American Land

American Land was released in 2006 on the WE SHALL OVERCOME: AMERICAN LAND EDITION. I didn't get that version, as I already had the regular WSO album, and didn't want to buy mostly the same thing a second time. So, I still have never heard the studio version of American Land. A live version was released on the LIVE IN DUBLIN album, which featured songs taken from Bruce Springsteen and the Sessions Band's couple of nights in Dublin. The song carried over to the next two E Street Band tours, where it was played just about every night, as either the last song or very close to the end of the show. The lyrics alone are worth reading. You can find them here. They are phenomenal - probably the best lyrics of the songs I've gone through so far. They are so good that I thought this song was a cover, and didn't realize until I did research for this post that it was a Springsteen original.

On the LIVE IN DUBLIN album, he actually sounds Irish. I wonder if he was trying to do an Irish accent. The brilliant thing is with the vowels he uses on a lot of these lines, you can't help but sound Irish when you speak or sing it. It's the most apparent on the lines "I docked at Ellis Island in a city of light and spires, She met me in the valley of red-hot steel and fire"

I got to see this song live 3 times. Twice in 2008 and once in 2009 (he never came in or near Atlanta on the 2006 tour). The first time I saw it, the lyrics were scrolling on the big screens like a teleprompter, so even audience members who had never heard the song can sing along. It's been the same arrangement all the time, so any one I post will be good. Here's the one from the Hyde Park performance in June 2009. I still need to watch my Blu-Ray of this show.