Land of Hope and Dreams

As a young girl, my father always told me there was nothing better than Bruce. One day on our way to a wedding, my dad blared Bruce on the speakers and in his drunken voice wailed the words to Thunder Road. He sang and sang. There is nothing better than Bruce.

            If you ask this current generation about Bruce Springsteen they would simply ask back “Who?”. Bruce is a musical icon that has impacted many of the generations before ours. Even out of this declining economy, he still manages to put out an album that brings hope to our generation. In his song Land of Hope and Dreams from his new album Wrecking Ball, he hits on the truth that we are coming out of this rut and are heading to the land of hope and dreams.

            The title of his album Wrecking Ball is a statement in itself. When a construction company is getting ready to take down something old or deteriorated, they use a wrecking ball.  This is what Bruce’s album is leading to. We are getting ready to knock down the wall that is blocking us from reaching our dreams. Each song that is on the album is encouraging the power that we have as people.

            While singing he has so much soul behind it. He believes what he is saying and he knows it is true. He knows that there is something better waiting ahead. The last words of the song are “I said this train… dreams will not be thwarted… This train… faith will be rewarded.”

            Bruce is talking about a day where something greater is going to come not only for the rich but for everyone.  We need to remain faithful through the thick and the thin and in the end we will receive the ultimate reward. I feel that he is alluding to the idea that we can be forgiven and rewarded if we are faithful. This train is not discriminative. It carries the “saints and sinners…losers and winners…whores and gamblers…lost souls.” The train carries us all.

            In the beginning of the song, he says, “we’ll take what we can carry. Yeah, and we’ll leave the rest.”  I feel like there is two ways to interpret this line. First, the Bible tells us to limit our possessions, to store our treasures in heaven. I don’t know how many people, including myself, could just take what I could carry. Throughout history, many communities have had to do this, to pick up and move. I find it interesting that Bruce would sing this in a song at a time like this. We are in such a selfish generation that is constantly begging for more and more.      

So he is asking us to limit our materialistic items. But then he could be asking us to let go of what excess emotional baggage we are carrying and just take the memories that are important. Then in the second part of the journey he says, “for this part of the ride leave behind you sorrows.”

Bruce knows we are all ready for “where the sunlight streams.” Our society has reached a place where there is darkness and we are just lost. We are ready for any hope and encouragement that can be pushed our way. He knows we are ready for this.

Wrecking Ball recognizes the changing of times and the new phase the world is going into. It is a sense of hope that we aren’t the only ones who recognize our need for hope. It inspires that we can still dream and we can still achieve whatever we want.