 9/11 cultural works, andfurther thoughts for a crowd-sourced weekend post!]

On a pairof couplets that reflect two sides and stages of loss and grief.

This feelslike a somewhat gross thing to write about, given the (apparently) entirely unfoundedrumors about Springsteen having an affair with one of them (I’m not going tohyperlink to that story, but it’s out there if you’re interested in readingmore, with the caveat that many of the links will be to the rumors rather thanthe debunking), but in the years after September 11th Bruce becamean ally to and advocate for thecommunity of folks who had lost their spouse (or another family member) inthe attacks. As that hyperlink illustrates, that community has become active invarious political and social efforts of the decades (most recently issuinga statement when the PGA Tour merged with the Saudi Arabian LIV tourearlier this year), but of course it started with a very particular and somberpurpose: linking those who had lost a loved one in this sudden and unexpectedway (ie, differently from those who have lost a loved one to a terminalillness, while fighting in a war, or in other circumstances for which theremight be a bit more preparation, as much as there can be for tragic loss atleast), and whose experiences of grief were thus a bit distinct from othervariations of that emotion.

I’m notsure how much Springsteen had connected with that community prior to writingand recording The Rising, but in anycase he certainly made sure to include songs that foreground the perspectivesof those who had lost loved ones (that was also true of the firefighter’sspouse whom I discussed in Monday’s post, but here I mean more the survivingfamily members of people killed in the attacks themselves). And a pair ofcouplets from the two most overt such songs, located back to back on the album,powerfully capture two very distinct sides and stages of such loss and grief. Thelatter of the two, “You’reMissing,” is the album’s saddest song, and its final couplet, located afterthe last chorus, exemplifies how that sadness extends beyond even the speaker’spersonal loss: “God’s drifting in heaven, devil’s in the mailbox/I got dust onmy shoes, nothing but teardrops.” The second line connects directly to the spouse’sdeath in the attacks (and the speaker’s unsuccessful search for them among thedust of the aftermath), but the first line links that grief to parallelemotions of uncertainty and fear (ones felt by all Americans, but even morepotently by those who had been personally affected by the 9/11 attacks),including those prompted by the ongoing threat of terrorist attacks illustratedby the post-9/11anthrax mailings.  

There’s nota sadder couplet on The Rising, and Iwould argue not a more important one either in achieving the album’s emotionaland historical purposes. But perhaps Springsteen’s most overarching suchpurpose was to present multiple layers of this event and its contexts, and soright before “You’re Missing” he includes another, very different song from theperspective of a 9/11 widow: “Mary’s Place.” “Mary’sPlace” is the album’s most overt party anthem, and became even more so during the Rising tour, when Springsteen would frequentlyintroduce the band’s rollicking performance of it by saying “Let’s roadhouse!” Butwhile the song is most definitely about a house party, it’s also and even moreimportantly about where and how we find optimism in dark times (a subject I’vethought about a good bit overthe years), and a beautiful couplet from the song’s final verse capturesthat tone with particular clarity and power: “I’ve got a picture of you in mylocket, I keep it close to my heart/This light shining in my breast, leading methrough the dark.” To quote one of the mostbeautiful lines ever written about loss and love, “What is grief, if notlove persevering?”

NextRisingStudying tomorrow,

Ben

PS. Whatdo you think? Other 9/11 texts you’d highlight?