The origins of “Jacob’s Ladder” the song go back far enough (200 years, maybe more) to be lost in the distant past. The origins of the story go back much further to the Book of Genesis in the Bible.
The notion of climbing a ladder to heaven–of working toward it step by step by step on a lifelong journey based on the promise of and faith in a someday arrival–is a notion so resonant to so many that the term “Jacob’s Ladder” has been appropriated for pop songs, movies, books, and even video games.
But the song that most of us are familiar with is the African American slave spiritual that Pete Seeger brought to wider attention in the mid-twentieth century.
When Bruce assembled a group of musicians to record his collection of American folk songs that would eventually become the We Shall Overcome album, “Jacob’s Ladder” is one of the last songs they recorded–barely 90 days before the album hit store shelves.
And while Bruce reinterpreted all of the songs on the album to some degree, “Jacob’s Ladder” is one of the most striking adaptations, with a full-on Dixieland arrangement that sounds for all the world like the song originated in New Orleans.
Interestingly, though, Bruce chose to incorporate only the first two verses from the original spiritual. It’s not surprising that he’d drop the final three, since they were full-on religious devotional, but it is surprising that he didn’t incorporate Seeger’s replacement verses, which included a reference to dancing “Sarah’s circle” to make the song less patriarchal.
Instead, with only the first two verses repeated multiple times, the power of the song comes from the increasing passion and fervor of the vocals and the band. In fact, “Jacob’s Ladder” served as a mid-set band showcase during the Seeger Sessions Tour and provided Bruce with an opportunity to rev up audience participation for the back half of the show. Here’s its first “official” concert outing, from Jazz Fest in New Orleans in 2006:
Because the studio recording is essentially a live recording too, “Jacob’s Ladder” doesn’t change much when translated to the stage–although it did on one particular occasion, at a special televised performance at St. Luke’s Church in London, where Bruce completely forgot how the song started–but didn’t realize he’d forgotten until he was well into the open bars, leading to one of Bruce’s funnier on-stage admissions in front of a bemused and confused band.
By the end of the much-too-short Seeger Session Tour, however, both Bruce and the band had the song down, and in true Springsteen style, the song now stretched out before them while the band members showed off musically (and in one case, acrobatically).
“Jacob’s Ladder” was featured nightly on the Seeger Sessions Tour, but while the E Street Band occasionally dips into the Seeger Sessions catalog, “Jacob’s Ladder” has yet to return. Here’s hoping for at least one more tour with the Sessions Band so we can hear it again.
Jacob’s Ladder
Recorded: January 21, 2006
Released: We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions (2006)
First performed: April 20, 2006 (Asbury Park, NJ)
Last performed: November 21, 2006 (Belfast, Northern Ireland)
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