Dr. Forbush Thinks

I finally raised enough courage to go back and listen to Bruce Springsteen’s CD “The Rising.” I say, “raise the courage,” because the last time I tried to listen to it I broke down during the first song: “Lonesome Day,” and I couldn’t listen anymore. It might have been that the first time I listened to the CD it was to close in time to 9/11. After all, the entire CD is a reflection on 9/11 and the “new beginning” we all need to go through after the event.

So, this time I purposefully avoided listening “to close” to the lyrics so that I could get further into the CD and maybe listen to a more hopeful song. I thought about starting with another song, but I realized that “The Boss” put the songs in this order for a reason. I was hopeful that I could get to some more redeeming and hopeful song this time. I tried to avoid listening to the lyrics, but I was pulled into the music and I couldn’t avoid the lyrics.

Well, I am glad that I listened to it again, more than a year after I bought it, because there are more hopeful less sad songs on the CD. I don’t really want to review the CD, but rather write about the emotional experience of listening to such a heavy collection of songs.

Of course this brought back memories of what I was doing on 9/11 and what happened and all those questions again. It is almost like taking a drug because the mood and emotions can’t easily be changed after you start thinking about these things.

I’ve read about people who dropped acid back in the 1960s. Since the effects of the drug last for several hours it is quite important to have everything in order before you take the drug, because a little worry about not having something done could be magnified while you are under the influence of the drug. The experience of listening to “The Rising” was much like this. After listening to it I was quite melancholy for quite some time. Even when I put other music on I couldn’t shake the mood. In fact, I had to put more melancholy music on, because other music seemed to be quite annoying. Fortunately the effect of listening to the CD didn’t last for 12 hours or impair my driving, so it was much safer than dropping LSD.