Anatomy of a Song : "The River" Quiz

Answer: To do like your daddy done

"I come from down in the valley where, mister, when you're young,
They bring you up to do like your daddy done."

Bruce draws on his experience of growing up in sixties America. When introducing the song, he often speaks about the relationship he had with his own father who couldn't understand Bruce's long hair and believed the Army would make a man of him. Nevertheless, his parents both expressed their relief when, in 1968, he failed his medical on being drafted for Vietnam.

It was Bruce's mother who set him on the road to rock stardom by taking out a loan to buy his first guitar. (Source : www.songfacts.com)

Answer: 17

"Me and Mary we met in high school when she was just seventeen"

Mary is a recurring name in Bruce's songs. This may be because he was educated in a Catholic school or because he has a preference (like many song-writers) for double-syllable girl's names in his lyrics. Other songs in which the name occurs include "Thunder Road", "Mary Lou", "Mary Queen of Arkansas", "Car Wash", "Mary's Place", "Oh Mary Don't You Weep", "Does This Bus Stop at 82nd Street" and "Gypsy Biker".

Bruce has also performed the Creedence Clearwater Revival song, "Proud Mary", as a solo artist and with the band Child who predate his solo career. When Creedence Clearwater Revival were inducted into the Rock 'N' Roll Hall Of Fame, Bruce gave an induction speech in which he said,
"In 1970, suburban New Jersey was still filled with the kind of 60's spirit Easy Rider made us all so fond of, I'm referring to the scene where Dennis Hopper gets blown off his motorcycle by some redneck with a shotgun! A weekend outing at the time was still filled with the drama of possibly getting your ass kicked by a total stranger who disagreed with your fashion sense. Me and my band worked on Route 35 outside of Asbury Park, at a club called the Pandemonium. And so it was five 50-minute sets a night and rarely a night without a fight. But into New Jersey came the music of Creedence Clearwater Revival and for three minutes and seven seconds of "Proud Mary", a very strained brotherhood would actually fill the room. It was simply a great song that everybody liked and it literally saved our asses on many occasions. Anyway, I stand here tonight still envious of that music's power and simplicity." (Source : www.springsteenlyrics.com)

Answer: Green

"Me and Mary we met in high school when she was just seventeen.
We'd ride out of that valley, down to where the fields were green.
We'd go down to the river
And into the river we'd dive.
Oh down to the river we'd ride."

The phrase, "riding out of that valley" suggests escaping from its claustrophobic, draining restrictiveness. Outside can be found green fields which hint at an idyll of almost biblical proportions and perhaps also at crops that are not yet ready but will soon develop into maturity and be full-grown. The river, too, as it progresses into the distance promises a different way of life that will stretch into the future but, for now, it conveys an image of purity and the innocence of youth.

The irony is that this picture is illusory. The circumstances of life will imprison them in the very hell from which they think they can break free.

Answer: Mary got pregnant.

"Then I got Mary pregnant and man that was all she wrote"

Inspiration for the song was based upon Bruce's own family. Pamela Springsteen, Bruce's younger sister, married young after falling pregnant. Her husband, who was supporting her, got a job in construction and then lost it. Pamela's comment on first hearing the song was, "That's my life." (Source : "The Gospel According to Bruce Springsteen: Rock and Redemption, from Asbury Park to Magic" by Jeffrey B. Symynkywicz)

Pamela went on to become an actress and photographer.

Answer: A union card

"And for my nineteenth birthday, I got a union card and a wedding coat.
We went down to the courthouse and the judge put it all to rest;
No wedding day smiles, no walk down the aisle,
No flowers, no wedding dress.
That night we went down to the river
And into the river we'd dive.
Oh down to the river we did ride."

It's a harsh and premature welcome to the traditional twin pillars of adult life - work (the union card) and marriage (the wedding coat). A new phase has been ushered in. The key feeling is one of loss. Even the expression "judge put it all to rest", hints more at a funeral than a wedding. The night has literally fallen on the carefree activities of youth and this is the last reference in the song to their actually swimming in the river as opposed to remembering doing so.

Answer: The Johnstown Company

"I got a job working construction for the Johnstown company.
But lately there ain't been much work on account of the economy."

America experienced a major recession in the late 1970s and early 1980s as Bruce was writing the song. Many people, given Bruce's political views, assume this to be a dig at Ronald Reagan but the song predates Reagan's elevation to President.

Answer: Like she don't care

"Now all them things that seemed so important
Well, mister, they vanished right into the air.
Now I just act like I don't remember; Mary acts like she don't care."

Life, the relationship and everything have slipped into the twilight zone. One partner is locked in denial; the other in indifference. All vitality has been sucked from them. The past is gone but neither person seems capable of building a future.

Answer: Haunt me

"I got a job working construction for the Johnstown company.
But lately there ain't been much work on account of the economy.
Now all them things that seemed so important
Well, mister, they vanished right into the air.
Now I just act like I don't remember; Mary acts like she don't care."
But I remember us riding in my brother's car,
Her body tan and wet down at the reservoir.
At night on them banks I'd lie awake
And pull her close just to feel each breath she'd take.
Now those memories come back to haunt me, they haunt me like a curse."

The blissful experience of the river is now expressed in the past tense. It haunts as a thing that is lost forever.

Here's a curious thing. The only Johnstown of any significance in the US is Johnstown, Pennsylvania. It's a town built upon steel production and typical of the blue collar America that Bruce writes about in many of his songs. It was also the site of the 1889 Johnstown flood in which more than 2000 people lost their lives. The dam of a disused reservoir above the town was altered by its new owners and burst with dreadful consequences.

Within months of writing "The River", Bruce was also writing songs for the follow-up album "Nebraska" which includes the song, "Highway Patrolman". In this song (covered by Johnny Cash and the inspiration for Sean Penn's "The Indian Runner"), Bruce writes, "dancin' with Maria as the band played "Night of the Johnstown Flood"." Back in the early eighties, there was no song with that title suggesting that, rather than being a throwaway line, the flood was in Bruce's mind at this time. So, he was thinking about an abandoned reservoir capable of wreaking devastating havoc on those it had once served. Do you think he intended us to see a connection in the lyrics above? Who knows?

Answer: Something worse

"Now those memories come back to haunt me, they haunt me like a curse.
Is a dream a lie if it don't come true or is it something worse..."

We've come to the crux of the whole song. Bruce says in 15 short words what it would take me thousands to explain, so I'm not even going to bother trying. Sheer poetry that sends a shiver down my spine every time I hear it.

Answer: It's dry

"Now those memories come back to haunt me, they haunt me like a curse.
Is a dream a lie if it don't come true or is it something worse
that sends me down to the river, though I know the river is dry..."

The image of the river and its ultimate dryness was inspired by the song, "Long Gone Lonesome Blues". This was recorded in 1950 by Hank Williams and includes the line, "And then I jumped in the river, but the doggone river was dry."

"The River" appears on Bruce's 1980 double album of the same name. This was originally intended to be a single album, following up 1978's "Darkness on the Edge of Town". Bruce, however, decided to delay release in order to write some grittier songs, one of which was "The River". It was never released as a single in the US. In the UK it reached Number 35 in 1981.