"Devils & Dust" | ||||
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Single by Bruce Springsteen | ||||
from the album Devils & Dust | ||||
Released | March 28, 2005 | |||
Format | Compact Disc | |||
Recorded | March–August 2004 | |||
Genre | Folk | |||
Length | 4:58 | |||
Label | Columbia | |||
Writer(s) | Bruce Springsteen | |||
Producer(s) | Brendan O'Brien | |||
Bruce Springsteen singles chronology | ||||
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"Devils & Dust" is the title track on Bruce Springsteen's thirteenth studio album Devils & Dust, and was released as a single in 2005. Concerning the Iraq War, the song gained critical praise as well as a Grammy Award for Song of the Year nomination. The song was featured in the trailer for the film Money Monster
The song tells the story of a troubled American soldier who is presumably serving in the 2003 invasion of Iraq. The soldier questions his role and struggles to find guidance in his mission, all the while wary of the changes he is undergoing:
Unsure of whom to trust in a time of tremendous moral ambiguity, the narrator's reliance upon God is tested when he sees his comrade and fellow soldier, Bobbie, dying in "a field of blood and stone." As the song concludes, the soldier maintains that he "wants to take a righteous stand" and will continue to search for a morally correct solution. It is thus not an anti-war song in a conventional sense. The line "I got God on my side" might be a reference to Bob Dylan's classic anti-war song "With God on Our Side".
Springsteen originally soundchecked the song with the E Street Band during The Rising Tour on April 11, 2003, at Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver, Canada. The song was again rehearsed on September 27 and 28, 2004, before the Vote For Change tour with the E Street Band.
As recorded for the Devils & Dust album, the song has a dynamic arrangement, belying the common image of the album being "acoustic" or "folk". "Devils & Dust" starts off quietly with Springsteen on acoustic guitar. Beginning in the second verse, a muted, ominous synthesizer-and-horns sound begins to be heard, joined in halfway through the verse by a more pronounced, cyclical strings line courtesy of the Nashville String Machine. After the second chorus, Springsteen plays a substantial harmonica solo, high in the mix, as drums and bass from Steve Jordan and producer Brendan O'Brien kick in. The third verse goes quiet again, before drums and percussion return; a reprise of the harmonica line carries the outro.