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Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band kicked off the European leg of their Land of Hope and Dreams Tour last week in Manchester, England England (that’s for all my musical theater hippies out there). The show marks Bruce and the Band’s first concert since the current (mis)administration took over, so even though they were playing to a European audience, Bruce carved out time to speak out against Trump from the stage. He began with “The mighty E Street Band is here tonight to call upon the righteous power of art, of music, of rock n’ roll in dangerous times,” and his rallying cry continued as he rhapsodized on the last check on authoritarian power being we the people. Trump took the criticism as well as you’d expect, firing off an unhinged Truth Social post in retaliation (more on that later). But Bruce is a real one and has long been full-throated in calling Trump out for what he is: unfit to be president, which is precisely what he did during the second Manchester show on Saturday:
In a resolute three-minute speech from the Co-op Live venue, Springsteen thanked his cheering audience for indulging him in a speech about the state of America: “Things are happening right now that are altering the very nature of our country’s democracy, and they’re too important to ignore.”
He then repeated many of the lines that he used during a previous Manchester show — the same words that upset Trump to begin with, including the administration defunding American universities, the rolling back of civil rights legislation and siding with dictators, “against those who are struggling for their freedoms.”
Trump’s Truth Social post contained what appeared to be a threat, writing of Springsteen, “We’ll see how it goes for him,” when he gets back to the country. This did not dissuade the “Born in the USA” singer.
“In my home, they’re persecuting people for their right to free speech and voicing their dissent. That’s happening now,” Springsteen said. “In America, the richest men are taking satisfaction in abandoning the world’s poorest children to sickness and death. That’s happening now. In my country, they’re taking sadistic pleasure in the pain they inflict on loyal American workers.”
In a steady voice, he listed the many concerns of those who oppose Trump, his enablers and his policies.
“They are removing residents off American streets without due process of law and deploying them to foreign detention centers as prisoners. That’s happening now. The majority of our elected representatives have utterly failed to protect the American people from the abuses of an unfit president and a rogue government,” Springsteen said as the crowd applauded and yelled its support. “They have no concern or idea of what it means to be deeply American.”
He finished on a positive note.
“The America I’ve sung to you about for 50 years is real, and regardless of its many faults, it’s a great country with a great people, and we will survive this moment. Well, I have hope, because I believe in the truth of what the great American writer James Baldwin said. He said, ‘In this world, there isn’t as much humanity as one would like, but there’s enough.’”
That last line is a very apt comment from James Baldwin, and I love Bruce for quoting him. I’m not always as hopeful as Bruce these days, my feelings are complicated. I’ve been so heartened to see the resistance and push back from the people of my country, but the cynic in me still screams, “Where were you all in November?!?” In any event, bravo to Bruce for taking such a public stand. It’s the right thing to do, and I have no doubt he will keep it up for the rest of the tour. It also delightfully gets under Trump’s thin, sunburnt skin. Which brings us to his Truth Social post: “This dried out ‘prune’ of a rocker (his skin is all atrophied!) ought to KEEP HIS MOUTH SHUT until he gets back into the Country, that’s just ‘standard fare.’” The absolute NERVE of that over-tanned, over-sprayed, over-greased mango moron to DARE talk about anyone else’s skin health!! Not to mention the cockamamie argument he’s suggesting, as if Trump doesn’t throw a tantrum when people criticize him from within the US. And as always, the syntax nerd in me is in system failure when reading Trumpese. This time it’s the random quotation marks around “prune” and “standard fare” that are doing me in. (My usage is accurate, though, I swear!)
Thank you Bruce for saying this out loud. Where the hell are the Democratic leaders, who should be screaming their heads off about what’s happening here? I truly do not understand. Meanwhile, Trump had his nightly twitter tantrum while he was sundowning and called for a federal investigation into Springsteen. This all reads like satire but it’s really happening, which makes it tragedy.
Sundowning caught my eye immediately. My FIL, who we cared for until we couldn’t, had this common affliction of dementia. During the day, visitors would think him “fine”. Then he and we would be up all night with his outrageous theories and paranoia.
Sundowning, except it’s his baseline.
This is why he has my absolute respect, sure he’s protected by his $$$ but plenty of others use that as an excuse to keep quiet and go along with whatever horrors are being promoted by those in power. Not Bruce, he’s public and vocal. Lewis Hamilton is in the same bracket, not afraid to use his voice and cause waves to stand up and speak out on what’s right.
I just came here to say that I love Bruce Springsteen who, unlike Trump, is growing older like a fine Sauvignon Blanc, thank you very much.
Look at that, a well-known white male with a large fan base and lots of money is calling out Trump. Where are all the other protected members of his ‘class’? Is Springsteen the only one brave enough to stand up?
The other night I watched Conan O’Brien receive the Mark Tain award for American Humour at the Kennedy Centre and every last comedian/celebrity that came onstage to tell funny stories about him and congratulate him skewered Trump and the facist regime currently plundering America. In Conan’s words, the award was given to him by the “old regime”, and he clearly saw this as an opportunity for his cohorts to speak their minds about the sheer depravity and criminality of this administration of thieves. They came through.
I love him for this (among other things) but celebs came out in force against the felon during the campaign. Hundreds of high profile republicans joined them. People didn’t listen. This country is that broken. Doesn’t mean those with a voice shouldn’t keep trying, but I fear for them and I fear for us.
I love the people who are just now finding out that Springsteen is a liberal, and that he has always been pretty political in his songs. His best songs deal with economic downturns, blue collar towns, etc – all of which are political. That’s without getting into the more overtly political stuff like Born in the USA.
I wish more would use their voice to speak truth to power.
Thank you, Bruce. You are a national treasure. F#ck that sundowning psychotic tangerine. I am a lifelong Democrat and horrified by the lack of action by the Democratic leadership, the continued smears against Biden that are totally unproductive and the backbiting against the the liberals like AOC who have been speaking out. Everyday is a worse. If Schumer et al can’t step up, they need primaried and gone.
Sundowning is specific to dementia. While people who are psychotic can have sleep disturbances it is not sundowning.
Yes, but dementia doesn’t preclude psychosis.
As a fellow NJ resident and longtime Bruce lover – HEAR HEAR!!! Also, his wife has the same rare cancer as me and I occasionally see her (and I now realize him, because I didn’t recognize him as a silver fox) when I go for treatment. They are lovely lovely lovely people.
That’s nice to hear about Bruce and Patti at the clinic. I hope both you and she do well. She looks so thin lately, I’m a bit worried about her.
It was the right thing to do and I respect people who use their massive platforms for the truth.
On a personal note, maybe enough MAGA will boycott so his tickets become affordable? Dreaming for a friend lol
So far, the only musicians I’ve seen back up Bruce are Neil Young and Eddie Vedder. I have no doubt he’ll continue this throughout the tour. Bruce does not back down and I’m so proud of him. He’s doing this very deliberately and obviously has given a lot of thought about what he’s saying.