Bruce Springsteen: The Album Collection, Devils & Dust

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By Anthony “Zute” George

Devils & Dust was released on April 26th, 2005. While it will probably never be mistaken for Bruce’s best album, it is a great acoustic effort and contains some of his most beautiful lyrics. It is also the first album my now wife, then girlfriend bought for me. While it is an acoustic effort, that is anemic on E Street Band contributions, only Patti Scialfa, Sister Soozie Tyrell, and the late Danny Federici make contributions, it is very much an eclectic piece of songwriting. Bruce covers the strained relationship with his father, the strained relationship we often have with ourselves, a shameful shack up with a prostitute, boxing, westerns and black folks, American Soldiers in combat, how parents inflict their sins on their offspring, and so much more. Indeed, songwriting at his best. Vocally, Bruce is always much better than he is given credit for, and even what he thinks he is. Long Time Comin’, Maria’s Bed, Leah, and All I’m Thinkin’ About, is just a small sample size of his underrated range.

With that said, it is Bruce’s lyrics that separate him and every other musician that has ever walked the Earth. Here is a snippet of just some of the lyrics that Bruce write on this album. I will not provide the song, as I think it will be fun for those to read this to match the lyrics with the song.

1. A mother dies leaving her young son
2. Now you got no reason to trust me. My confidence is a little rusty
3. Somehow all you ever need’s never quite enough…
4. What if what you do to survive kills the things you love
5. I got a life I wanna start, one I been waitin’ to live
6. It’s your love here that keeps my soul alive. I want you to come home from school and stay inside
7. The blood began to dry. The smell began to rise
8. I been out in the desert yeah doin’ my time. Searchin’ through the dust for fools gold, lookin’ for a sign
9. Well my daddy he was just a stranger. Lived in a hotel downtown. Well when I was a kid he was just somebody. Somebody I’d see around
10. I fought champion Jack Thompson in a field full of mud. Rain poured through the tent to the canvas and mixed with our blood. In the twelfth, I slipped my tongue over my broken jaw. And I stood over him, pounded his blooded body into the floor
11. Your clothes give way to the current and river stone. ‘Till every trace of who you ever were is gone
12. Fear’s a dangerous thing. It can turn your heart black you can trust
13. Blind man waving by the side of the road. In a flatbed Ford carrying a heavy load
14. Well the bell rang and rang, still I kept on. ‘Til I felt my glove leather slip ‘tween his skin and bone
15. Now I’m gonna get birth naked and bury my old soul and dance on it’s grave
What is your favorite line from the album? Did I list it? If not, what is it? For me, number 15 is just about the greatest lyrics ever.

What track(s) did I fail to list?

Favorite track? I always go back and forth with the title track and Long Time Comin’, but there is no wrong answer.

How many of these songs did you see him perform live? 0 for me, hopefully, that will change one day!

Questions true Bruce fanatics discuss all the time.

Devils & Dust would not be the album that I would recommend listening to first if you are not a veteran of Bruce’s music. But it is what I have been listening to quite a bit lately. And like all of Bruce Springsteen’s albums, I discover something new every time I hear it.
Anthony “Zute” George is the Author of Tough Man: The Greg Haugen Story, a new boxing book that covers the skilled champion from Auburn, Washington, as well as the scope of the times during his days of pugilism.

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