#48 Dead Man Walkin’ by Bruce Springsteen

This is one of those songs that overwhelms me to write about. Springsteen’s gift for tapping into the dark recesses of another’s soul is rarely more evident than it is in this story.

“Between our dreams and actions lies this world” sums up beautifully the all too common tragic story of a life lost. A baby is born and dreams are built. His mother holds him and looks into his eyes seeing all the possibilities of his future. But no one is free to grow independent of the world’s cruel mysteries. The battle against internal and external demons sometimes leads to surrender. Shame, guilt, and fear take our inborn sense of our own divinity quickly shatters our belief in even our humanity.

These souls are dead long before they are in the ground. There is no love, no grace for the dead. Anything they do to harm themselves does not matter. They do not feel worth saving. They are their sins. They are their pain. They live life waiting for the day they can finally be free from the ghosts in their veins that have haunted them all their lives. They can only find some small sliver of hope that the grace they did not receive in life will embrace them in death.

For Complete Lyrics Visit: http://www.brucespringsteen.net/songs/DeadManWalkin.html