{"id":32478,"date":"2022-03-02T04:51:00","date_gmt":"2022-03-02T12:51:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/estreetshuffle.com\/?p=32478"},"modified":"2023-01-03T07:20:35","modified_gmt":"2023-01-03T15:20:35","slug":"roll-of-the-dice-devils-dust","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/estreetshuffle.com\/index.php\/2022\/03\/02\/roll-of-the-dice-devils-dust\/","title":{"rendered":"Roll of the Dice: Devils & Dust"},"content":{"rendered":"

“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<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It’s always challenging to write one of these\u00a0Roll of the Dice\u00a0<\/em>entries for a song Bruce has already publicly broken down line by line.<\/p>\n

But since he copped to reverse-engineering his self-analysis, let’s take a go at it anyway.<\/p>\n

As far as we know, Bruce didn’t write many songs in the immediate aftermath of The Rising.\u00a0<\/em>His follow-up album Devils & Dust\u00a0<\/em>was comprised almost entirely of songs written prior to\u00a0The Rising,\u00a0<\/em>and the album after that (We Shall Overcome<\/em><\/a>) consisted entirely of covers.<\/p>\n

The notable exception in the early years of the Iraq War was the title track to\u00a0Devils & Dust<\/em>–the only song on the album we know for certain was written post-Rising.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n