Bruce Springsteen’s record "Darkness on the Edge of Town" is, in my humble opinion, an absolute lyrical masterpiece that conveys the bleakness that life can present as well as humanity’s rebellious cry for happiness. A song that exemplifies this artistic genius is the sixth track, “The Promised Land.”
The song’s lyrical structure is very standard, consisting of three verses, each followed by the chorus. However, the words used breathe life into this skeleton structure convey a profoundly inspiring truth of the human experience.
The first verse of the song introduces us to the protagonist, who is speeding down a highway in a “Utah desert” (Springsteen), but going “across the Waynesboro county line.” Knowing that Waynesboro, Utah doesn’t actually exist, it is implied that Springsteen might be setting up his protagonist as living in the literal middle of nowhere. Spending his days wasting away doing manual labor in his father’s garage, the narrator spends his nights driving around, “chasing some mirage.” Springsteen has masterfully shown us a man stuck in a rut, longing for something more.
The narrator does his best every day to be a good man, and he goes to work and puts forth effort in his job. However, he feels his life is monotonous and detracts from what makes him human, at times making him “...feel so weak I just wanna explode.” He wants to shake things up, he wants to live. He feels such agony that he proclaims his desire to “take a knife and cut this pain from from my heart." The narrator spends his days in pain and loathing, desperately wishing to fly to new heights, only to be held down by the chains of reality.
The narrator then explains that there’s a nasty storm brewing out in the desert. He reveals the storm is, “gonna be a twister to blow everything down that ain’t got the faith to stand it’s ground,” and that he is headed straight for it. He wants the storm to blow away the dreams that tear him apart, break his heart, and leave him nothing but lost and brokenhearted.
The chorus of this narrative essentially details how the narrator relates with the howling of the dogs, because they both know if he could seize the moment and break free from the monotony of his reality, he would be truly happy. If he could take ownership of his life, he would take part in the promised land that he believes in.
