This thread has sent me back to many of the albums, so you'll have to excuse these scattergun comments:
The Promise- what a song, what a song. Don't know when it was written (bit peeved it's not on Tracks to be honest) but the revisit to Thunder Road is immensely poignant and brings us full circle, from an older and wiser writer who has seen dreams die and hopes wither on the vine. Utterly superb stuff.
The 'Darkness' album- often overlooked in discussions, but -apart from the monolithic BTR- my favourite of his skinny phase. Promised Land is just excellent isn't it?
The Rising- hadn't heard the whole album til this week- some odd stylistic touches (what's the one with the eastern rhythms?) but the title track is immense. I wonder if there is a sense in which some looked to him post the NY attacks for direction and inspiration. Perhaps that's fanciful.
The Promise is certainly one of Bruce's most intriguing songs and though it's impossible to narrow Springsteen's canon down to a few songs for me it's right up there at the top of his songwriting.
It seems it was initailly written for The Darkness album but he decided against it and put Racing inThe Streets in its place [like er you have to choose between 2 songs of that immensity - the mind boggles at which other artist ever made such a choice between two such heavyweights
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The popular interpretation is that the original song reflected Springsteen's anger towards Mike Appel, his first manager for tying him down. Having read the original lyrics I'm not so sure - but who knows.
What is certain is the newer version - which is on the concise 18 Tracks cd as distinct from the 4 disc Tracks cd set - is a more philosophical song altogether. Done solo just on piano, it is as you say extremely poignant. The lyrics have been cleverly massaged so that unlike the original, it is no longer autobiographical but carries an admission that is universal concerning the everyday promises we all make and break, most small but some big. The protaganist is resigned to never realising his dreams. It is a huge song by any standards.
Re The Rising. I think Bruce felt the disaster in a similar way to how we all felt Hillsborough. Folks he knew had perished. Given his integrity as an artist/human being, it was inevitable he would then be driven to writing an album with the tragedy as its underlying force.
For me, whilst I admire the motivation behind it and many of the tracks, it lags slightly behind Springsteens greatest moments. Of course, that still places it higher than most other's greatest moments.
