"The Rising" remains one of Bruce Springsteen's quintessential songs. It's a newer song compared to his vast catalog, having been released in 2002 as his official comeback with the E Street Band. Like much of his work, it connects on a deeper level because it discusses human emotion and self-doubt within an environment of absolute hell. It talks about the resolve needed to run up the stairs with an indomitable fear about what awaited on 9/11.
On September 11, 2001, Welles Remy Crowther "took off his equities trader hat and put on his firefighter hat." At least that's what his dad says in The Man in the Red Bandana documentary produced for and by ESPN.