The album's closing track, "We Are Alive," is a "campfire song" for ghosts of the oppressed, martyred strikers, protesters, and immigrant workers. "I was killed in Maryland in 1877/When the railroad workers made their stand/I was killed in 1963/One Sunday morning in Birmingham," he sings during the verse. The chorus, however, has a much more celebratory tone with the refrain "We are alive/And though our bodies lie alone here in the dark/Our spirits rise/To carry the fire and light the spark/To stand shoulder to shoulder and heart to heart." The song, which has an Irish-wake feel to it, is an acoustic number with Springsteen being backed by mariachi horns. The horn riff greatly resembles that from Johnny Cash's hit "Ring of Fire".