Bruce Springsteen is dedicating his new song to the people of Minneapolis, criticizing President Donald Trump’s ongoing immigration enforcement operations in the city.
The lyrics of “Streets of Minneapolis,” released Wednesday, describe how “a city aflame fought fire and ice ’neath an occupier’s boots,” which Springsteen calls “King Trump’s private army.”
Springsteen in a statement said he wrote and recorded the song over the weekend and released it in response to a second deadly shooting by federal immigration agents in Minneapolis.
“It’s dedicated to the people of Minneapolis, our innocent immigrant neighbors and in memory of Alex Pretti and Renee Good,” he wrote, naming the two victims.
Abigail Jackson, a White House spokesperson, responded: “The Trump Administration is focused on encouraging state and local Democrats to work with federal law enforcement officers on removing dangerous criminal illegal aliens from their communities — not random songs with irrelevant opinions and inaccurate information.”
Springsteen’s slow-burning song builds from just acoustic guitar and voice to a fuller band tune, including a harmonica solo, and ends with chants of “ICE Out!”
“Oh our Minneapolis, I hear your voice,” The Boss sings. “Singing through the bloody mist/We’ll take our stand for this land/And the stranger in our midst.”
The title echoes Springsteen’s “Streets of Philadelphia,” which served as a title song for the Tom Hanks-led 1993 film “Philadelphia.” His song comes on the heels of English singer-songwriter Billy Bragg’s own “City of Heroes,” which the protest singer wrote Sunday and released the next day. Bragg said in a statement that the song was inspired by Pretti’s killing and centers “the bravery of the people of Minneapolis.”
Springsteen has long been critical of the president, who in turn has called the rock icon “overrated.” They last publicly clashed last year, when Springsteen on tour in England told his audience that America “is currently in the hands of a corrupt, incompetent and treasonous administration.” Trump responded by calling Springsteen a “dried out prune of a rocker.”
In related news, Minneapolis’ First Avenue venue will host on Friday the benefit “A Concert of Solidarity & Resistance to Defend Minnesota,” featuring Tom Morello, Rise Against, Al Di Meola and Ike Reilly. All proceeds will go to the families of Good and Pretti.
“We are coming to Minneapolis where the people have heroically stood up against ICE, stood up against Trump, stood up against this terrible rising tide of state terror,” Morello said in a statement.
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