62 THE RISING

Bruce Springsteen

As America mourned in the wake of 9/11’s terrorist attacks, Bruce Springsteen made The Rising. For the first time in 18 years, he had the E Street Band at his side to give heart, soul and heft to his songs, and crucially, a new producer in Brendan O’Brien to harness their elemental power. Here the guitars of Springsteen, Steve Van Zant and Nils Lofgren were as hard as diamond, Max Weinberg’s drums like blows to the solar plexus. It was no accident that The Rising was Springsteen’s most vibrantsounding record in years, its surging, uplifting title track (with vivid lyrics telling the tale of an NYC firefighter on that fateful day) offering the comfort that light could be found even in the cruellest, most impenetrable-seeming blackness. PR From: The Rising, 2002