Roll of the Dice: Countin’ on a Miracle

For all of Bruce’s considerable skill as a songwriter, performer, and bandleader, it’s his skill as an arranger that impresses me the most.

With each new tour, as much as I look forward to hearing songs I’ve never heard before, I also know I’m going to hear familiar songs as if I’ve never heard them before either. Bruce seems to have an almost effortless ability to recast, reinvent, and reimagine songs, infusing them with new meaning, nuance, and layers.

There may be no better example of this talent than “Countin’ on a Miracle,” which Bruce not only recorded in two very different forms, he did so contemporaneously, crafting both a lush, hard rocker and a plaintive country blues arrangement simultaneously.

Most casual fans are familiar with the rock version–it’s the one released on Bruce’s landmark 2002 album, The Rising.

The optimistic title, the fairy tale setting in the first line, the soaring chorus, and the gorgeous, string-filled backing track all conspire to deceive the casual listener into thinking this is a happy song.

It’s not, though, and Bruce says as much in the first line. But as with the studio version of “Born in the U.S.A.,” the lyrics are outmatched by the music.

It’s a fairy tale so tragic, there’s no prince to break the spell
I don’t believe in magic, but for you I will, yeah for you I will
If I’m a fool, I’ll be a fool, darlin’ for you

Well, I’m countin’ on a miracle
Baby, I’m countin’ on a miracle
Darlin’, I’m countin’ on a miracle to come through

There ain’t no storybook story, there’s no never-ending song
Our happily ever after darlin’ is forever come and gone, and I’m movin’ on
I’m gonna believe, I’ll put my faith, darlin’, in you

Bruce makes it clear right off the bat: this is a tragedy, a tale of love lost to the finality of death. The fairy tale reference is to Sleeping Beauty, and because Bruce is a heterosexual man, we might assume his point-of-view character is referring to a woman he loved but lost. But we’d be wrong.

This is one of the rare times in which Bruce writes from the female perspective. The Sleeping Beauty reference is in regard to the one who remains, not the one who is lost. The singer longs to wake up and find that her loss was just a bad dream, but her Prince Charming is lost to her forever–the kiss she craves isn’t coming, so she searches for another miracle instead: for the strength to move forward and carry on without her love. She’s not a believer; religion holds no place in her life. So she does what she knows her love would want her to do: she moves on.

As is often the case with Bruce’s songs, the emotional heart of “Countin’ on a Miracle” is in the bridge. As Nashville String Machine transports us momentarily back into her fairy tale, our heroine ruefully sings:

Sleeping Beauty awakes from her dream with her lover’s kiss on her lips
Your kiss was taken from me, now all I have is this:

your kiss…
your touch…
your heart…
your strength…
your hope…
your faith…
your face…
your love…
your dream…
your life.

There’s a touch of bitterness here seeping through the sadness. The phrase “your kiss was taken from me” casts the narrator as the victim of a crime, and the “this” she’s left with is her memory of all the ways her prince touched her–physically, emotionally, inspirationally. She paints a picture of her lost love that’s so vivid, it’s almost as if he lives on in her heart and memory. Which of course he does:

I’m runnin’ through the forest with the wolf at my heels
My king is lost at midnight when the tower bells peal
We’ve got no fairy tale ending, in God’s hands our fate is complete
Your heaven’s here in my heart, our love’s this dust beneath my feet, just this dust beneath my feet
If I’m gonna live, I’ll lift my life, darlin’, to you

Our heroine can’t shake her life’s fairy tale metaphor, informing us at once of both how idyllic she viewed their relationship and how lost she feels without it.

The reference to a higher power isn’t an affirmation of faith; it’s an accusation of betrayal. She doesn’t turn to God for the strength to carry on; instead she looks to her love. She builds him an eternal home in her heart, dedicates her life to his memory, and takes her first steps forward… counting on her lost king to keep her company along the way.

Well, I’m countin’ on a miracle
Baby, I’m countin’ on a miracle
Darlin’, I’m countin’ on a miracle to come through

“Countin’ on a Miracle” is  a heartbreaking expression of love, loss, and resilience. It’s right at home thematically on The Rising, an album released in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. The historical context amplifies the already considerable emotional weight of the song–it’s likely that the narrator’s loss was one of the many lives claimed on that tragic day, which makes her lament of her love’s kiss being stolen from her and the image of their love being dust beneath her feet less metaphorical and more literal.

But again, you’d be forgiven for not feeling the weight of the song in its originally released arrangement. Even performed live with the E Street Band, the song can’t quite convey the pain felt by the singer:

…but if you stuck around after the last encore of each show on The Rising Tour, while your fellow fans filed out of the arena where you’d all been transported for the last three hours, you’d see and hear this remarkable arrangement being played in the starkly lit, empty arena:

Wow.

Sitting alone in the hallway of Southern Tracks Studios during the recording sessions for The Rising, Bruce reimagined his song as a country blues elegy, and the full emotional power of the lyrics and aching loss at the heart of the song comes pouring through his high falsetto vocals (which also help to shed light on the gender switch of the main characters). We’re fortunate that Danny Clinch was there with his Super 8 camera to capture it, the grainy detail perfectly matching an arrangement that feels lifted out of the 1930s.

And the very fact that the only way most of us were able to hear the song for over a year was in a harshly lit empty arena–which only moments before had been the scene of communal fairy tales and magic–well, that’s just perfect.

I found myself staying behind at every show I attended on that tour just to hear that song one more time, so powerful it was. I was grateful when Bruce chose to release it at the end of the tour as part of the bonus disc included with The Essential Bruce Springsteen.

The country blues version of “Countin’ on a Miracle” remains the definitive version of the song for me.

Bonus #1: As the Rising Tour progressed, so did the arrangement of “Countin’ on a Miracle.” While the main song never evolved beyond its album arrangement, starting with the Rotterdam show in October 2002, Nils Lofgren contributed an exquisite acoustic guitar introduction that did more than provide the band a momentary breather in between songs–it helped established the delicateness and fragility of life and love. It immediately became a nightly highlight. Here’s the first time Nils contributed his magic to “Countin’ on a Miracle:”

Bonus #2: In mid-June 2005, lucky European fans at Bruce’s solo acoustic shows in Frankfurt and Rotterdam (Rotterdam again! How did the Dutch get so lucky?) were treated to Bruce’s only two performances of “Countin’ on a Miracle” post-Rising Tour. And it was a lovely arrangement, starting on electric piano and segueing to full piano just at the moment where our heroine summons her strength to carry on. It’s a wonderful effect, and while the performance is little bit rough around the edges (Bruce was adding new songs to the setlist nightly, flying without a net), it’s absolutely worth hearing.

Countin’ on a Miracle
Recorded: February-March 2002 (both versions)
Released: The Rising (2002, rock version), The Essential Bruce Springsteen (2003, country blues version)
First performed: July 26, 2002 (Asbury Park, NJ)
Last performed: June 19, 2005 (Rotterdam, The Netherlands)

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