Land of Hope and Dreams
| "Land of Hope and Dreams" | |
|---|---|
| Song by Bruce Springsteen | |
| Released | 2001, 2003, 2012 |
| Genre | Rock |
| Label | Columbia |
| Writer(s) | Bruce Springsteen |
| Producer(s) | Ron Aniello, Bruce Springsteen |
"Land of Hope and Dreams" is a 1999 song written by Bruce Springsteen and performed by Springsteen and the E Street Band. After being performed on tour and released on multiple live albums, a studio recording was released for the first time on Wrecking Ball in 2012.
The song was written prior to the 1999–2000 E Street Band reunion tour, and appeared on the Live in New York City album from that tour. It was also used as the theme song of the MLB on TBS coverage for the postseason in the 2012 Major League Baseball season.
The song's origins date to 1998 or early 1999, when it was first written, although the mandolin riff first appeared on the song "Labor of Love" on Joe Gruscheky's 1995 album "American Babylon" that Springsteen played on. It came during the close of a decade in which Springsteen had parted ways with the E Street Band, gotten married again and had children, and had released very little new music in a rock vein. He later said, "I was having a hard time locating my rock voice. I knew I didn't want it to be what it was, but I didn't know ... I'd made some records over the past years, I made one in '94 that I didn't release. Then I made a series of demos, kind of in search of that voice. And I was having a hard time finding it. And there was a point I said: 'Well, gee, maybe I just don't do that now. Maybe that's something that I did.'" But after writing "Land of Hope and Dreams", he felt it was "as good as any songs like this that I've ever written. It was like, there's that voice I was looking for."
The song was first heard by outsiders in March 1999 during preparations for the Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band Reunion Tour. During a series of private rehearsals at Asbury Park, New Jersey's Convention Hall, several dozen of the Springsteen faithful, eager with anticipation at what the long-awaited reunion might bring, stood outside the hall on the cold and windy boardwalk and beach to hear what they could from inside the walls and reporting their findings on several Springsteen Internet forums. It was during one of these rehearsals that fans first heard run-throughs of what they called "The Train Song" or "This Train". When the first public rehearsal performance at Convention Hall was given on March 18, 1999, and then when the tour actually opened on April 9 at Barcelona's Palau Sant Jordi, the song became the tour's closing epic "Land of Hope and Dreams".
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