Bruce Springsteen: Homecoming on July 4th? What's next after the European tour
It's great poetry about America's biggest holiday, and also a song about a tender romance on the Jersey Shore. A lovesick boy whispers an entire short film into his girl's ear: "Sandy, the fireworks are raining down on this little paradise tonight," sings a young Bruce Springsteen. And then he mentions the men brandishing their switchblades on the racetrack and the magicians on the boardwalk performing their magic tricks even after dark. On the beach, "the casino boys dance with their shirts open like Latin lovers" and they're after the "silly girls from New York."
"Sandy," sings Springsteen in the chorus, "behind us the northern lights rise, and the pier lights our carnival life forever..." New Jersey seems enchanted in these lines. The Garden State appears as a "little Eden," an American idyll so beautiful that the Fourth of July of this song, I pray, may it linger forever.
Independence Day is celebrated in Springsteen's song "4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)," which was included on his second album, "The Wild, The Innocent & The E-Street Shuffle" (1973) (it was released as a single in 1974 – only in Germany). And today, the evening before this year's Independence Day, Bruce Springsteen's "Land of Hope and Dreams" European tour ends in Milan. A final "Andiamo!" of a concert tour on which, from the very first performance, the musician launched a fierce campaign against the activities of the "incompetent president" and his "rogue government."
Donald Trump then hurled unpresidential insults at him on his Truth Social platform and openly threatened him to "shut his mouth until he's back in the country (...). Then we'll all see how it turns out for him." A few days later, Trump released a fake video in which he "shoots" Springsteen from behind on stage with a golf ball.
What happens now when the boss's entourage returns home? The narcissistic Trump is known for his resentment and vindictiveness. Although the president refrained from further rants against Springsteen in the wake of the golf ball video, he was clearly constantly aware of the fiery speeches repeated in France, Germany, the Czech Republic, Spain, and Italy, continually updated with new accusations against his administration, which were even translated into the respective national languages on the giant screens.
In a July 2 article about the Berlin concert (June 11), the Los Angeles Times (LA Times) saw a particular impact of Springsteen's lines in Germany, "in a country that saw its democracy die in 1933."
Political scientist Jochen Staadt also pointed out in the "LA Times" that Springsteen has a special significance for Germany – one that has existed since his legendary concert in East Berlin in 1988: "Germans are drawn to Springsteen because he played an important role in our history when Germany was still divided, and because he may have helped overcome this division with his rock music."
A homecoming on July 4th would actually be a perfect choice. In the USA, this day is understood and perceived as a day of freedom. The day on which, 249 years ago, the 13 American colonies declared their independence from the British Empire in Philadelphia. Of course, the War of Independence against the Crown lasted until 1783 (and – ironically – was won with the involvement of the French crown for the American cause). The July 4th proclamation was, if you will, America's first "No Kings!" – the two-word slogan used at today's demonstrations against a president who creates a lack of freedom.
Springsteen has undoubtedly damaged Trump with his "No Kings" tour for democracy. The only socially critical US songwriter who effortlessly fills major stadiums around the globe, he has used his mass appeal and global perception as a positive, decent, upstanding buddy Bruce to publicly portray Trump as a good-for-nothing, while even European leaders are flattering him for his benevolence and the NATO Secretary General is even embarrassingly fawning over him.
He did this "not out of snobbery, because he considers him a vulgar, orange-cheeked chatterer," the Italian magazine "Rolling Stone" judged on July 1, the day after the first Milan concert. But because he was "defending his country's constitutive values against the president's assault." Springsteen is the good guy in this battle, Trump the bad guy – even if Trump's supporters try to deny this on social media with the most vicious rants against "the rich, lying, out-of-touch bastard" who is "only brave abroad" (these were, after all, Springsteen's first concerts after the election).
The wave of protest might feel a little stronger – but still, more and more artists are joining in. "Action is an antidote to despair," folk icon Joan Baez recently told the US edition of "Rolling Stone," pointing out the dismay of many Americans that all this is actually happening in America, "because that usually only applies to other countries, the shithole countries. And because of them, this country is now becoming a shithole, too."
Patti Smith, the "Godmother of Punk," who co-wrote her biggest hit, "Because The Night," with Springsteen in 1978, criticized Trump's bombing of Iran and praised Springsteen's courage. Boston's Dropkick Murphys, not coincidentally, titled their new album, released on July 4, "For The People," and depicted fellow countrymen performing "No Kings" on the cover. And Carlos Santana sees his large, still vague peace festival in San Francisco, New York, and London as one for overcoming division. We're waiting for Taylor Swift and Billie Eilish. And what about Bob Dylan, who was at least still eloquent on his last album, "Rough And Rowdy Ways" (2020)?
There are also Republican politicians who support Springsteen's liberal approach – but they primarily come from his home state. Chris Christie, the former governor of Springsteen's home state of New Jersey, reports the Washington Post, will not let either party or POTUS deter him from his love for the boss. Republican Chris Pack was inspired to make a political trek to Washington, D.C., by Springsteen's song "Darkness on the Edge of Town." The lyrics of the song are framed on the wall of his office.
Pack also claims there are “a ton” of Republican Boss fans in the capital, but refused to name names, saying he “doesn’t want to out anyone.”
What's the worst that could happen if Springsteen returns to America with his band and crew? Refusal of entry for the entire entourage? Detained at the airport? Charged with lèse majesté? On the day Trump's golf ball video was released, a music journalist friend from Berlin called the newsroom, agitated because he considered the video, combined with Trump's threat, to be a thinly disguised incitement to violence. The kind of encouragement that, should anything illegal happen, could make the president wash his hands of the blame, claiming it wasn't my fault because someone had simply misunderstood him.
So, similar to what happened after Epiphany in 2021. When the victory of Trump's successor in the presidency, Joe Biden, was about to be confirmed by the Senate and House of Representatives, the defeated Trump inflamed his supporters with the myth of his stolen election victory and then left the scene of his tirades while the mob stormed the Capitol and attempted a coup d'état, in which people also died.
Could irradiated Magakult followers actually see some kind of mission in Trump's golf ball video? Should Springsteen's followers and their families also be worried, as they gathered on European stages with song and music under the E Street emblem, carrying the Boss's message through their art? Nonsense, they said at the time. Then, on June 14, one day before the Prague concert, Democratic politicians were murdered in Minnesota – allegedly by Trump supporter and anti-abortion activist Vance Luther Boelter (57).
A request from the RedaktionsNetzwerk Deutschland (RND) to Springsteen's management asking whether the singer and the musicians of his E Street Band, which has now grown to the size of a rock orchestra, would return to the US immediately after the last concert at Milan's Giuseppe Meazza Stadium, and whether there would be increased security, remained unanswered. And Springsteen's record company, Sony, had no knowledge of any return plans for July 4.
After "4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)", Bruce Springsteen has once again sung a song about Independence Day. The ballad "Independence Day" was released in 1980 and is considered one of the singer's strongest vocal performances ever. It is the autobiographical story of a young man who breaks away from his parents' home. "Father, go to bed now, it's getting late / nothing we could say / could change anything now," sings the son, and there are no fireworks, no northern lights, no festivities, and no more mention of Sandy. Springsteen describes the "darkness of a house" in which son and father can no longer stay together, and the "darkness of the city" that he can no longer bear.
The lines are tender and sad. For the song's narrator, his personal Independence Day is devoid of any magic or romance; his view of the future is bleak and now seems like a prophecy: "There'll be other people coming along," sings Springsteen, "and they'll see things differently. / And soon, everything we know will just be swept away." These men are there.
And they're supposed to leave again. At his final concert in Milan, Springsteen will also sow hope: "The America I've sung to you about for the past 50 years of my life really exists," he will say. "And regardless of its many faults, it's a great country with great people. And we will survive this moment."
Whatever happens when he gets home, Springsteen will always be the good guy in this duel.
Bruce Springsteen - "Tracks II: The Lost Albums" (Legacy Records) Seven CDs or nine vinyl albums - released on June 27
Bruce Springsteen; "Lost And Found: Selections from The Lost Albums" (Legacy Records) a CD/double vinyl with 20 songs from "Tracks II" - released on June 27
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