Dead Man Walking is based on a book by the same name, a true story of convicted murderers awaiting execution and the nun who develops a relationship with them and acts as their spiritual counselor throughout the remainder of their lives.
In 1995, Tim Robbins adapted the book into a film, sparking renewed debate about the legitimacy of the death penalty and garnering critical acclaim. Robbins personally asked Bruce to write a song for the film. Bruce watched the film and then delivered a quiet, introspective reflection from the point of view of the murderer. It plays over the film’s end credits.
The melody is low, slow, and dark; the lyrics are terse and sparse. The metaphors hit with added weight, in stark contrast to the prisoner’s bare surroundings.
There’s a pale horse comin’
And I’m gonna ride it
I’ll rise in the morning
My fate decided
I’m a dead man walkin’
The pale horse, of course, is a biblical reference to death, and the prisoner’s declaration to ride it is his acceptance of his decided fate–his acknowledgement that he is addressing is in his last hours. As the Death Row saying goes, he is a dead man walking,
In Saint James Parish
I was born and christened
Now I’ve got my story
Mister, ain’t no need for you to listen
It’s just a dead man talkin’
The prisoner starts to tell his story, and then abandons it. There’s no point: he’s soon to be a dead man, and his story (he believes) doesn’t matter any more.
Like many of Bruce’s great songs, the bridges in “Dead Man Walkin” are home to the song’s most memorable lines:
Once I had a job, I had a girl…
Between our dreams and actions lies this world
The job/girl line is a callback to the loser in “Downbound Train,” and the dream/actions line is an absolutely brilliant reduction of pretty much that entire song from Born in the U.S.A.–so much so that one can’t help but wonder if we’re listening to the same character, further down a very dark and lonely road.
In the deep forest
Their blood and tears rushed over me
All I could feel was the drugs and the shotgun
And my fear up inside of me
Like a dead man talkin’
In this verse, the prisoner relives his crime, and we’re left to wonder if he truly meant to kill his victims, or whether he reacted in the moment out of fear and desperation. Either way, it doesn’t matter. As the narrator says:
‘Neath the summer sky my eyes went black
Sister, I won’t ask for forgiveness–my sins are all I have
Another great line: when all is taken away from you, when your hours are numbered in single digits, all you have to take with you is your impact on the world around you–even if that impact was a dark one. He owns his sins, because they are the only things he can cling to.
Time passes now, and the onset of dawn represents an ending rather than a beginning. In the last hours of his life, our narrator dreams deeply, escaping his circumstances briefly and fleetingly for the final time.
Now the clouds above my prison
They move slowly across the sky
There’s a new day dawning
My dreams are full tonight
“Dead Man Walkin” was nominated for the Best Song Academy Award for 1995, and he performed the song at the award ceremonies.
Although it lost to “Colors of the Wind” from Pocahontas (don’t get me started), “Dead Man Walkin'” garnered critical acclaim and airplay when it was released on the film’s soundtrack in 1996. (In 2003, Bruce would release it as a bonus track on The Essential Bruce Springsteen.)
The film debuted in December 1995, and Bruce was already in the middle of his solo acoustic tour supporting The Ghost of Tom Joad. Bruce played “Dead Man Walkin” sporadically throughout the first six months of the tour, resurrecting it late in the Reunion Tour for a handful of performances. You can hear the rare, restrained, full-band arrangement here.
Dead Man Walkin’
Recorded: April-May 1995
Released: Dead Man Walking (1996), The Essential Bruce Springsteen (2003)
First performed: November 21, 1995 (New Brunswick, NJ)
Last performed: June 23, 2000 (New York City, NY)
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