Last week, I saw Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band perform in Nationals Park in Washington D.C., in one of the last shows of their “Land of Hope and Dreams” tour. I’ve been a Bruce Springsteen fan for almost fifty years and have seen him in concert many times.
It was an amazing show. More than 40,000 people listened, sang and danced in the rain to an inspiring, poignant, and empowering concert filled with musical and spoken messages about America’s promise and potential, what’s happening now that contradicts core American values, and what we all can do about it. It was a deeply patriotic and motivating experience, filled with joy, purpose, and power.
My column below is a medley of selected lyrics from several of the many songs performed at the concert. The words are those of the songwriter, assembled in a way to reflect the dream, betrayal and hope for our country. The songs weren’t written at the same time, and weren’t designed to be read as one continuous lyric. Yet, these lyrics are as relevant and important as the day they were written. Whether you’re a Springsteen fan, or not, I hope you enjoy it.
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What is this land, America? So many travel there — I’m going now while I’m still young, my darling, meet me there. Wish me luck, my lovely, I’ll send for you when I can, and we’ll make our home in the American land.
Over there all the women wear silk and satin to their knees, and children dear, the sweets, I hear, are growing on the trees. Gold comes rushing out the rivers straight into your hands when you make your home in the American land. There’s diamonds in the sidewalk, the gutters lined in song, I hear that beer flows through the faucets all night long — there’s treasure for the taking, for any hard-working man who will make his home in the American land.
American Land (2012)
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Well, my daddy, who came on the Ohio works when he came home from World War II. Now the yard’s just scrap and rubble — “Them big boys did what Hitler couldn’t do.”
Yeah, these mills, they built the tanks and bombs that won this country’s wars. We sent our sons to Korea and Vietnam — now we’re wondering what they were dying for. Seven hundred tons of metal a day — now, sir, you tell me the world’s changed.
Once, I made you rich enough. Rich enough to forget my name.
Youngstown (1995)
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War is something that I despise, for it means the destruction of innocent lives, and a thousand words in mothers’ cry when their sons go out to fight, to give their lives. Peace, love and understanding — there must be some place for these things today. They say we must fight to keep our freedom, but Lord, there’s gotta be another way —that’s better than
War — what is it good for? Absolutely nothing.
War, first released 1970, covered by Springsteen (1986)
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They destroyed our families, our factories, and they took our homes. They left our bodies on the plains, the vultures picked our bones. 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.
So listen up, my sonny boy, be ready when they come, for they’ll be returning sure as the rising sun. Now get yourself a song to sing and sing it till you’re done — yes, sing it hard and sing it well, 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.
Death to My Hometown (2012)
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Is it a gun? Is it a knife? Is it a wallet? This is your life. It ain’t no secret, it ain’t no secret — no secret, my friend: you can get killed just for living in your American skin.
American Skin (41 Shots) (2014)
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Through the winter’s ice and cold, down Nicollet Avenue, a city aflame fought fire and ice beneath an occupier’s boots. King Trump’s private army from the DHS, guns belted to their coats, came to Minneapolis to enforce the law — or so their story goes.
Against smoke and rubber bullets in the dawn’s early light, citizens stood for justice, their voices ringing through the night. And there were bloody footprints where mercy should have stood — and two dead, left to die on snow-filled streets: Alex Pretti and Renée Good.
Oh, our Minneapolis, I hear your voice singing through the bloody mist. We’ll take our stand for this land and the stranger in our midst. Here in our home, they killed and roamed in the winter of ’26 — we’ll remember the names of those who died on the streets of Minneapolis.
Streets of Minneapolis (2026)
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Now on the street tonight, the lights grow dim, the walls of my room are closing in. There’s a war outside still raging — you say it ain’t ours anymore to win. I want to sleep beneath peaceful skies in my lover’s bed, with a wide open country in my eyes and these romantic dreams in my head.
No Surrender (1984)
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Here everybody has a neighbor, everybody has a friend, everybody has a reason to begin again. My father said, “Son, we’re lucky in this town — it’s a beautiful place to be born. It just wraps its arms around you, nobody crowds you, and nobody goes it alone.”
“Your flag flying over the courthouse means certain things are set in stone — who we are, what we’ll do, and what we won’t.”
It’s gonna be a long walk home.
Long Walk Home (2007)
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Now Tom said, “Mom, wherever there’s a cop beating 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.
Wherever somebody’s fighting for a place to stand, or a decent job or a helping hand, wherever somebody’s struggling to be free — look in their eyes, ma’, and you’ll see me.”
The Ghost of Tom Joad (1995)
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The criminal clown has stolen the throne, he steals what he can never own.
May the truth ring out from every small-town bar — we’ll light up the house of a thousand guitars.
House of a Thousand Guitars (2020)
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Because we made a promise, we swore we’d always remember —
No retreat, baby. No surrender.
No Surrender (1984)
It’s time for all of us to work to make sure that the elections on November 3rd are fair, that voters show up to vote, and that candidates who will work to restore our democracy – at all levels of government – are elected. Please join me in doing what you can, with what you’ve got, where you are!