What does Devils and Dust mean?

Bruce Springsteen: Devils and Dust Meaning

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Album cover for Devils and Dust album cover

Devils and Dust Lyrics

I got my finger on the trigger
But I don't know who to trust
When I look into your eyes
There's just devils and dust
We're a long, long way from home, Bobbie
Home's a long, long way from us
I feel a dirty wind blowing
Devils and dust

I...

  1. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Feb 11th 2018 !⃝

    When you enlist you just want to get over there, I did. I want to fight the bad guys. The rationale is how they will kill you not without thought, but with great thought that killing us is what "God" has instructed them to do for their great glory. I was not there to murder anyone. We all fight demons when we're there, we all feel a constant underlying fear that we only talk about quietly amongst ourselves. But in the moment, your survival overtakes your fear. I have taken life, I struggle with that in some way everyday. I like the lyrics, how they depict choices of duty and survival with choices of faith, wrong and right. It does turn your heart. I've been home a very long time. I've seen things I cannot share with anyone unless they've seen it too. I have recovered, I love and have a family. As long as this song isn't questioning a soldier or the goodness in his or her heart, I'm okay with it. I don't think Bruce wrote this to question what is in our hearts or our goodness. I've had my finger on the trigger, I've asked God for guidance, I've asked God for forgiveness. I've never questioned my place there and what I had to do. I still have nightmares sometimes, but my calling was right and just. God Bless every single man and woman that has served and is serving now. You are all AMAZING! God's speed.

  2. kooljohn176
    click a star to vote
    Oct 1st 2013 !⃝

    wow, this song is about real, real fear in war, it is not about getting high on pot and angel dust like some of us did in the mid 70's chasing our tails in the dark sometimes. this song makes me feel sad and angry of the life lost in these wars in the middle east. many of our troops got killed and some are still dying there that did not even get a chance to share their love and to be loved by somebody in their lifetime. the phycological fear must be like a nightmare dream that you cannot wake up from wich does not stop, I could only guess, it is terrifying feeling to dissociate from mind and body that some soldiers are going thru in war. many of them felt they were fighting mirages because you cannot see or don't know who you are fighting, they could be like dust devils in wind. one of the soldiers feels that he got god on his side with the finger on the trigger, questioning his conscience, if he kills somebody, will it also kill the capacity for him to love again. in the fear to survive, even when it turns your heart black you can still trust your god filled soul to make room for these devils and dust that you can live with in fighting them in your soul thru the will of god.

  3. Debra Foust
    click a star to vote
    Aug 24th 2011 !⃝

    Powers unseen r turning everything we no into dust and the song poses the question of being ready but "what to do"?


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