#7 Ain't Got You by Bruce Springsteen

For those who seem to have everything anyone could ever want or need, an intense need for love, true love with one special person remains. Some, as portrayed in many romanticized movies, would give up anything for “the one”. They’d risk their reputation, their riches, and even their family if it means being with the one they love above all others.

This makes me think, though, about how much we actually value love as a society. We hold it up as something to be fought for and surrendered to. However, love is not the pursuit of the world overall. In our society, Western Capitalistic Commercialism, etc… , all those other things, fame, fortune, the gathering and consumption of the latest and greatest things, are the focus. Those are the things we worship while we give lip service to other ideals and values.

In an effort to gain these things, even those who have a lifelong partner, often forsake their “valued” relationship. It’s the same old story…time, money, stress, not being home to tuck little Johnny into bed at night… Something we would die for becomes something taken for granted, something put on the back burner.

Maybe it’s our denial of our mortality. We always think there will be time later for the important things. But time is a tricky thief. It does not discriminate against its victims. Time comes in like a bandit in the night, rushes in and alters our world in a flash. Then it is gone again before we have time to catch our breath. It sits silently by always ready to come again and take away our youth, our energy, our moments, our beauty. Nothing and no one can stop it. Everyone dies, beauty does not save. Everyone dies, riches do not save. Everyone dies, fame does not save. Everyone dies, and even love does not save. Though when time calls us to its final visit, it is love we will remember, it is love we will be grateful for, it is only love that will survive beyond our dying day.


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

#6 Adam Raised a Cain by Bruce Springsteen

It’s a difficult process, breaking away from the blueprints of our upbringing. We emulate and pattern ourselves after our parents deliberately and subconsciously. Their ways of dealing with life often become our own, even for a short time only. Adam Raised a Cain exemplifies this struggle through the father/son relationship.

As a child grows and begins finding their own way, the faults of their parent (s) become evident. We no longer see our parents as flawless heroes who can do anything. We see their sins and their limitations. This does not mean we lose respect or appreciation for them. However, this process of growing up leads us to the realization that we need to find our own way, and not repeat the unhealthy patterns that exist in our family’s past.

This realization can be painful. “In the summer that I was baptized / my father held me to his side / as the put me to the water / he said how on that day I cried”. A parent’s inclination, though they want their children to succeed and grow, is often to direct and keep their children at or below their level of functioning. Our loyalty and ideals about the natural order of things, namely parents being more developed than their children, are put to the test. Our love for them makes passing them emotionally, spiritually, or in any other way, a very difficult, though necessary step. “We were prisoners of love, a love in chains”.

In order to break away from that shared “hot blood burning in our veins”, acceptance of what we’ve inherited and a determination to rise above it is needed. When Springsteen sings, “He was standin’ in the door I was standin’ in the rain” he paints an image of a stubborn father stuck in his ways and a determined son painfully letting his father know that though he’s his father’s son in many ways, he has to make choices for himself.

The world, too, makes this transition difficult. They see you as who you were, “your father’s son” and don’t easily accept you for who you are as your own person. “You inherit the sins / you inherit the flames” but they do not have to break you, they do not have to take you, they do not have to drive you into a life “working for the pain”.

All parents dream for something more for their children. Facing the reality of it, though can be a scary prospect. Watching their children surpass them only reminds them of where they failed in life, of what they wanted to become and never managed to do so. A parent can only give themselves as they are. A child can only take what is given them, appreciate the good, and process the bad to find their own way. “Lost but not forgotten, from the dark heart of a dream”.

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

#5 Across the Border by Bruce Springsteen

True to many of Springsteen’s characters, the speaker in Across the Border is living on the line between despair and promise. He can’t stay where he is. His only choice is to move forward. He knows what the risks are but hopes for the best.

The first part of the song is a literal journey, much like the ones made by immigrants/refugees seeking a better life for themselves.

The song then flows into a personal journey away from sadness and pain “where pain and memory….have been stilled / there across the border”. He’s looking for the place where he’ll be free to love and be loved.

These external and internal journeys lead him on a spiritual journey where he recognizes that without hope what they have and what they are is not enough. He directly says “that someday we’ll drink from God’s blessed waters”. He recognizes that true freedom lies only in God’s hands. And if to find that freedom, it means death, crossing the “border”, then that is what he is willing to risk. Death will mean more freedom than life in this world ever will.

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