Grab your ticket and your suitcase

Thunder’s rolling down this track

Well you don’t know where you’re going now

But you know you won’t be back…

The opening lines to this eternally optimistic Bruce song harken back to his previous songs of escape. Remember how Thunder Road’s two lanes could take us anywhere? We didn’t really care where; we just knew it was better than here. The two lanes of open road are now replaced by the rails, ties, and spikes of the American railroad system. But the destination remains the same: a better place. Picture the old migratory workers, who we colloquially refer to as “hobos,” hopping from train to train in search of a better job, a better pay, a better life. This is their train.

Well, darlin’ if you’re weary

Lay your head upon my chest

We’ll take what we can carry

Yeah, and we’ll leave the rest…

We don’t need much on this trip; just your head upon my chest. We can leave everything else behind. These are the two young lovers from Thunder Road, leaving that town full of losers and hopping a train to a land where hope lives. This is their train.

Leave behind your sorrows

Let this day be the last

Tomorrow there’ll be sunshine

And all this darkness past…

We all experience some form of sorrow in our life. Look at some of the characters from Springsteen’s Nebraska album; Johnny 99 or Frankie for example. They made mistakes. In some ways, they made their own sorrow. In some ways, society may have pushed it on them. The bottom line, however, is that they are in a bad place. Some of it is of our own doing. This train provides light when all else seems dark. There is sunshine down at the end of these tracks. This is their train.

This train

Carries saints and sinners

This train

Carries losers and winners

This train

Carries whores and gamblers

This train

Carries lost souls

I said this train

Dreams will not be thwarted

This train

Faith will be rewarded…

The Land of Hope and Dreams is an inclusive place. If you have faith, love, and desire, we’ll see you there. If you have the will to get up after being repeatedly knocked down, we’ll see you there. The Land of Hope and Dreams is not for the pessimists among us. They can stay home. It is for the optimists; the ones who know there’s a better place somewhere. It is for the ones who see the beauty in life, no matter how cruel it has been to them. So come saints and sinners, come losers and winners; the Land of Hope and Dreams waits for us all. Grab your ticket and your suitcase, because this is our train.

 

“Land of Hope and Dreams” was a staple of the 1999-2000 E street Band reunion tour. It’s first studio appearance is on 2012’s Wrecking Ball. Jon Stewart requested that the band perform this song as his last “moment of zen” on the final episode of “The Daily Show.”