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My City of Ruins" is a 2000 song written and performed by Bruce Springsteen, and included on his 2002 album The Rising.

The song was written in November 2000, for an Asbury Park, New Jersey Christmas show benefit to help promote the revitalization of the city. Once a popular resort destination in the late 1800s and early 1900s, Asbury Park had succumbed to significant amounts of blight for a variety of reasons, including the ill-effects of the Great Depression, the opening of the Garden State Parkway, and race riots.

The song first starts describing the current state of Asbury Park, the deterioration, and the absence of people in the area.

There's a blood red circle
On the cold dark ground
And the rain is falling down
The church doors blown open
I can hear the organ's song
But the congregations gone

Throughout the song, Springsteen continues to describe the city using images such as men loitering on a street corner and buildings with boarded up windows. The song ends, however, on a hopeful and optimistic note by powerfully imploring the city to "rise up" from the decay.

Come on rise up!
Come on rise up!
Rise up

"My City of Ruins" was first played on December 17, 2000 at Asbury Park Convention Hall.

The song took on an entirely new meaning soon after the September 11 attacks, offering a message of hope and rising from the ruins. The most famous live performance of the song came on September 21, 2001 during the America: A Tribute to Heroes national telethon. With only a guitar and a harmonica, Springsteen opened the program, introducing the number as "a prayer for our fallen brothers and sisters" and modifying a few phrases in the song. He was joined on stage by Patti Scialfa, Steven Van Zandt, Soozie Tyrell, Lisa Lowell and Clarence Clemons. It was included as the first track on the subsequent album released of the telethon performances.

A studio recording of "My City of Ruins" was then incorporated as the concluding track of Springsteen's September 11-themed, July 2002 album release The Rising.

The song was widely used by New Zealand television stations during coverage of the February 2011 Christchurch earthquake.


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(Notable covers

Eddie Vedder performed the song at the 32nd Annual Kennedy Center Honors as part of the multi-artist tribute to Bruce Springsteen who was one of the five recipients of the honor in 2009. In January 2010 pearljam.com announced that Eddie Vedder's cover would be available on iTunes to raise funds for Haiti earthquake disaster relief efforts. It entered the Hot 100 the following month, peaking at #92)


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HASH1: 9C614B72FD69F06F HASH2: 0DC7F22A03379D94 (MP3)
HASH1: 40046D2EC25518DC HASH2: 99326A83CD8BC83E (MP3)




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