And those consequences intensify when it’s revealed that Luisa’s brother is using the trip to smuggle in drugs.Īs he attempts to get Luisa across the line, Carl is spotted by Bobby. “I knew what I would do,” he says, and when she asks him to get her and her family members across the border, the consequences of his decision become clear. He then meets her again in a Mexican bar and, as they dance, his resolve crumbles. He is befriended by a coworker named Bobby Ramirez who shows him the ropes and explains the motivations of those trying to cross “The Line”: “They risk death in the deserts and mountains/ Pay all they got to the smugglers rings/ We send ‘em home and they come right back again/ Carl, hunger is a powerful thing.” Springsteen clearly did his homework, as his descriptions of the job are so detailed they’re practically cinematic: “At night I chased their shadows/ Through the arroyos and ravines” and “At night they come across the levy/ In the searchlights dusty glow/ We’d rush ‘em in our Broncos/ And force ‘em back down into the river below.”īut Carl’s penchant for following orders and doing the job no questions asked is challenged when one of the illegal immigrants he encounters reminds him of his dead wife. That’s just the right tenor to strike for the song’s protagonist, a former soldier and widower named Carl who takes a job with the California Border patrol. Springsteen accomplishes all of that and then some on “The Line.” He borrows the melody line from Bob Dylan’s “Love Minus Zero/No Limit,” but where Dylan’s song is a playful ramble, Springsteen’s moves at a glacial pace and he sings as if he’s afraid to emote too much lest he irritate an open wound. “I set out to make sure something is revealed at the end of the song, some knowledge gained. “I don’t set out to make a point, I set out to create compassion and understanding and present something that feels like the world,” he continued. “I don’t believe you can tell people anything. “I don’t like the soapbox stuff,” he said. Springsteen explained his strategy for writing topical material to Mother Jones magazine shortly after the release of The Ghost Of Tom Joad. The subtext of the song is the issue of immigration at California’s border with Mexico, but Springsteen wisely focuses on the humanity at the heart of the issue, creating memorable characters and palpable conflict. Yet the album is a rewarding, often harrowing journey for those who wish to take it, and it includes “The Line,” one of his most compelling story songs.
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