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Rating: The 90s were dominated by the attempt to leave behind the grandeur of works, studio and live, with the E Street Band, an attempt which, as much as possible, succeeded. Then the "re-union" with the ESB, September 11th, and The Rising, an album, practically a "double," as beautiful as it is rich and complex, destined to remain, perhaps wrongly, too closely linked to the tragic event of the 2001 attack and somewhat detached from the rest of the production, as demonstrated by the rare live performance of most of the tracks, despite its high artistic value.
After that album, everyone expected another record with the ESB. Instead, in 2005 came Devils & Dust, a very sparse folk album, with Springsteen playing everything, including the drums, assisted by a few understated embellishments, mostly involving the subtle inclusion of the Nashville String Machine's strings, giving a country touch to an otherwise dark album, yet one with clear beauty.
It’s easy to connect the record to Nebraska (1982) and The Ghost of Tom Joad (1995) under the common label of folk albums, and to some extent, it’s fair to do so, although, in my opinion, this is a more complex and richer album than the first two, without wishing to make beauty rankings, especially since both Nebraska and The Ghost of Tom Joad are masterpieces, different from each other and different from the album at hand.
The album opens with Devils & Dust, a masterpiece, a track surely conceived to be played with the band, which rarely happened, with a final result not inferior to the album version, where keyboards, organ, and strings provide a soundscape of great beauty and impact, embracing the acoustic guitar, majestic and expressive vocals, and the author's harmonica. The lyrics are the diary of an American soldier (probably on a mission in Iraq) talking with a friend and colleague at the front, confessing to having dreamed of his death: dreaming of a friend's death in war is somewhat like dreaming of one's own death, fueling the soldier’s doubts about fighting without reason: "I got my finger on the trigger but I don't know who to trust". This is the only track on the album that addresses war, connecting it to the events of The Rising. From here on, the album's central theme becomes the man-woman relationship experienced in the family dimension of husband-wife/child-parent.
All the Way Home and Reno are songs about the end of love. In the first, the man vainly tries to recover a failing relationship; in the second (censored for its explicit lyrics), he turns to the attentions of a prostitute who nevertheless fails to give him the emotions and passion of the partner who is no longer there, in this case after a tragic event. Musically, the first is a very tense and acidic blues-rock track, played on an electrified sarangi (played by Brendan O'Brien) giving an ethnic touch, while the second is a blues-folk dominated by a dobro guitar enriched with string touches.
Silver Palomino, Jesus Was an Only Son, and The Hitter form a triad that narrates, with extremely high poetic peaks, the mother-son relationship: the first tells of a mother's death whose spirit the son revives in a silver-colored pony, the second speaks, through the biblical images of Jesus's death, of the mother's pain at losing a son, the last of a son's pain, a street-fighting boxer, seeking a bit of sweetness and forgiveness in his mother's arms; musically, Silver Palomino and The Hitter are two folk pieces of the best American school, with The Hitter considered among the most beautiful songs not only by Springsteen but in the American folk repertoire. Jesus Was an Only Son, perhaps the album's most beautiful song, has nothing of folk; it's a gospel piece dominated by piano and female choirs (Tyrell, Scialfa, Lowell), reminiscent of some "spiritual" musical episodes from Bob Dylan's Christian conversion albums.
Usually, Bruce Springsteen's albums close with a filler (so to speak): All I'm Thinkin' About was perhaps conceived as a closure, a piece with simple and carefree lyrics ("all I think about is you, baby"), after so much poetry; musically interesting, though, country played on a dobro guitar and sung with an effective falsetto voice.
Closing with Matamoros Banks, another folk masterpiece, alongside The Hitter: here, themes from The Ghost of Tom Joad return, speaking of Mexican immigrants losing their lives crossing rivers; "for two days the river keeps you down, then you rise to the light"... for two days the river keeps you down, then you rise to the light without any noise: starting like this, in two verses of incredible beauty, it has already said everything; Springsteen's performance is beautiful, showcasing, in my opinion, his best vocal performance ever in this album.
It is not a simple album, not musically able to quickly capture attention; it is folk precisely for this, for its non-commerciality.
I recommend accompanying the listening with a careful reading of the lyrics, which are the poetic pinnacle of Springsteen's work.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Devils & Dust (04:58)
I got my finger on the trigger
But I don't know who to trust
When I look into your eyes
There's just devils and dust
We're a long, long way from home, Bobbie
Home's a long, long way from us
I feel a dirty wind blowing
Devils and dust
I got God on my side
And I'm just trying to survive
What if what you do to survive
Kills the things you love
Fear's a powerful thing, baby
It can turn your heart black you can trust
It'll take your God-filled soul
And fill it with devils and dust
Well I dreamed of you last night
In a field of blood and stone
The blood began to dry
The smell began to rise
Well I dreamed of you last night, Bobbie
In a field of mud and bone
Your blood began to dry
And the smell began to rise
We've got God on our side
We're just trying to survive
What if what you do to survive
Kills the things you love
Fear's a powerful thing
It'll turn your heart black you can trust
It'll take your God-filled soul
Fill it with devils and dust
It'll take your God-filled soul
Fill it with devils and dust
Now every woman and every man
They wanna take a righteous stand
Find the love that God wills
And the faith that He commands
I've got my finger on the trigger
And tonight faith just ain't enough
When I look inside my heart
There's just devils and dust
Well I've got God on my side
And I'm just trying to survive
What if what you do to survive
Kills the things you love
Fear's a dangerous (should be powerful) thing
It can turn your heart black you can trust
It'll take your God filled soul
Fill it with devils and dust
Yeah it'll take your God-filled soul
Fill it with devils and dust
02 All the Way Home (03:38)
I know what it's like to have failed baby
With the whole world lookin' on
I know what it's like to have soared
And come crashin' like a drunk on a bar room floor
Now you got no reason to trust me
My confidence is a little rusty
But if you don't feel like bein' alone
Baby I could walk you all the way home
Well now our old fears and failures
Baby they do linger
Like the shadow of that ring
That was on your finger
Those days they've come and gone
Baby I could walk you all the way home
Love leaves nothin' but shadows and vapor
We go on, as is our sad nature
Now it's some old Stones' song the band is trashin'
If you feel like dancin', baby I'm askin'
It's comin' on closing time
Bartender he's ringin' last call
These days I don't stand on pride
And I ain't afraid to take a fall
So if you're seein' what you like
Maybe your first choice, he's gone
Well that's all right
Baby I could walk you all the way home
Baby I could walk you all the way home
03 Reno (04:08)
She took off her stockings
I held 'em to my face
She had your ankles
I felt filled with grace
"Two hundred dollars straight in
Two-fifty up the ass" she smiled and said
She unbuckled my belt, pulled back her hair
And sat in front of me on the bed
She said, "Honey, how's that feel
Do you want me to go slow?"
My eyes drifted out the window
And down to the road below
I felt my stomach tighten
As the sun bloodied the sky
And sliced through hotel blinds
I closed my eyes
Sunlight on the Amatitlan
Sunlight streaming through your hair
In the Valle de dos Rios
The smell of mock orange filled the air
We rode with the vaqueros
Down into cool rivers of green
I was sure the work and the smile coming out 'neath your hat
Was all I'll ever need
Somehow all you ever need's
Never quite enough you know
You and I, Maria, we learned it's so
She slipped me out of her mouth
"You're ready", she said
She took off her bra and panties
Wet her fingers, slipped it inside her
And crawled over me on the bed
She bought me another whisky
Said "here's to the best you ever had"
We laughed and made a toast
It wasn't the best I ever had
Not even close
06 Maria's Bed (05:35)
Been on a barbed wire highway 40 days and nights
I ain't complain'n that's my job and it suits me right
I got a sweet soul fever rushin' around my head
I'm gonna sleep tonight in Maria's bed
Got on a dead man's suit and smilin' skull ring
Lucky graveyard boots and a song to sing
I keep my heart in my work, my troubles in my head
And I keep my soul in Maria's bed
I been up on sugar mountain, 'cross the sweet blue sea
I walked the valley of love and tears and mystery
I got run out'a luck and gave myself up for dead
Then I drank the cool clear waters from Maria's bed
She give me candy stick kisses 'neath a wolf dog moon
One sweet breath and she'll take you, mister, to the upper room
I was burned by the angels, sold wings of lead
Then I fell in the roses and sweet salvation of Maria's bed
I been out in the desert, doin' my time
Siftin' through the dust for fools gold, lookin' for a sign
Holy man said, "Hold on, brother, there's a light up ahead."
Ain't nothin' like the light that shines on me in Maria's bed
Well I take my blessings at the riverhead
I'm living in the light of Maria's bed
09 Leah (03:31)
I wanna build me a house, on higher ground
I wanna find me a world, where love's the only sound
High above this road, filled with shadow and doubt
I want to shoulder my load, and figure it all out
With Leah
I walk this road, with a hammer and a fiery lantern
With this hand I've built, and with this I've burned
I wanna live in the same house, beneath the same roof
Sleep in the same bed, search for the same proof
As Leah
I got somethin' in my heart, I been waitin' to give
I got a life I wanna start, one I been waitin' to live
No more waitin', tonight I feel the light I say the prayer
I open the door, I climb the stairs...
10 The Hitter (05:53)
Come to the door, Ma, and unlock the chain
I was just passin' through and got caught in the rain
There's nothin' I want, nothin' that you need say
Just let me lie down for a while and I'll be on my way
I was no more than a kid when you put me on the Southern Queen
With the police on my back I fled to New Orleans
I fought in the dockyards and with the money I made
I knew the fight was my home and blood was my trade
Baton Rouge, Ponchatoula, and Lafayette town
Well they paid me their money, Ma, I knocked the men down
I did what I did well it come easily
Restraint and mercy, Ma, were always strangers to me
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
I stood over him and pounded his bloody body into the floor
Well the bell rang and rang and still I kept on
'Till I felt my glove leather slip 'tween his skin and bone
Then the women and the money came fast and the days I lost track
The women red, the money green, but the numbers were black
I fought for the men in their silk suits to lay down their bets
I took my good share, Ma, I have no regrets
Then I took the fix at the state armory with big John McDowell
From high in the rafters I watched myself fall
As they raised his arm my stomach twisted and the sky it went black
I stuffed my bag with their good money and I never looked back
Understand, in the end, Ma, every man plays the game
If you know me one different then speak out his name
Ma, if my voice now you don't recognize
Then just open the door and look into your dark eyes
I ask of you nothin', not a kiss not a smile,
Just open the door and let me lie down for a while
Now the gray rain's fallin' and my ring fightin's done
So in the work fields and alleys I take all who'll come
If you're a better man than me then just step to the line
Show me your money and speak out your crime
Now there's nothin' I want, Ma, nothin' that you need say
Just let me lie down for a while and I'll be on my way
Tonight in the shipyard a man draws a circle in the dirt
I move to the center and I take off my shirt
I study him for the cuts, the scars, the pain,
Man, nor time can erase
I move hard to the left and I strike to the face
11 All I'm Thinkin' About (04:22)
One, two, three, four
Blind man wavin' by the side of the road
In a flatbed Ford carryin' a heavy load
Sweet thing sipping on a blueberry wine
On a flat black highway down in Carolina
Black bird slipping in a sky of blue
All I'm thinkin' about is you, baby
All I'm thinkin' about is you, honey
All I'm thinkin' about is you, baby
All I'm thinkin' about is you
There ain't nothing in this world I can do about it
All I'm thinkin' about is you
Little boy carryin' a fishing pole
Little girl pickin' huckleberries from off of the vine
Brown bag filled with a little green toad
We hook him through the the lip and throw him off with a line
A sweet pair of legs got me feelin' so blue
And all I'm thinkin' about is you, baby
All I'm thinkin' about is you
All I'm thinkin' about is you, baby
All I'm thinkin' about is you
There ain't nothing in this world I can do about it
All I'm thinkin' about is you
Black car shiny on a Sunday morn'
Mama go to church now
Mama go to church now
Friday night and Daddy's shirt is torn
Daddy's going downtown
Daddy's going downtown
Ain't no one understand the sweet thing you do
All I'm thinkin' about is you, baby
All I'm thinkin' about is you
All I'm thinkin' about is you, baby
All I'm thinkin' about is you
Ain't nothing in this world I can do about it
All I'm thinkin' about is you
Whoaaa
Field turned up, the seed is sowed
Rain comin' in from over across the road
Big black curtain comin' across the field
Blind will see and lame will be healed
Brown-eyed girl, turn my back on you
Now it's lonely
All I'm thinkin' about is you, baby
And all I'm thinkin' about is you
And all I'm thinkin' about is you, baby
All I'm thinkin' about is you
There ain't nothing in this world take away these blues
All I'm thinkin' about is you
All I'm thinkin' about is you, baby
All I'm thinkin' about is you
Well baby, all I'm thinkin' about is you
Yeah all I'm thinkin' about is you
Ain't nothing in this world I can do about it
All I'm thinkin' about is you
Whoaaa
12 Matamoros Banks (04:00)
For two days the river keeps you down
Then you rise to the light without a sound
Past the playgrounds and empty switching yards
The turtles eat the skin from your eyes, so they lay open to the stars
Your clothes give way to the current and river stone
'Till every trace of who you ever were is gone
And the things of the earth they make their claim
That the things of heaven may do the same
Goodbye, my darling, for your love I give God thanks,
Meet me on the Matamoros
Meet me on the Matamoros
Meet me on the Matamoros banks
Over rivers of stone and ancient ocean beds
I walk on sandals of twine and tire tread
My pockets full of dust, my mouth filled with cool stone
The pale moon opens the earth to its bones
I long, my darling, for your kiss, for your sweet love I give God thanks
The touch of your loving fingertips
Meet me on the Matamoros
Meet me on the Matamoros
Meet me on the Matamoros banks
Your sweet memory comes on the evenin' wind
I sleep and dream of holding you in my arms again
The lights of Brownsville, across the river shine
A shout rings out and into the silty red river I dive
I long, my darling, for your kiss, for your sweet love I give God thanks
A touch of your loving fingertips
Meet me on the Matamoros
Meet me on the Matamoros
Meet me on the Matamoros banks
Meet me on the Matamoros
Meet me on the Matamoros
Meet me on the Matamoros banks
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Other reviews
By Testaverde
Subtle joy and latent melancholy mix in DEVILS & DUST, the latest work of the boy from Asbury Park.
To define DEVILS & DUST as a midpoint between the two would be unfair to NEBRASKA, but it’s certainly much closer to it than to THE GHOST.
By Viva Lì
The music is beautiful (intimate and mystical; powerful and sanguine), many guitar riffs are thrilling, the Boss’s voice is always rough and icy, sad and relentless.
"Devils & Dust" will not go down in history. The Boss is tired, perhaps a bit bored.
