After some initial reluctance, Bruce Springsteen has increasingly sounded off about the presidential administrations of Donald J. Trump.
Asked during a cover-story interview with Variety in 2017 why he hadn’t been more critical, he said, “Well, if you read Charles Blow in The New York Times, he carries the flag pretty well. I’m ambivalent about … sort of getting on a soapbox. I still believe people fundamentally come to music to be entertained — yes, to address their daily concerns, and yes, also to address political topics, I believe music can do that well. But I still believe fundamentally it’s an affair of the heart.”
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Yet he gradually ramped up his criticism throughout his residency on Broadway late in the last decade, and by the time he was playing rallies for Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris last fall, he was letting rip: “She’s running to be the 47th president of the United States. Donald Trump is running to be an American tyrant,” he said. “He does not understand this country, its history, or what it means to be deeply American. And that’s why November 5, I’m casting my vote for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz. I urge all of you who believe in the American way to join me.”
Well, the world knows the way the election went, but on Wednesday in Manchester, England, on the opening night of his European tour with his E Street Band, Springsteen let loose again.
“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,” he told the crowd. “In my home, 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 experiment to rise with us, raise your voices against authoritarianism and let freedom ring!”
Variety will have more on the show as it progresses.
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