Sometimes the truth just ain't enough
Or it's too much in times like this
Let's throw the truth away
We'll find it in this kiss
In your skin upon my skin, in the beating of our hearts
May the living let us in before the dead tear us apart

In one stanza, he offers both a prayer for peace and an explanation of the rash of "terror sex" that swept through New York and across the nation in the wake of the attacks, and perhaps also an explanation for the falling national divorce rates in those same weeks. "We're in this moment to live," he continues, "then it's all just dust and dark / Let's let love give what it gives." Bruce has often sounded astute before, but rarely has he sounded so wise.

There are misses on the record, too, like the thoroughly embarrassing "Mary's Place," or "Let's Be Friends," which essentially retreads "Waitin' on a Sunny Day." With 15 tracks that sprawl out over 72 minutes, at some point we've had enough of The Rising, already. But I can forgive Bruce that, because in this frenzy of creativity, he has found more soul than he's put into music in years, and with the reunion of the E-Street Band, maybe he thought he had too much of a good thing to let go of it in a mere 45 minutes.

This, of course, raises the question of where he's been and what he's been doing for 15 years, when he could have been making music like this all along. That's another question entirely, and would be the subject of a much longer, much more speculative article. For now, though, we have this. Let's just be thankful that when America needs its consummate citizen to step up to the mike and give us voice, to explore our souls and heal our hearts and move our butts, Bruce Springsteen is still there.