You should come to Europe Smokey
The opening also echoes Dylan's "Knockin' on Heaven's Door":
"Mama, put my guns in the ground..."
"Mama, put my guns in the ground..."
Best song live off the new album IMHO. As CJ notes most of the audience is headed to the beer stand or yapping away. Their loss.
Very powerful at the end when Bruce faces Max, and urges him on, his guitar held high.
Great stuff.
Very powerful at the end when Bruce faces Max, and urges him on, his guitar held high.
Great stuff.
Hey my American friends.
Said that I'm Italian and that I apologize for many probable mistakes I'll do here, I'd like to give my contribution about the meaning of Devil's Arcade lyrics.
I'll try to do that in a Bruce's Storyteller way, i.e. making a comment verse by verse (or closely...).
Before starting I represent the scenario. In my opinion the soldier has come home from the war some weeks or months ago and he now lives with his wife somewhere in the US. The song is set in this house and the images of the war are just memories or nightmares of the husband remembered by his wife, that is constantly the narrator of the song.
REMEMBER THE MORNING WE DUG UP YOUR GUN
THE WORMS IN THE BARREL, THE HANGIN' SUN
Wife and husband are talking and wife asks to him if he remember the day when they dug up the gun he hid after coming back from war. The worms found a house in the barrel, it's probably late in the morning with the sun hanging in the middle of the sky.
THOSE FIRST NERVOUS EVENINGS OF PERFUME AND GIN
THE LOST SMELL ON YOUR BREATH AS I HELPED YOU GET IT IN
THE RUSH OF YOUR LIPS, THE FEEL OF YOUR NAME
THE BEAT OF YOUR HEART, THE DEVIL'S ARCADE
Wife keeps on asking to his husband to remind what happened the first days and nights home from Iraq. There were perfume, there were alcohol, they tried to make love, the heart beated but the mind of the soldier were busy with the memories of what he lived and saw and where he was, so far away. The Devil's Arcade isn't only the meanness of the war but also the obsessive memories, thoughts and nightmares of the soldier, something he can't live without anymore. It's as if in a nightmare you find yourself walking in a dark arcade with the devil hiding anywhere and you're nothing but scared.
YOU SAID HEROES ARE NEEDED, SO HEROES GET MADE
The wife reports something told by his husband time before. The soldiers were the predestinate victims, so that the Administration could name new heroes to increase the consensus of the Nation.
SOMEBODY MADE A BET, SOMEBODY PAID
The heavy decision to go into a war is taken as if it was a bet on a game. Who pays? Those who play or bet? Certainly not! Soldiers are paying. Their families are paying.
THE COOL DESERT MORNING, THEN NOTHIN' TO SAVE
JUST METAL AND PLASTIC WHERE YOUR BODY CAVED
THE SLOW GAMES OF POKER WITH LIEUTENANT RAY
IN THE WARD WITH THE BLUE WALLS, A SEA WITH NO NAME
WHERE YOU LIE ADRIFT WITH THE HEROES
OF THE DEVIL'S ARCADE
The wife is still talking and help his husband to remember what he himself told about his experience. You're in the desert so there's nothing to save, you sleep in a weak cot made of plastic and metal, you play poker and lie with the heroes/victims of this mean war.
YOU SLEEP AND DREAM OF YOUR BUDDIES CHARLIE AND JIM
AND WAKE WITH THE THICK DESERT DUST ON YOUR SKIN
Charlie and Jim are two soldiers died in Iraq. This verses can be read in two alternative ways: either the soldier is in the desert of Iraq (and the dust on the skin is real) or he's already at home (in this case the thick dust is something that stays always on his skin as a metaphor of the memories that stays always in his head).
A VOICE SAYS "DON'T WORRY, I'M HERE"
JUST WHISPER THE WORD 'TOMORROW' IN MY EAR
I's always the wife narrating: while sleeping or maybe after trying to have sex (and something went wrong with him!), he says not to worry, says: I'm here. This could mean: "I'm here physically" but also "I'm trying to be here also with my mind". Tomorrow will be another day and they'll try again.
A HOUSE ON A QUIET STREET, A HOME FOR THE BRAVE
Probably they live in a house given by the Administration to the Veterans (the brave), placed in some quiet living quarters or little town.
THE GLORIOUS KINGDOM OF THE SUN ON YOUR FACE
RISING FROM A LONG NIGHT AS DARK AS THE GRAVE
Night has been so long and hard, probably no sleep at all. The recall of a dark grave brings back to the sense of death the soldier feels inside after seeing it really. In the morning the wife wakes up and sees the "glorious kingdom of the sun" (WOW!!!!) on her husband's face.
ON A THIN CHAIN OF NEXT MOMENTS
AND SOMETHING LIKE FAITH
Day by day, night by night, the wife waits and hopes for his husband to turn back as he was before going to Iraq. It's a chain of moments, one after another, and one of them sooner or later could be the right one. It's the faith (or something like it) she have in his husband.
ON A MORNING TO ORDER, A BREAKFAST TO MAKE
A BED DRAPED IN SUNSHINE, A BODY THAT WAITS
FOR THE TOUCH OF YOUR FINGERS
THE END OF A DAY
THE BEAT OF YOUR HEART, THE BEAT OF YOUR HEART
THE BEAT OF YOUR HEART, THE BEAT OF HER HEART
THE BEAT OF YOUR HEART, THE BEAT OF HER HEART
THE BEAT OF HER HEART,
The couple spend days and nights trying to find again the sense of everyday's life and mostly the sexual feeling. The wife waits his husband in bed, she desires the touch of his fingers, she wants to hear his heartbeat.
THE SLOW BURNING AWAY
OF THE BITTER FIRES OF THE DEVIL'S ARCADE
While making love and, in a more general sense, while living together they wait for the slow process of healing of the soldier from the obsessions and the memories of the war.
This last verses are some of the best ever written by Bruce in his whole career. I appreciate the music and the arrangements of the song but I'm really struck from the geniality and the poetry of these lyrics.
What to say: ladies and gentleman...Bruce Springsteen
Said that I'm Italian and that I apologize for many probable mistakes I'll do here, I'd like to give my contribution about the meaning of Devil's Arcade lyrics.
I'll try to do that in a Bruce's Storyteller way, i.e. making a comment verse by verse (or closely...).
Before starting I represent the scenario. In my opinion the soldier has come home from the war some weeks or months ago and he now lives with his wife somewhere in the US. The song is set in this house and the images of the war are just memories or nightmares of the husband remembered by his wife, that is constantly the narrator of the song.
REMEMBER THE MORNING WE DUG UP YOUR GUN
THE WORMS IN THE BARREL, THE HANGIN' SUN
Wife and husband are talking and wife asks to him if he remember the day when they dug up the gun he hid after coming back from war. The worms found a house in the barrel, it's probably late in the morning with the sun hanging in the middle of the sky.
THOSE FIRST NERVOUS EVENINGS OF PERFUME AND GIN
THE LOST SMELL ON YOUR BREATH AS I HELPED YOU GET IT IN
THE RUSH OF YOUR LIPS, THE FEEL OF YOUR NAME
THE BEAT OF YOUR HEART, THE DEVIL'S ARCADE
Wife keeps on asking to his husband to remind what happened the first days and nights home from Iraq. There were perfume, there were alcohol, they tried to make love, the heart beated but the mind of the soldier were busy with the memories of what he lived and saw and where he was, so far away. The Devil's Arcade isn't only the meanness of the war but also the obsessive memories, thoughts and nightmares of the soldier, something he can't live without anymore. It's as if in a nightmare you find yourself walking in a dark arcade with the devil hiding anywhere and you're nothing but scared.
YOU SAID HEROES ARE NEEDED, SO HEROES GET MADE
The wife reports something told by his husband time before. The soldiers were the predestinate victims, so that the Administration could name new heroes to increase the consensus of the Nation.
SOMEBODY MADE A BET, SOMEBODY PAID
The heavy decision to go into a war is taken as if it was a bet on a game. Who pays? Those who play or bet? Certainly not! Soldiers are paying. Their families are paying.
THE COOL DESERT MORNING, THEN NOTHIN' TO SAVE
JUST METAL AND PLASTIC WHERE YOUR BODY CAVED
THE SLOW GAMES OF POKER WITH LIEUTENANT RAY
IN THE WARD WITH THE BLUE WALLS, A SEA WITH NO NAME
WHERE YOU LIE ADRIFT WITH THE HEROES
OF THE DEVIL'S ARCADE
The wife is still talking and help his husband to remember what he himself told about his experience. You're in the desert so there's nothing to save, you sleep in a weak cot made of plastic and metal, you play poker and lie with the heroes/victims of this mean war.
YOU SLEEP AND DREAM OF YOUR BUDDIES CHARLIE AND JIM
AND WAKE WITH THE THICK DESERT DUST ON YOUR SKIN
Charlie and Jim are two soldiers died in Iraq. This verses can be read in two alternative ways: either the soldier is in the desert of Iraq (and the dust on the skin is real) or he's already at home (in this case the thick dust is something that stays always on his skin as a metaphor of the memories that stays always in his head).
A VOICE SAYS "DON'T WORRY, I'M HERE"
JUST WHISPER THE WORD 'TOMORROW' IN MY EAR
I's always the wife narrating: while sleeping or maybe after trying to have sex (and something went wrong with him!), he says not to worry, says: I'm here. This could mean: "I'm here physically" but also "I'm trying to be here also with my mind". Tomorrow will be another day and they'll try again.
A HOUSE ON A QUIET STREET, A HOME FOR THE BRAVE
Probably they live in a house given by the Administration to the Veterans (the brave), placed in some quiet living quarters or little town.
THE GLORIOUS KINGDOM OF THE SUN ON YOUR FACE
RISING FROM A LONG NIGHT AS DARK AS THE GRAVE
Night has been so long and hard, probably no sleep at all. The recall of a dark grave brings back to the sense of death the soldier feels inside after seeing it really. In the morning the wife wakes up and sees the "glorious kingdom of the sun" (WOW!!!!) on her husband's face.
ON A THIN CHAIN OF NEXT MOMENTS
AND SOMETHING LIKE FAITH
Day by day, night by night, the wife waits and hopes for his husband to turn back as he was before going to Iraq. It's a chain of moments, one after another, and one of them sooner or later could be the right one. It's the faith (or something like it) she have in his husband.
ON A MORNING TO ORDER, A BREAKFAST TO MAKE
A BED DRAPED IN SUNSHINE, A BODY THAT WAITS
FOR THE TOUCH OF YOUR FINGERS
THE END OF A DAY
THE BEAT OF YOUR HEART, THE BEAT OF YOUR HEART
THE BEAT OF YOUR HEART, THE BEAT OF HER HEART
THE BEAT OF YOUR HEART, THE BEAT OF HER HEART
THE BEAT OF HER HEART,
The couple spend days and nights trying to find again the sense of everyday's life and mostly the sexual feeling. The wife waits his husband in bed, she desires the touch of his fingers, she wants to hear his heartbeat.
THE SLOW BURNING AWAY
OF THE BITTER FIRES OF THE DEVIL'S ARCADE
While making love and, in a more general sense, while living together they wait for the slow process of healing of the soldier from the obsessions and the memories of the war.
This last verses are some of the best ever written by Bruce in his whole career. I appreciate the music and the arrangements of the song but I'm really struck from the geniality and the poetry of these lyrics.
What to say: ladies and gentleman...Bruce Springsteen