Roll of the Dice: Swallowed Up (In the Belly of the Whale)

When is a bonus track not a bonus track?

When it’s the album’s summational track.

That’s arguably the case with “Swallowed Up (In the Belly of the Whale),” which Bruce appended to the special edition of his Wrecking Ball  album in 2011.

Wrecking Ball is not only one of Bruce’s most cohesive albums, it’s the one with the strongest narrative arc. Starting off defiantly with the anthemic “We Take Care of Our Own,” Bruce descends from anger to surrender, bottoming out with “This Depression” before climbing out towards “Land of Hope and Dreams” and closing with the eternal “We Are Alive.”

And then, almost as an afterthought, comes two bonus tracks: “Swallowed Up (In the Belly of the Whale)” and “American Land.”

The latter makes sense as a bonus track–although it’s not a completely square peg in the album’s roundly economic theme, Bruce had already given it an official release as a live performance back in 2006.

But as for the former… I try not to second-guess Bruce’s album inclusion and sequence choices (or at least I try to try not to), I can’t help but feel like Bruce made the wrong call: the album would have been better served with “Swallowed Up” as its nadir and “This Depression” in the bonus track slot. (Or better yet, keep them both and kick “You’ve Got It” to the back of the disc.)

“This Depression” is a great song, but it breaks the album’s theme. It shifts the focus from the societal wreckage wreaked by economic inequity to a more universal and personal depression.

By contrast, “Swallowed Up” packs just as much emotional wallop without ever straying thematically, and it’s much more artistically daring–breathtakingly so. It deserves to have been the album’s centerpiece rather than an afterthought.

Let’s take a listen. But first–and I know I say this often, but this time it’s really necessary–put on your headphones. and turn up the volume. And if you can, turn out the lights.

“Swallowed Up” is so intimate that we can actually hear the ambiance of the room Bruce recorded it in. If you listen clearly, even in the song’s opening measures, you can hear every movement Bruce makes, every tap of a fingertip against his guitar.

The effect is one of unsettling intimacy, as if we’re in such close proximity to Bruce that he’s literally singing in our ear.

Musically, there’s a lot going on: the simulated ocean waves, the somber bass drum, and the out-of-tune guitar lead a procession of low-register instruments (including the bassoon and contrabassoon, in their first appearances in a Bruce Springsteen song) that drag us to murky depths.

The lyrics pave more familiar ground, employing biblical metaphor (in this case, the story of Jonah and the whale) for secular purpose.

I fell asleep on a dark and starless sea
With nothing but the cloak of God’s mercy over me
I come upon strange earth and a great black cave
I dreamt I awoke as if buried in my grave

We’ve been swallowed up
We’ve been swallowed up
Disappeared from this world
We’ve been swallowed up

Now, it certainly possible to interpret “Swallowed Up” in a broader context than purely economic, especially with only the first verse and chorus to reflect on. The notion of a great black cave that swallows one whole is a pretty apt way to describe depression.

But there’s something about that third line in the chorus–“Disappeared from this world”–that suggests something more. The second verse suggests as much, too:

The bones of sailors from the north and sailors from the east
Lay high in a pyre in the belly of a beast
A beast should you wander in its path upon your ship and your flesh he’ll sup
You’ll disappear from this world ’til you’ve been swallowed up

Besides what must be Bruce’s most awkward syntactical construction, that verse implies that this isn’t an inner demon, and it isn’t a personal one: it’s claimed the lives of the narrator’s countrymen, and it claims as its prize not just your soul but your home.

But as is often the case with Bruce, it comes down to a single couplet to drive the message home:

We trusted our skills and our good sails
Put our faith that with God the righteous in this world prevail

And that’s the song’s heart and torment in a nutshell: we’re raised to believe that with strong skill, persistence, values, and faith, we’ll find a path in this world–if not to riches, then at least to security.

But that’s no longer the case, if it ever was:

But we’ve been swallowed up
We’ve been swallowed up
Disappeared from this world
We’ve been swallowed up

There may be opportunity out there. But there’s also a beast, a whale that feeds on smaller creatures to survive. And each time the whale feeds, it grows bigger, stronger, more dangerous.

Unfortunate enough to lie in its path, Bruce’s narrator finds himself unable to resist its appetite. Swallowed up, disappeared from this world, as if he was never there.

If the narrator’s spectral cries of anguish–jolting in their suddenly high register–don’t raise the hair on your arms, then you haven’t surrendered yourself to the song.

“Swallowed Up” stopped me in my tracks the very first time I heard it. Years later, I still consider it one of Bruce’s most powerful and artistic compositions. It’s a song that could never fully translate to a live setting, and therefore not one we’re ever likely to hear live.

It’s so potent that I almost postponed writing this article when the dice turned up its number in the midst of a pandemic, and when I followed my own listening advice above, I could feel the song sitting on my chest.

That’s some pretty great art.

Swallowed Up (In the Belly of the Whale)
Recorded: 2011
Released: Wrecking Ball (2012)
Never performed

Looking for your favorite Bruce song? Check our full index here. New entries every week!