One of the many depressing songs on Bruce Springsteen’s 1980 double album The River
“The River”
The singer of “The River” tells the story of meeting Mary in high school. The singer first recounts how the high school kids would go down to dive in the river. While the image is one of teenage joy, the music and earlier lines about growing up “to do like your daddy done” hint at something sadder. By the time the singer is nineteen, Mary is pregnant, and the couple find themselves getting married at the courthouse “with no wedding day smiles.”
In the song, more troubles come. The singer faces hard times and acts like he no longer remembers the past. Meanwhile, Mary “acts like she don’t care.” But the singer does remember the past. And it is those good times at the river that haunt his days.
The Inspiration for “The River”
Springsteen based his song on his sister Virginia (“Ginny”), who during her senior year of high school became pregnant. Ginny married her boyfriend, Michael “Mickey” Shave, who was a rodeo rider, in a small ceremony. The two then began their young family life together.
In this video from one of his performances during the the No Nukes: The Muse Concerts For a Non-Nuclear Future on September 19-23, 1979 at Madison Square Garden, you can hear Springsteen introducing the new song with, “this is my brother-in-law and my sister.”
The Real-Life Story
Although Springsteen imagined a sad life resulting from such a start, things worked out better for Ginny and Mickey than they did for the singer and Mary. Ginny and Mickey have been married for more than forty years, and they had three children and several grandchildren.
While, like everyone, Ginny and Mickey may wonder some days about what might have been, the real-life people who inspired “The River” do not seem as haunted as the characters in the song.
Not only did things work out for the couple, but their wedding gave Ginny’s brother what Rolling Stone Magazine calls his fifth greatest song. It sounds like everyone’s dreams came true after all.
What do you think of “The River”? Leave your two cents in the comments.
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That’s funny. I assumed the relationship had broken up already when he wrote the song. . . nice optimistic view of your sister’s young relationship, Bruce!
I guess that is an artist’s liberty to take one idea and turn it into a story, but yeah it is kind of funny from that perspective. Thanks for the comment!
The River was written with Bruce as the main character. He was inspired by his sister’s story but his life probably would have came out much different if he was married as a high school senior. Statistically speaking, marriages that start at that age with children struggle.
Yes, in interviews he always seems to appreciate how lucky he has been, so like all of us I’m sure he’s often wondered what would have happened had he made different choices. Thanks for the comment.
Bruce’s intelligence to dream up a song based on his sister’s relationship even though it may be a different story for her, thankfully, but it really did happen to some.
Listening to it years after still brings back beautiful memories and inspiration, as haunting as it is. It’s life.