WASHINGTON (AP) ā 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 ā 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
At a concert in Manchester, England, Springsteen calling him an āunfit presidentā leading a ārogue governmentā of people who have āno concern or idea for what it means to be deeply American.ā
āThe America I love, the America Iāve 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,ā Springsteen said in words that he included on (A few more days later, he began another gig with the nonpolitical but saliently titled track āNo Surrender.ā)
Trump shot back and highly overrated. āNever liked him, never liked his music or his Radical Left Politics and, importantly, heās not a talented guy ā just a pushy, obnoxious JERK,ā 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, āThis machine kills fascists.ā
Here is a look at some Springsteen lyrics that ventured into current events and the plights of people caught up in them.
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āBorn in the USAā
LYRIC: Down in the shadow of the penitentiary, out by the gas fires of the refinery: Iām 10 years burninā down the road; nowhere to run, ain't got nowhere to go."
YEAR/ALBUM: 1984, āBorn in the USAā
BACKSTORY: Springsteen's most misinterpreted song ā misread by Ronald Reagan and many politicians after him ā 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 ā composed primarily of the words from the song's title, which made misunderstanding it easier ā turned it into an anthem, albeit one that was not a burst of patriotism but a bitter description of veterans' circumstances.
āMy Hometownā
LYRIC: āNow Main Streetās whitewashed windows and vacant stores/Seems like there aināt nobody wants to come down here no more.ā
YEAR/ALBUM: 1984, āBorn in the USAā
BACKSTORY: As he moved into his second decade of fame, Springsteen started touching on themes of economic distress more. āMy Hometownā 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, ātheyāre closinā down the textile mill across the railroad track. Foreman says, āThese jobs are goinā, boys, and they aināt cominā back.'ā
āAmerican Skin (41 Shots)ā
LYRIC: āNo secret, my friend ā you can get killed just for living in your American skin.ā
YEAR/ALBUM: 2001, āLive in New York City.ā
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 ā 19 of which went into his body. The case captivated and divided New York City, and the songās release alienated Springsteen from some of his fan base, which included cops (whose lives he had sometimes chronicled in earlier songs like āHighway Patrolmanā).
'The Ghost of Tom Joad'
LYRIC: "Shelter line stretchinā āround the corner. Welcome to the new world order. Families sleepinā in their cars in the southwest ā no home, no job, no peace, no rest."
YEAR/ALBUM: 1995, āThe Ghost of Tom Joadā
BACKSTORY: Keying in on the ethos and tone of Steinbeck's Depression-era classic āThe Grapes of Wrath,ā Springsteen chronicles modern-day people at the fringes of society trying to get by on the road. āThe highway is alive tonight,ā he says, ābut nobodyās kiddinā nobody about where it goes.ā
āThe Lineā
LYRIC: "At night they come across the levy in the searchlight's dusty glow. Weād rush āem in our Broncos and force āem back down into the river below."
YEAR/ALBUM: 1995, āThe Ghost of Tom Joadā
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, āAcross the Border,ā was written from the perspective of a Mexican man dreaming of America ("For you Iāll build a house high upon a grassy hill, somewhere across the border").
'The Rising'
LYRIC: "Lost track of how far Iāve gone ā how far Iāve gone, how high Iāve climbed. On my backās a 60-pound stone; on my shoulder a half-mile line."
YEAR/ALBUM: 2002, āThe Risingā
BACKSTORY: Barely a year after āAmerican Skin,ā 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 ā and, presumably dying along the way. He sings of a āsky of blackness and sorrow, sky of love, sky of tears, sky of glory and sadness, sky of mercy, sky of fear.ā He takes no political position but ā in his typical way ā shows one of history's most political events through the lens of a regular person caught up in it.
āJack of All Tradesā
LYRIC: āThe banker man grows fat, working man grows thin. Itās all happened before and itāll happen again.ā
YEAR/ALBUM: 2012, āWrecking Ballā
BACKSTORY: A lament from an underemployed American man who canāt 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. āYou lose what youāve got and you learn to make do. You take the old, you make it new,ā the protagonist sings. But, he also allows, āIf I had me a gun, Iād find the bastards and shoot āem on sight.ā
āDeath to My Hometownā
LYRIC: āSend the robber barons straight to hell ā 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.ā
YEAR/ALBUM: 2012, āWrecking Ballā
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 āWrecking Ball,ā a defiant challenge to people who would tear down beloved parts of northern New Jersey in the name of āprogress.ā
'Galveston Bay'
LYRIC: āBilly 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 theyād grew up on.ā
YEAR/ALBUM: 1995, āThe Ghost of Tom Joadā
BACKSTORY: An almost biblical parable about pain and old hatreds. A veteran in Galveston Bay, whoād fought in Vietnam, watches as an immigrant Vietnamese shrimper protects himself and sets out to kill him one night ā but it ends with unexpected results and quiet hope.
'57 Channels (and Nothinā On)'
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 ātil my TV lay in pieces there at my feet. And they busted me for disturbinā the almighty peace.ā
YEAR/ALBUM: 1992, āHuman Touchā
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 Douglasā anger-management-failure movie āFalling Downā depicted an enraged man losing it and tearing a swath through Los Angeles because of the stresses of modern culture.
'Livin' in the Future'
LYRIC: āMy ship Liberty sailed away on a bloody red horizon. The groundskeeper opened the gates and let the wild dogs run.ā
YEAR/ALBUM: 2007, āMagicā
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 ā as the song suggests ā 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.
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Ted Anthony, director of new storytelling and newsroom innovation for The Associated Press, has written about American culture since 1990.
Ted Anthony, The Associated Press
