“Waitin’ On A Sunny Day”
A Reason To Smile
BY DAN RATHER AND TEAM STEADY
Bruce Springsteen is our country’s conscience – an artist who can tap into the feelings of a nation and express them poignantly and pointedly in song. He did so after the September 11 attacks with his album “The Rising.” He was accompanied, fittingly, by the E Street Band, for the first time in more than two decades.
Springsteen said he was encouraged to create the album by a stranger. Soon after the attacks, a fan in an adjacent car rolled down his window and told the singer-songwriter, “We need you now.” So Springsteen got to work. The album was released ten months later.
The collected songs, some new, some old, were meant to heal. The album is not maudlin but contemplative and inspiring. The title track is an ode to the firefighters who were heading up the World Trade Center as survivors were coming down.
One of the most hopeful songs on the album is “Waitin’ On A Sunny Day.” It was written in the 1990s but never released. The combination of a simple, upbeat melody with lyrics about optimism made it an obvious choice. I love the opening line, “It’s raining, but there ain’t a cloud in the sky.”
This has been a tough week for many of us. I consider it a deeply personal decision as to how one chooses to remember 9/11. Twenty-five years is a long time ago, but it doesn’t feel that way, at least not to me. No, it will always be extremely real and very near.
It is a painful irony that it took unimaginable evil to bring this country together, something we need to find a way to do again. I’d like to be as optimistic as the Boss when he sang, “Don’t worry, we’re gonna find a way.”
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Stay Steady,
Dan
NYA Thanks Dan Rather and Team Steady!