Latest news with #NoSurrender
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
‘So polarised': Bruce Springsteen's anti-Trump comments divide US fans
As the lead singer of a Bruce Springsteen cover band, Brad Hobicorn had been looking forward to performing at Riv's Toms River Hub in New Jersey on Friday. Then came a text message from the bar's owner, saying the gig was cancelled. Why? Because the real Bruce Springsteen had lambasted Donald Trump. 'He said to me his customer base is redder than red and he wishes Springsteen would just shut his mouth,' Hobicorn recalls by phone. 'It was clear that this guy was getting caught up in that and didn't want to lose business. The reality is we would have brought a huge crowd out there: new customers that are Springsteen fans that want to see a band locally.' The culture wars have arrived in New Jersey, the state of Frank Sinatra, Jon Bon Jovi, Whitney Houston, comedian Jon Stewart and TV hit The Sopranos. Springsteen – revered for songs such as Born In The USA, Glory Days, Dancing In The Dark and Born To Run – has long been a balladeer of the state's blue-collar workers. But last year, many of those same workers voted for the president. Related: Bruce Springsteen says Trump is running 'rogue government' and 'siding with dictators' Now their split loyalties are being put to the test. Opening a recent tour in Manchester in Britain, Springsteen told his audience: 'The America I love, the America I've written about that has been a beacon of hope and liberty for 250 years is currently in the hands of a corrupt, incompetent and treasonous administration.' He repeated the criticisms at later concerts and released them on a surprise EP. Trump responded by calling Springsteen highly overrated. 'Never liked him, never liked his music or his Radical Left Politics and, importantly, he's not a talented guy — just a pushy, obnoxious JERK,' he wrote on social media. 'This dried out prune of a rocker (his skin is all atrophied) ought to KEEP HIS MOUTH SHUT until he gets back in the Country.' Trump, 78, also posted a video edited to make it seem as if he had hit 75-year-old Springsteen with a golf drive. Trump called for a 'major investigation' into Springsteen, Beyoncé and other celebrities, alleging that they had been paid millions of dollars to endorse his Democratic opponent in the 2024 election, Kamala Harris. Harris beat Trump by six percentage points in New Jersey, significantly less than Joe Biden's 16-point winning margin in 2020. In Toms River, a township along the Jersey Shore, Trump received twice as many votes as Harris, helping explain why Riv's Toms River Hub got cold feet about hosting a Springsteen cover band. The bar and restaurant cancelled the 30 May gig by No Surrender, a nine-person band that has played Springsteen songs for more than two decades, despite it being scheduled months in advance. Contacted by the Guardian, owner Tony Rivoli declined to comment. Hobicorn, 59, from Livingston, New Jersey, says the band suggested a compromise of playing classic rock other than Springsteen's but Rivoli rejected the idea. Hobicorn also received some criticism from Springsteen fans for offering the partial climbdown. But he explains: 'That's where I made the point that not everybody in the band is aligned with Bruce Springsteen's politics. Everybody's got a different point of view but that's OK. You can still be in a Springsteen cover band and not 100% agree with everything he says.' He adds: 'My band is split. We're half red, half blue. We have civilised conversations and then we go and play the music and it's never been about politics. This thing got made into a political situation.' Springsteen is not new to the political arena. When former president Ronald Reagan referenced the singer's 'message of hope' at a campaign stop, Springsteen wondered if Reagan had listened to his music and its references to those left behind in the 1980s economy. Later, he was a regular presence on Barack Obama's presidential election campaign. He has also challenged his audience politically beyond presidential endorsements. Born in the USA told of a Vietnam war veteran who lost his brother in the war and came home to no job prospects and a bleak future. My Hometown described the kind of economic decline and discontent that Trump has exploited: 'Now Main Street's whitewashed windows and vacant stores / Seems like there ain't nobody wants to come down here no more.' Springsteen's 1995 album The Ghost of Tom Joad bluntly documented the lives of struggling immigrants, including those from Mexico and Vietnam. His 2001 song American Skin (41 Shots), criticised the shooting by New York City police officers of an unarmed Guinean immigrant named Amadou Diallo, angering some of the blue-collar segments of his fanbase. But taking on Trump is a cause of a different magnitude. His 'Make America great again' (Maga) movement has proved uniquely polarising in US culture, forcing many people to choose whether they are on the blue team or red team. The clothes people wear, the food they eat and the music they listen to have become signifiers of Maga. Even some in New Jersey, where Springsteen grew up and now lives in the town of Colts Neck, are having doubts. Hobicorn reflects: 'As the country has become more and more divided, there's certainly a real disdain for Springsteen and his politics in New Jersey. Most New Jerseyans are supportive of who he is, what he's done for the state, what he's done for our culture, what he's done for music. 'I feel like it's not a lot of stuff in the middle like, yeah, he's OK. It's one way or the other. In New Jersey it's mostly in a positive way: people love and respect Bruce for everything. But some are going to paint the picture of him: he's a billionaire and he doesn't give a crap about anybody but himself. That's what they do.' No Surrender has found an alternative venue. After the cancellation of its Toms River gig, Randy Now's Man Cave, a record shop in Hightstown, New Jersey, stepped in and will host the band on 20 June. The shop will produce flyers and T-shirts that say: 'Free speech is live at Randy Now's Man Cave.' Owner Randy Ellis, 68, says: 'The state is proud of Bruce Springsteen. He should become the state bird for all I know.' But he admits: 'In the last election, Harris won the state but there were many more people for Trump than I ever expected in New Jersey. It's so polarised now. We may have people in front of my store saying Springsteen sucks and all that. Who knows?' At a time when many of Trump's critics have kept quiet, Springsteen is arguably his leading cultural foe. In 2020 he said: 'a good portion of our fine country, to my eye, has been thoroughly hypnotised, brainwashed by a conman from Queens' – knowing the outer-borough reference still stung a man who built his own tower in Manhattan. Related: 'This dried out prune of a rocker': Donald Trump attacks Bruce Springsteen after musician's fiery speeches Dan DeLuca, who grew up in Ventnor, New Jersey, and is now a popular music critic at the Philadelphia Inquirer newspaper, says: 'The thing about Bruce that people love is this idea of being a truth teller. You see what you see and you need to speak on it. There's a lot of people who are muttering things or speaking in private about what's going on in America who are not speaking out for whatever reason. Maybe they don't believe that politics and art should mix. Maybe they're worried about their fanbase or something. 'As he said, there's a lot of crazy shit going on and it's happened since he was last on the road. It's good that he's speaking his mind and he's speaking what a lot of people want to hear but maybe are afraid to hear and it's maybe giving some people courage.' But as the case of No Surrender demonstrated, there is a significant minority in New Jersey who see things differently in this hyper-partisan era. DeLuca reflects: 'I grew up in south Jersey, which is less densely populated, less urban, and it's Trump country now. 'Springsteen has been true to what he sings about and the people he sings about and the blue collar concerns but then he's open to target because he's rich or hangs out with Obama. They probably think that Bruce has turned into a knucklehead socialist or something. I'm sure there are plenty of people who probably do have some divided loyalties.'
Scottish Sun
3 days ago
- Business
- Scottish Sun
Delivering trophies is one thing but changing Rangers' culture might be tougher fix for new owners, reckons Bill Leckie
TWENTY million quid might make you or I happy for the rest of our lives. But in football terms it doesn't even touch the sides. 3 Rangers' new owners, including Andrew Cavenagh, might want to shake things up 3 And guys like Paraag Marathe will want to echo the American sports experience It gets you one-fifth of Bruno Fernandes. Or a year's wages for Mo Salah. If new European champions PSG are feeling generous, it might just about buy you one of their unused subs from Munich on Saturday night. So if any Rangers fans believe this summer's war chest promised by their new owners is enough to get them 'back where they belong' — to quote chairman Andrew Cavenagh's open letter from America — they are kidding themselves. Fact is, it won't. It might get them closer to Celtic next season, it might help them win a trophy. It's only a gesture, though. A down payment. A taste of what might be on tap if everyone knuckles down and gets their act together. Most of all, it appears to be a sign from the 49ers that bringing in new players, much like finding a new manager, is only part of what they have signed up to do. Or, at least, that's how it should be. Because for me, while revitalising the dugout and the dressing room has to be the short-term aim after a dismal campaign, what matters way more is a long-term plan that changes the culture of a club broken from top to bottom. The business culture. The corporate culture. The communications culture. And, maybe most of all, the FAN culture. Sure, if Donald Trump had bought them he wouldn't have changed a thing. Rangers fans react as 49ers takeover completed He'd already be wearing a No One Likes Us We Don't Care baseball cap. He'd be serenading Vladimir Putin with a chorus of No Surrender. Cavenagh and sidekick Paraag Marathe are cut from a different cloth, though. They built the foundations of their sporting empire on the family-friendly, tailgate-BBQ vibe of NFL game days. I can't see them being comfortable with the kind of atmosphere that generations of Ibrox boardrooms accepted not only as normal, but somehow as the look they wanted for their brand. It's an angry place. It's a place that distrusts outsiders, a place that screams abuse about the faith of half its own country. Surely that isn't the image Cavenagh and Co want for their investment? One of snarling faces, of religious hatred, of visiting supporters staring down the double barrels of a shotgun. Not to mention a world of potential sponsors recoiling in shock at the sight? If I was part of this consortium, that banner before the last Old Firm game would have sealed the deal for me as far as the need for cultural upheaval was concerned. It might even have made me think more than twice about whether this was the club for me and my dosh after all. It's clear chief executive Patrick Stewart isn't having the Union Bears thing, at least not in its present trouble-making form. You'd think he'd be telling the 49ers this, though you'd hope they would not only already be aware of it, but also would see it as a no-brainer that it cannot be allowed to go on. After all, if a clean slate applies to the dugout and the dressing room, then surely it should also apply to the stands. As in, if you're not prepared to buy into a new way of thinking, a new attitude, then off you pop and we'll fill your seat with someone who is. At which point, I'm well aware that the emails will start flying in about why the same isn't being written about THEYM across the city, about THEIR intolerances and THEIR anger. But this isn't about 'theym'. 3 Chief executive Patrick Stewart is already trying to make his influence felt Credit: Getty They are not the ones beating themselves up about serial failure on and off the pitch. This is about Rangers. And one of the first things the new people running Rangers have to do if this takeover is to work — genuinely work long-term, not just deliver the punter-appeasing quick fix of some silverware — is to stop worrying about what Celtic are doing, and start getting their own messy house in order. If they are properly serious about the job in front of them, they will set about rebuilding from top to bottom, and succeeding will mean as much as delivering titles and making an impact in Europe. If they are properly serious, they will look ahead to the day when they themselves ride off into the sunset, and promise the club they put up for sale won't trade on sectarianism and loathing its neighbours. That it will be one where mums and dads and kids can sit together and enjoy something as healthy as it is successful. Rangers have had this chance before. When the version run on tick by David Murray hit financial and footballing rock bottom in 2012, they could easily have come back up as a better club — but they blew it. Instead of finding the humility to set a wage structure that would let them rebuild from the ground up, they chucked more money at individual players than the rest of League Two spent among them in a week. Instead of reflecting on the boastful, wasteful, self-entitled mindset that had caused their humiliating fall from grace, they chose instead to blame it all on a world that they believed was out to get them. They either couldn't see — or chose to ignore — the bigger picture that the whole No One Likes Us schtick was dragging them down, and that they needed to re-market themselves as an outward-looking, progressive organisation where everyone was welcome. Today, and for very different reasons, Rangers have that same chance again. It's one they simply MUST grab, and run with like a 49ers wide-receiver in full flight. Keep up to date with ALL the latest news and transfers at the Scottish Sun football page
The Herald Scotland
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Herald Scotland
Farewell tour? As Bruce Springsteen says, he 'ain't going anywhere'
An insight into the discipline it takes to deliver a high-quality show was provided by Springsteen himself, in his autobiography Born to Run. After his long-term saxophone player, Clarence ('The Big Man') Clemons, died in 2011, Springsteen eventually got around to auditioning Clemons's nephew, Jake, for the role. Jake, however, arrived an hour late, having got lost en route, and then said he 'sort of' knew the handful of songs Springsteen had sent him. "Lesson number one", The Boss, evidently unimpressed, records in the book: in the E Street Band they don't 'sort of' do anything. "James Brown was my father, god and hero as bandleader. Sam Moore was also a great inspiration. At their best, these were men whose lives forbade them to f--- around with the thing that was lifting them up. On the bandstand, with their bands, they gave NO QUARTER!" And then Springsteen wrote this: "People always asked me how the band played like it did night after night, almost murderously consistent, never stagnant and always full balls to the wall. "There are two answers. One is they loved and respected their jobs, one another, their leader and the audience. The other is ...because I MADE them! Do not underestimate the second answer. I need Jake to understand them both". Bruce SpringsteenNow, in 2025, he and the E Streeters – with Jake on sax – are on the road again, playing a string of 16 European dates. The shows are as high-energy and as life-affirming as they ever were. The set-lists range far and wide over Springsteen's peerless collection of great songs. The most recent, from Lille, includes No Surrender, Promised Land, The River, House of a Thousand Guitars, Letter to You, The Rising, Thunder Road, with the encores ranging from Born in the USA to Born to Run and Dancing in the Dark. Two years ago, when the band was touring the US and Europe, there were whispers to the effect that it wouldn't be a surprise if Springsteen, then 73, were to quit life on the road. One respected critic was bowled over by the relentless energy on display at a gig in Barcelona. Yet for how much longer, he wondered, could Springsteen and his crew pull off this trick? As uplifting as the show was, there had been an underlying poignancy to proceedings, "a sense that this is reluctantly, defiantly, yet inevitably coming to an end. If you haven't had the pleasure of seeing the greatest rock star of our time with the greatest rock and roll band in the world, I would urge you to catch this tour when it arrives on our shores. Right now, Springsteen is undeniably still the Boss. But I have a sneaking suspicion that this tour might be him handing in his notice". Springsteen gave such notions short shrift, telling a Philadelphia audience in August 2024: 'We've been around 50 f***ing years and we ain't quitting!' he said. 'We ain't doing no farewell tour bulls***! Jesus Christ! No farewell tour for the E Street Band! Hell no. Farewell to what? Thousands of people screaming your name? Yeah, I wanna quit that. That's it. That's all it takes. I ain't goin' anywhere.' The current leg of the Land of Hope and Dreams tour, which kicked off with three dates at Manchester's Co-Op arena in mid-May, will cap a tour that began in February 2023. The current run of 130 dates has sold in excess of four million tickets. At the opening date in Manchester Springsteen made headlines with an impassioned verbal assault on the Trump White House. 'In my home', he declared, 'the America I love, the America I've written about, that has been a beacon of hope and liberty for 250 years, is currently in the hands of a corrupt, incompetent and treasonous administration. Tonight, we ask all who believe in democracy and the best of our American experience, to rise with us, raise your voices against authoritarianism and let freedom ring'. US authorities under Trump, he added, were 'persecuting people for using their right to free speech and voicing their dissent'. In America, the richest men 'are taking satisfaction in abandoning the world's poorest children to sickness and death ... In my country, they're taking sadistic pleasure in the pain that they inflict on loyal American workers'. Historic civil-rights legislation was being rolled back, he continued. Great allies were being abandoned, and leading universities were being defunded. Springsteen quickly issued a six-track digital EP containing those words, and four songs – Land of Hope and Dreams, Long Walk Home, My City of Ruins and Bob Dylan's Chimes of Freedom – from the concert. Read more Trump responded in characteristically thin-skinned fashion, saying: "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". He later demanded a 'major investigation' into Springsteen, Beyoncé, Oprah Winfrey and Bono, alleging that Kamala Harris, his beaten opponent last year, had broken campaign-finance law by paying the first three for their endorsements. Springsteen, for his part, has been supported by such musicians as Neil Young, Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam, and Tom Morello. Bono, asked by US TV host Jimmy Kimmel for his take on the spat between Springsteen and Trump, said: 'I think there's only one 'Boss' in America'. In a guest essay in the New York Times, Eric Alterman, author of a book about Springsteen, noted Trump's 'petty rage' at the musician for his Manchester remarks, adding: "Perhaps Mr. Trump worried that a simple, uncompromised patriotic message on offer from a man who is arguably the nation's most beloved male rock star would break through to his fans". In Springsteen's native New Jersey, a tribute band that plays his songs had to find a new venue for a gig after the owner of the original venue cancelled, saying he was worried about Springsteen's remarks about Trump. The European gigs by the E Street Band have been rapturously received, with Uncut magazine's reviewer, Dave Simpson, observing that Springsteen delivered "what must surely be the most politically-charged show of his career. As he stands just feet from the front rows, video screens show the singer's face furrow with concentration as he delivers every line with passion, precision and often venom. "Springsteen is 75 years old now. His hair is greyer and wirier. He no longer plays guitar on his back or does knee slides across the stage like he did in his youth, but he's still more than capable of helming a powerhouse two and a half hour show which never once loses fire, brimstone or focus. The main members of the E Street Band are now in their 70s too, but with saxophonist Jake Clemons replacing his late, legendary uncle Clarence, they roar away as inimitably as ever". In the meantime, a huge, nine-LP/seven-CD box set, Tracks II: The Lost Albums, covering Springsteen's career between 1983 and 2018, will be released on June 27. The never-before-released albums contain no fewer than 83 songs. A companion offering – Lost And Found: Selections from The Lost Albums — will feature 20 songs from across the collection, and will also go on sale on June 27. * Springsteen and the E Street Band play Liverpool's Anfield stadium on June 4 and 7.
Fox News
27-05-2025
- Business
- Fox News
Jersey Shore bar cancels Springsteen cover band over The Boss' anti-Trump rants
Print Close Published May 27, 2025 Bruce Springsteen just got canceled — at the Jersey Shore. A tribute band dedicated to The Boss' music pulled the plug on a gig at a bar not far from his Garden State home after a dispute with its owner over the singer-songwriter's anti-Trump comments, according to a report. No Surrender, a 20-year-old, nine-piece Springsteen cover band from New Jersey, was slated to play Riv's Toms River Hub on May 30 — until the "I'm on Fire" singer kicked off his European tour packed with on-stage rants flaming President Trump, NJ Advance Media reported. BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN RELEASES EP FEATURING ANTI-TRUMP RANTS FROM UK CONCERT Band leader Brad Hobicorn started receiving "concerned texts" from bar owner Tony Rivoli shortly after Springsteen's comments went viral, according to the outlet. By Sunday, Rivoli allegedly put the kibosh on the show that was booked nine months in advance. He texted Hobicorn that the gig would be "too risky at the moment," citing the restaurant's conservative customer base, the outlet reported. "Unfortunately it's just too much money I wanted to do the Springsteen tribute for that money in my social media team would have promoted it we would have done well but now because Bruce can't keep his mouth shut we're screwed," Rivoli wrote in a text message to Hobicorn obtained by NJ Advance Media. Hobicorn offered to have his band play only classic-rock covers instead of Springsteen, but Rivoli balked at paying $2,500 for a classic-rock cover band, the outlet said. In a message sent to the band's bassist, Guy Fleming, Rivoli wrote, "Whenever the national anthem plays, my bar stands and is in total silence, that's our clientele. Toms River is red and won't stand for his bull—." After Fleming posted about the situation on Facebook, Rivoli seemed to change his tune a bit — insisting he never canceled the gig and had changed his mind. But the band decided it was too late for the bar owner to backtrack. "This is not political for us at all," Hobicorn told the outlet Thursday. "We're just a cover band that's trying to make some money, and people rely on it financially. We're the ones really getting hurt." BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN IGNORES QUESTION ABOUT TRUMP FEUD WHILE SIGNING AUTOGRAPHS: VIDEO "At that point, there were negative vibes about the whole thing," Hobicorn said. "There was definitely a safety concern," he said. Rivoli, though, insisted the cover band could have played. "As of (Wednesday), they could have played as No Surrender," Rivoli told the outlet. "I think a lot of people of my base would not have came, but I could have been wrong. You know, who knows? You can't predict what people are going to do." Toms River bar and restaurant joints have previously sparked backlash for their conservative slant. Aqua Blu Kitchen & Cocktails in Toms River put a hamburger on its menu dedicated to the right-wing extremist group the Proud Boys in January, leading to a massive online backlash and an apology from the owner. Springsteen — who was born in Long Branch and raised in Freehold — lambasted Trump's administration as "corrupt, incompetent and treasonous" while kicking off the European leg of his "Land of Hope and Dreams" tour in Manchester, England, last week. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Last Friday, Trump slammed the musician, calling him "Highly Overrated" and "dumb as a rock" for going "to a Foreign Country to speak badly about the President of the United States." "Never liked him, never liked his music, or his Radical Left Politics and, importantly, he's not a talented guy — Just a pushy, obnoxious JERK, who fervently supported Crooked Joe Biden, a mentally incompetent FOOL, and our WORST EVER President, who came close to destroying our Country," he posted to Truth Social. Instead of playing The Riv's Toms River Hub, No Surrender will play Headliner Oasis in Neptune Township on May 30, according to the outlet. Print Close URL
Japan Today
25-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Japan Today
Bruce Springsteen's lyrical view of America has long included politics — even more so as he ages
By TED ANTHONY Even as his fame and wealth have soared over the decades, Bruce Springsteen has retained the voice of the working class' balladeer, often weighing in on politics — most notably when he was a regular presence on Barack Obama's presidential campaign. This month, though, his music and public statements have ended up as particularly pointed and contentious. At a concert in Manchester, England, Springsteen denounced President Donald Trump's politics, calling him an 'unfit president' leading a 'rogue government' of people who have 'no concern or idea for what it means to be deeply American.' 'The America I love, the America I've written about that has been a beacon of hope and liberty for 250 years is currently in the hands of a corrupt, incompetent and treasonous administration,' Springsteen said in words that he included on a digital EP he released a few days later. (A few more days later, he began another gig with the nonpolitical but saliently titled track 'No Surrender.') Trump shot back and called Springsteen highly overrated. 'Never liked him, never liked his music or his Radical Left Politics and, importantly, he's not a talented guy — just a pushy, obnoxious JERK,' he wrote on social media. For decades, Springsteen has salted his songs with social and political commentary, and it's hardly surprising: One of his self-described musical heroes, the activist folk singer Woody Guthrie, played a guitar upon which was written, 'This machine kills fascists.' Here is a look at some Springsteen lyrics that ventured into current events and the plights of people caught up in them. LYRIC: Down in the shadow of the penitentiary, out by the gas fires of the refinery: I'm 10 years burnin' down the road; nowhere to run, ain't got nowhere to go." YEAR/ALBUM: 1984, 'Born in the USA' BACKSTORY: Springsteen's most misinterpreted song — misread by Ronald Reagan and many politicians after him — tells the tale of a Vietnam vet who lost his brother in the war and came home to no job prospects and a bleak future. The driving, catchy chorus — composed primarily of the words from the song's title, which made misunderstanding it easier — turned it into an anthem, albeit one that was not a burst of patriotism but a bitter description of veterans' circumstances. LYRIC: 'Now Main Street's whitewashed windows and vacant stores/Seems like there ain't nobody wants to come down here no more.' YEAR/ALBUM: 1984, 'Born in the USA' BACKSTORY: As he moved into his second decade of fame, Springsteen started touching on themes of economic distress more. 'My Hometown' is about a 35-year-old man remembering how he used to ride proudly around his town with his father when he was little. But now, he laments, 'they're closin' down the textile mill across the railroad track. Foreman says, 'These jobs are goin', boys, and they ain't comin' back.'' LYRIC: 'No secret, my friend — you can get killed just for living in your American skin.' YEAR/ALBUM: 2001, 'Live in New York City.' BACKSTORY: A song written about the 1999 police killing of unarmed Guinean immigrant Amadou Diallo, who was standing in front of his apartment building in the Bronx when he was peppered with 41 bullets — 19 of which went into his body. The case captivated and divided New York City, and the song's release alienated Springsteen from some of his fan base, which included cops (whose lives he had sometimes chronicled in earlier songs like 'Highway Patrolman'). LYRIC: "Shelter line stretchin' 'round the corner. Welcome to the new world order. Families sleepin' in their cars in the southwest — no home. no job, no peace, no rest." YEAR/ALBUM: 1995, 'The Ghost of Tom Joad' BACKSTORY: Keying in on the ethos and tone of Steinbeck's Depression-era classic 'The Grapes of Wrath,' Springsteen chronicles modern-day people at the fringes of society trying to get by on the road. 'The highway is alive tonight,' he says, 'but nobody's kiddin' nobody about where it goes.' LYRIC: "At night they come across the levy in the searchlight's dusty glow. We'd rush 'em in our Broncos and force 'em back down into the river below." YEAR/ALBUM: 1995, 'The Ghost of Tom Joad' BACKSTORY: The tale of a lonely, widowed border patrol agent who falls for one of the illegal immigrants caught crossing the border. It leads him to confront his hypocrisy and leave the job, still searching for the woman he met fleetingly. Its companion song on the album, 'Across the Border,' was written from the perspective of a Mexican man dreaming of America ("For you I'll build a house high upon a grassy hill, somewhere across the border"). LYRIC: "Lost track of how far I've gone — how far I've gone, how high I've climbed. On my back's a 60-pound stone; on my shoulder a half-mile line." YEAR/ALBUM: 2002, 'The Rising' BACKSTORY: Barely a year after 'American Skin,' Springsteen turned back to first responders in the wake of 9/11, venerating them with a song that tells of a firefighter ascending the steps of one of the Twin Towers to save people — and, presumably dying along the way. He sings of a 'sky of blackness and sorrow, sky of love, sky of tears, sky of glory and sadness, sky of mercy, sky of fear.' He takes no political position but — in his typical way — shows one of history's most political events through the lens of a regular person caught up in it. LYRIC: 'The banker man grows fat, working man grows thin. It's all happened before and it'll happen again.' YEAR/ALBUM: 2012, 'Wrecking Ball' BACKSTORY: A lament from an underemployed American man who can't get more than odd jobs after the financial crisis of 2007-2008. The work he does as a handyman sends him toward hopelessness, and he feels a lack of dignity. 'You lose what you've got and you learn to make do. You take the old, you make it new,' the protagonist sings. But, he also allows, 'If I had me a gun, I'd find the bastards and shoot 'em on sight.' LYRIC: 'Send the robber barons straight to hell — 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.' YEAR/ALBUM: 2012, 'Wrecking Ball' BACKSTORY: Springsteen revisits the theme of a dying hometown, this time with more aggressiveness than lament, keying in on the financial crisis of 2007-2008. It functioned as a protest song and a rallying cry against greed and its carriers. The same album featured the song 'Wrecking Ball,' a defiant challenge to people who would tear down beloved parts of northern New Jersey in the name of 'progress.' LYRIC: 'Billy sat in front of his TV as the South fell and the communists rolled into Saigon. He and his friends watched as the refugees came, settled on the same streets and worked the coast they'd grew up on.' YEAR/ALBUM: 1995, 'The Ghost of Tom Joad' BACKSTORY: An almost biblical parable about pain and old hatreds. A veteran in Galveston Bay, who'd fought in Vietnam, watches as an immigrant Vietnamese shrimper protects himself and sets out to kill him one night — but it ends with unexpected results and quiet hope. LYRIC: "So I bought a .44 Magnum, it was solid steel cast. And in the blessed name of Elvis, well, I just let it blast 'til my TV lay in pieces there at my feet. And they busted me for disturbin' the almighty peace.' YEAR/ALBUM: 1992, 'Human Touch' BACKSTORY: An expression of sardonic rage at the emptiness and hopelessness that the unremitting feed of cable TV had brought to the world. This is less political and more social, though it reflected some of the disillusionment of the age about the brain rot of popular culture. It came months before Michael Douglas' anger-management-failure movie 'Falling Down' depicted an enraged man losing it and tearing a swath through Los Angeles because of the stresses of modern culture. LYRIC: 'My ship Liberty sailed away on a bloody red horizon. The groundskeeper opened the gates and let the wild dogs run.' YEAR/ALBUM: 2007, 'Magic' BACKSTORY: A twist on the old-fashioned warning song, written from the vantage point of the future. ("We're livin' in the future, and none of this has happened yet.") This was a commentary on a post-9/11 America that — as the song suggests — is headed in a bad direction. Oblique but devastating, particularly with such somber words against an upbeat melody reminiscent of his early work, it suggested there was still time to correct course. Which touches on a frequent Springsteen theme: possibility amid the hardship and challenge. © Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
