Springsteen’s “Long Walk Home” and the Alienating Feeling of Election Results

Bruce Springsteen released “Long Walk Home” in 2007 on his Magic album.  He wrote the song to reflect how he felt during the years of the George W. Bush presidency.

Last night I stood at your doorstep,
Trying to figure out what went wrong.

“Long Walk Home” is about a guy coming back to his hometown and not recognizing anything.  As Springsteen explained about the singer’s character in The New York Times,  “The things that he thought he knew, the people who he thought he knew, whose ideals he had something in common with, are like strangers.”

Long Walk Home

In town I pass Sal’s grocery,
Barber shop on South Street;
I looked in their faces,
They’re all rank strangers to me.

The reference to “rank strangers” in Springsteen’s “A Long Walk Home” was inspired by the song “Rank Strangers to Me,” sometimes called “The Rank Stranger” or just “Rank Stranger.” Albert E. Brumley wrote “Rank Strangers to Me,” which was made famous by The Stanley Brothers.

“Rank Strangers to Me” is also about a man returning to the town of his youth.  As in Springsteen’s song, the singer discovers he does not recognize anything.

The meaning of “Rank Stranger” is open to interpretation. There is no resolution or explanation about why the singer does not recognize the people in his town. Has he died? Has everyone else died? It is a mystery that makes the song haunt you long after you have heard it.

Similarly, in Springsteen’s song, the unrecognizable world feels alien to the singer. The meaning would be mysterious too, except that Springsteen has provided context for “The Long Walk Home.” He explained about the alienation during the Bush administration, “I think that’s what’s happened in this country.”

It’s gonna be a long walk home;
Hey pretty darling, don’t wait up for me;
Gonna be a long walk home,
A long walk home.

While some celebrated the election results this week, many felt they were seeing their country in a way they could not recognize. Maybe Springsteen had a feeling about what was going to happen when he chose to play “Long Walk Home” outside Philadelphia’s Independence Hall during a rally for Hillary Clinton the night before the election.

Either way, the song captures the disappointment that one side often feels after an election. But that is the nature of democracy. At one time or another, we all have to take a long walk to get back home.

Leave your two cents in the comments. Photo by Chimesfreedom.

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    Happy Birthday Susan Tedeschi!

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    Singer and guitarist Susan Tedeschi was born in Boston on November 9, 1970.  Tedeschi has made some great music as a solo artist as well as with her current work with the Tedeschi Trucks Band along with her husband Derek Trucks. We wish her a happy birthday.

    In celebration of Tedeschi’s birthday, check out this performance of “Angel from Montgomery” from October 5, 2016.  In this performance, Luther Dickinson joined in on guitar with the Tedeschi Trucks Band at the Beacon Theatre in New York City.

    If that performance leads you to wanting more from the Tedeschi Trucks Band, check out this NPR Tiny Desk Concert from March 2016. Songs in the video are: “Just As Strange,” “Don’t Know What It Is,” and “Anyhow.”

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    Song of the Day: “If a Song Could Be President”

    vote here As our U.S. readers go to the polls, listen to one of the more hopeful songs about presidents, “If a Song Could Be President.”  The Ohio band Over the Rhine featured the song on their album, The Trumpet Child (2007).

    Linford Detweiler and Karin Bergquist of Over the Rhine were inspired to write “If a Song Could Be President” after receiving an invitation to visit the White House in 2005.  The band accepted the invitation even though they disagreed with policies of President George W. Bush’s administration.

    But, as they later wrote on Huffington Post, “we soon realized that what was so often missing from the current political climate in America were opportunities for folks who might have differing ideas to sit down face to face and actually engage in real conversation.”

    Detweiler and Bergquist came away from the White House visit thinking about how “American music is one of the last remaining communal enterprises in this country. Music and songwriting still have the potential to bring incredibly diverse people together.”

    They took the experience and put together a song that brought together a beautiful mix of American music.  They came up with a dream wondering what it would be like if a song could be president. Check out “If a Song Could Be President.”

    If a song could be president,
    We’d fly a jukebox to the moon;
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    Lightnin’ Hopkins and Patsy Cline,
    If a song could be president.

    Happy election day.

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    The Life and Songs of Emmylou Harris

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    On January 10, 2015, a group of great performers came together at Washington, DC’s DAR Constitution Hall to honor Emmylou Harris. To celebrate Harris’s work, Rounder is releasing DVD and CD versions of The Life & Songs of Emmylou Harris: An All-Star Concert Celebration, created and produced by Blackbird Presents.

    The performers on the DVD and CD feature many of my favorite artists. The package includes music by Mary Chapin Carpenter, Shawn Colvin, Sheryl Crow, Rodney Crowell, Steve Earle, Vince Gill, Patty Griffin, Chris Hillman, Iron & Wine, Alison Krauss, Kris Kristofferson, Daniel Lanois, Martina McBride, Buddy Miller, Conor Oberst, Mavis Staples, Sara Watkins, Lee Ann Womack, and Lucinda Williams.

    Of course, the celebration would not be complete without Emmylou Harris. She performs “Boulder to Birmingham,” a song she co-wrote about Gram Parsons after he passed away. The song originally appeared on Harris’s 1975 album Pieces of the Sky.

    Below, Harris performs “Boulder to Birmingham” at the celebration concert with a little help from her friends. She begins singing the song alone before the others join her onstage. It is not much of a stretch to see the symbolism in the arrangement, considering how Harris must have felt so alone after Parson’s death. But her fans and colleagues, who in many ways are children of Gram Parsons, remind her that she is not alone. It is a beautiful song, and this performance is a nice arrangement.

    The Life & Songs Of Emmylou Harris: An All-Star Concert Celebration will be released in various forms on November 11, 2016.

    What is your favorite Emmylou Harris song? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    Check out the new trailer for La La Land.

    La La Land hits theaters on December 16, 2016.

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