For 9/11: ‘Come on up for the rising…’

Bruce Springsteen’s album “The Rising” amounts to a song cycle about 9/11. The title song has never been performed with more vigor and defiant joy than here, for the Kennedy Center Honors in 2009. Ladies and gentlemen, here’s Sting, backed by a full-throated gospel choir.

On this day of sorrow and grief, we remember.

And we pray, always, to rise.

The song tells of a firefighter ascending, and remembering, and praying: “Wearin’ the cross of my calling, on wheels of fire I come rollin’ down here…” 

The lyrics: 

Can’t see nothin’ in front of me
Can’t see nothin’ coming up behind
I make my way through this darkness
I can’t feel nothing but this chain that binds me
Lost track of how far I’ve gone
How far I’ve gone, how high I’ve climbed
On my back’s a sixty pound stone
On my shoulder a half mile line

Come on up for the rising
Come on up, lay your hands in mine
Come on up for the rising
Come on up for the rising tonight

Left the house this morning
Bells ringing filled the air
Wearin’ the cross of my calling
On wheels of fire I come rollin’ down here

Come on up for the rising
Come on up, lay your hands in mine
Come on up for the rising
Come on up for the rising tonight

Li, li, li, li, li, li, li, li, li

Spirits above and behind me
Faces gone black, eyes burnin’ bright
May their precious blood forever bind me
Lord as I stand before your fiery light

Li, li, li, li, li, li, li, li, li

I see you Mary in the garden
In the garden of a thousand sighs
There’s holy pictures of our children
Dancin’ in a sky filled with light
May I feel your arms around me
May I feel your blood mix with mine
A dream of life comes to me
Like a catfish dancin’ on the end of the line

Sky of blackness and sorrow (a dream of life)
Sky of love, sky of tears (a dream of life)
Sky of glory and sadness (a dream of life)
Sky of mercy, sky of fear (a dream of life)
Sky of memory and shadow (a dream of life)
Your burnin’ wind fills my arms tonight
Sky of longing and emptiness (a dream of life)
Sky of fullness, sky of blessed life (a dream of life)

Come on up for the rising
Come on up, lay your hands in mine
Come on up for the rising
Come on up for the rising tonight

Li, li, li, li, li, li, li, li, li