Bruce Springsteen is sending a message with his latest tour. When the 76-year-old New Jersey rock icon, known universally as The Boss, kicked off his Land of Hope & Dreams American Tour last week, he did so pointedly in Minneapolis to honor the city’s anti-ICE protests.
“This tour is going to be political and very topical about what’s going on in the country,” he told the Minnesota Star Tribune. “Minneapolis and St. Paul, that was the place that I wanted to begin it, and I wanted to end it in Washington.”
From the stage, Springsteen paid tribute to “the power and the solidarity” of the people of Minnesota. Predictably, Donald Trump wasn’t happy. The president responded by labelling the musician a “dried-up prune” and urging MAGA supporters to boycott the tour.
That won’t stop Springsteen. As longtime fans will know, he’s never been afraid to share his political views, either on stage or off.
Here’s a look back at some of the key songs that highlight the singer-songwriter’s social conscience:
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‘Lost in the Flood’ (1973)
As far back as his 1973 debut album Greetings From Asbury Park, Springsteen has been writing emotional epics that reflect the reality of his homeland. “Lost in the Flood” tells the story of a “ragamuffin” soldier returning from the Vietnam War to find an America he barely recognizes.
In one verse, he describes a police force who meet violence on the streets with yet more violence, singing: “Oh, and some kid comes blastin’ round the corner, but a cop puts him right away / He lays on the street holding his leg screaming something in Spanish / Still breathing when I walked away.”
‘Johnny 99’ (1982)
By the early 1980s, Springsteen’s star was on the rise and politicians were attempting to use his name to win over voters. When President Ronald Reagan was campaigning for re-election in 1984, he gave a speech in New Jersey and couldn’t resist referencing the popularity of Springsteen’s new record, Born in the U.S.A. “America’s future… rests in the message of hope in the songs of a man so many young Americans admire — New Jersey’s own Bruce Springsteen,” said Reagan.
Not long afterward, Springsteen was on stage in Pittsburgh when he responded to Reagan’s words: “The president was mentioning my name the other day, and I kinda got to wondering what his favorite album musta been. I don’t think it was the Nebraska album. I don’t think he’s been listening to this one.”
Springsteen then proceeded to play “Johnny 99,” his stark song about an automotive worker who gets laid off and is so distraught and distressed that he drunkenly murders a night clerk. Not quite the message of hope Reagan assumed he heard in Springsteen’s music.
‘Born in the U.S.A.’ (1984)
Ronald Reagan wasn’t the only one to mistakenly think that Springsteen’s massive 1984 hit “Born in the U.S.A.” was a flag-waving, jingoistic anthem. Listen past the singalong chorus, however, and it’s clear that Springsteen is returning to his earlier subject matter and writing about a disillusioned soldier back from Vietnam who finds himself alienated from society: rejected from a job at a local refinery and denied support by the V.A.
The latter detail made Reagan’s love of the song even more ironic, as it was the president’s decision to severely cut V.A. funding to the tune of some $500 million that exacerbated situations like the one Springsteen describes in the song.
‘The Ghost of Tom Joad’ (1995)
The title track of Springsteen’s eleventh studio album was inspired by Tom Joad, the protagonist of John Steinbeck’s classic Great Depression novel The Grapes of Wrath. The book, published in 1939, was adapted into a film by John Ford the following year and also gave Woody Guthrie the idea for “The Ballad Of Tom Joad.”
In Springsteen’s song, he transports Joad out of the Great Depression and into the modern era, only to find that precious little has changed. He paraphrases Joad’s famous final speech from the novel, singing: “Now Tom said ‘Mom, wherever there’s a cop beatin’ a guy / Wherever a hungry newborn baby cries / Where there’s a fight against the blood and hatred in the air / Look for me, Mom, I’ll be there’.”
The song was covered by Rage Against The Machine for their 2000 covers album Renegades, and has frequently been played by guitarist Tom Morello since.
‘American Skin (41 Shots)’ (2001)
Springsteen returned to the topic of police violence on “American Skin (41 Shots),” which was inspired by the fatal 1999 shooting of 23-year-old Amadou Diallo by NYPD officers. Diallo was reaching for his wallet when the NYPD opened fire. They shot 41 times, with 19 bullets striking Diallo.
Originally released as a live recording, Springsteen revisited the song on his 2014 album High Hopes. In 2020, in the wake of George Floyd’s death, Springsteen played the song on his radio show and dedicated it to Floyd’s memory.
He added: “We remain haunted, generation after generation, by our original sin of slavery. It remains the great unresolved issue of American society. The weight of its baggage gets heavier with each passing generation. As of this violent, chaotic week on the streets of America, there is no end in sight.”
‘Devils & Dust’ (2005)
After appealing for unity on 2002’sThe Rising, his response to the September 11 attacks, Springsteen turned his attention to the war in Iraq on his 2005 album Devils & Dust.
The title track concerns a soldier who is questioning his role and whether his mission is a righteous one, as he sings: “I got God on my side / I'm just trying to survive / What if, what you do to survive / Kills the things you love / Fear's a powerful thing.”
‘Long Walk Home’ (2007)
Springsteen’s 2007 album Magic was partly inspired by his reaction to the presidency of George W. Bush, who had been re-elected for a second term in 2004. When “Long Walk Home” was released, he told the New York Times: “In that particular song a guy comes back to his town and recognizes nothing and is recognized by nothing.
“The singer in ‘Long Walk Home,’ that’s his experience. His world has changed. The things that he thought he knew, the people who he thought he knew, whose ideals he had something in common with, are like strangers. The world that he knew feels totally alien. I think that’s what's happened in this country in the past six years.”
‘We Take Care Of Our Own’ (2012)
In 2012, Springsteen’s album Wrecking Ball hit shelves the same year President Barack Obama was running for re-election. Springsteen, who had been a vocal supporter of Obama since long before he was first elected president, allowed his song “We Take Care Of Our Own” to be used extensively by Obama’s campaign.
However, much like “Born In The U.S.A.,” it’s been widely theorized that Springsteen’s critique of his country has been overlooked by those who just hear the bombastic chorus. In one verse, he criticizes the government’s failure to adequately respond to Hurricane Katrina and points out that, in that case, America didn’t take care of its own.
“There ain't no help, the cavalry stayed home,” he sings. “There ain’t no one hearing the bugle blowin’.”
‘Death To My Hometown’ (2012)
Many protest songs have been written about war, but fewer have been inspired by a financial crisis. Springsteen’s “Death To My Hometown” was written in the wake of the fallout from the 2008 market crash, and was fueled by his anger that those responsible got away scot-free.
He sings: “The greedy thieves who came around / And ate the flesh of everything they found / Whose crimes have gone unpunished now / Who walk the streets as free men now.”
‘Streets of Minneapolis’ (2026)
Springsteen proved that he’s still got a keen eye for a protest song with this year’s “Streets of Minneapolis,” a passionate broadside that showed his political fire hasn’t dimmed. The song was dedicated to Renee Good and Alex Pretti, the two civilians who were shot dead by ICE agents in Minneapolis.
The lyrics refer to “King Trump” and describe ICE and Border Patrol agents as “federal thugs” who killed Pretti and left him to “lay in the snow, dead.”
Springsteen played the song solo at a recent “No Kings” protest and performed it for the first time with full E Street Band backing last week on the opening night of his new tour, which fittingly took place in Minneapolis.
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