Roll of the Dice: Devils & Dust

“How much of this was I thinking about when I wrote the song? None of it… How much of it was I feeling when I wrote the song? All of it.” — Bruce Springsteen after explaining the meaning of “Devils & Dust,” April 4, 2005

It’s always challenging to write one of these Roll of the Dice entries for a song Bruce has already publicly broken down line by line.

But since he copped to reverse-engineering his self-analysis, let’s take a go at it anyway.

As far as we know, Bruce didn’t write many songs in the immediate aftermath of The Rising. His follow-up album Devils & Dust was comprised almost entirely of songs written prior to The Rising, and the album after that (We Shall Overcome) consisted entirely of covers.

The notable exception in the early years of the Iraq War was the title track to Devils & Dust–the only song on the album we know for certain was written post-Rising.

We know this not just because of its timely theme, but because Bruce sound checked an early work-in-progress version in the spring of 2003. One of those rehearsal performances was captured in amazing quality, and we can clearly hear the lyrical differences and partially bluffed sections in the clip below.

“Devils & Dust” is a powerful meditation on the human cost of war–not in terms of lost lives but in lost humanity. In times of war, a country calls upon its citizens to make moral decisions they would never otherwise make, and they do so in full faith and trust that their nation is acting in keeping with their shared ideals and values.

But what if it isn’t? What if your country’s moral integrity has been compromised? What does that mean for your own moral integrity if you’re the one out on the battlefield?

What if what you do to survive kills the things you love? What if what you do to preserve your way of life eats away at it from the inside?

Those questions are at the heart of “Devils & Dust,” although in that early version they were statements rather than questions. Bruce’s prototype was a polemic, with lyrics that let listeners off the hook from having to wrestle with the narrator’s moral dilemma themselves:

It’s a world of blood and money, baby
It’s a world of greed and lust
It’s a world of smoke and mirrors
Devils and dust
It’s a world of earth and oil
Paid for in gunpowder and blood
Of all the ghosts and dangerous dreams
Devils and dust

We got God on our side
Just trying to survive
What you need to survive
Kills the things you love

Somewhere along the line, Bruce realized that his song would be more powerful if it posed questions instead of providing answers. By recasting it with the listener as the judge, he elevated “Devils & Dust” from anti-war protest to civic conversation, and in the process won himself a Grammy Award and a pair of additional nominations.

Let’s take a listen to the finished track.

Before we dive into the lyrics, it’s worth taking a moment to discuss one subtle but significant element in the official video above:

Bruce lip-syncs throughout the entire video. We’re listening to the studio track while watching Bruce pretend to perform it on stage. (Perhaps he actually did perform it at the time–but if so, that’s not the audio we hear.) So it’s all the more significant that the video ends with a live, audible sigh and the echo of Bruce’s footsteps as he walks off the empty stage.

That’s a deliberate artistic choice, one that’s meant to underscore that on both the combat battlefield and in the civic arena, each of us will eventually be called upon to make hard decisions in the moment–decisions that test our moral character. Decisions that arise without notice, but not without warning. And in those moments, we will be alone. Those decisions are ours and only ours to make, even though they may impact others.

We make our decisions, and we not only face our consequences–we become them.

In early 2005, prior to kicking off his solo acoustic tour for Devils & Dust, Bruce filmed an episode of VH1 Storytellers, and in that performance he analyzed his own song, one line at a time.

Let’s watch and listen:

In that Storytellers segment, Bruce refers to the song’s title as a metaphor for confusion–and it is. But it’s more than that: devils is a metaphor for the darker impulses that drive us–distrust, greed, fear. Dust is a metaphor for death–the earth that reclaims us when we perish.

The soldier who narrates the song has been sent there by devils and may very well return as dust. The confusion he faces comes from the realization that however noble his own motives, he’s about to be faced with the most ignoble of situations.

I got my finger on the trigger
But I don’t know who to trust
When I look into your eyes
There’s just devils and dust
We’re a long, long way from home, Bobbie
Home’s a long, long way from us
I feel a dirty wind blowing
Devils and dust

There’s a civic layer to this verse as well, a political one: we watched our government lie its way into a war in Iraq, paring back civil liberties along the way. What do we do when we realize this too late–when we’re already deeply entrenched in the wrong war? Do we hold our trust despite betrayal, or do we change course? In 2004, we held our trust and continued to descend by degree.

I got God on my side
And I’m just trying to survive
What if what you do to survive
Kills the things you love
Fear’s a powerful thing, baby
It can turn your heart black you can trust
It’ll take your God filled soul
And fill it with devils and dust

Those first two lines of the chorus are our rationalizations when we suspect we’re doing the wrong thing: God’s on my side–it may be the wrong thing, but it’s for the right reasons. I’m just trying to survive–it’s either him or me.

In the fear of the moment, we make our call, we decide who to trust, and we pull the trigger.

And our heart blackens.

With our soul compromised, devils invade. Our integrity begins to crumble into dust.

Well I dreamed of you last night
In a field of blood and stone
The blood began to dry
The smell began to rise
Well I dreamed of you last night, Bobbie
In a field of mud and bone
Your blood began to dry
And the smell began to rise

It’s revealing that Bruce gets about two lines into the second verse and then detours to discuss the music that underpins the song, never actually returning to the verse at hand. Perhaps it was unintentional, but I can’t help but suspect that Bruce knew that his second verse is the weakest of the three. It’s an effective evocation of the horrors of war, but apart from imagery it adds nothing to the song’s message or power.

His third verse is a return to form, however: in it, Bruce reminds us that it isn’t enough to want to be faithful and true to our ideals and principles. We have to act accordingly, and that requires continual practice.

Now every woman and every man
They wanna take a righteous stand
Find the love that God wills
And the faith that He commands
I’ve got my finger on the trigger
And tonight faith just ain’t enough
When I look inside my heart
There’s just devils and dust

Because there will be moments when we are called upon to make split-second decisions with enormous consequences. Moments that seem to arrive suddenly but in truth we inch toward by degrees. Once we start compromising our ideals… once the dust starts clouding our vision and the devils start whispering in our ear… those decisions get harder and harder to make.

“Devils & Dust” introduced a new theme in Bruce’s songwriting–the notion that we can betray ourselves in the name of protecting ourselves. It’s a theme that would reach full and forceful bloom on Magic a few years later, but in 2003 Bruce was only presciently warning of things still to come.

We tend to think of “Devils & Dust” as an acoustic track, even though a number of musicians appear on the track, including a string section and horn players. That’s probably because for the first year or so following its release, Bruce only performed it acoustically.

However, “Devils & Dust” truly comes to life when it’s performed by a band. In 2006, Bruce arranged it for the Sessions Band, who performed it throughout their tour.

But for my money, the definitive performance of “Devils & Dust” came when Bruce arranged it for the super-sized Wrecking Ball edition of the E Street Band in 2012. Taking full advantage of the E Street Horns, Bruce crafted an arrangement somber, stately, and defiant in turns.

“Devils & Dust” has been absent from Bruce’s set lists in recent years, but it’s just as relevant as ever. At any given moment, somewhere in the world, there are those who face the same choices Bruce warns of in his song.

Will we hold ourselves and our leaders accountable to our shared values, or will we erode those ideals through compromise and short-sighted self-interest? Will we have clarity of thought in those moments or will our vision be clouded by dust and distracted by devils?

We like to think that faith will be rewarded, but sometimes faith just ain’t enough.

Devils & Dust
Recorded: 2004
Released: Devils & Dust (2005)
First performed: April 4, 2005 (Red Bank, NJ)
Last performed: January 12, 2017 (Washington, DC)

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