Someday we'll look back on this and it will all seem... Well, that depends now, doesn't it?

May 26, 2025

Friends and readers, as today here in the U.S. we are observing Memorial Day, a holiday which emerged from the final years of the U.S. Civil War, it seems most appropriate to preface this essay by first remembering the closing words of President Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address: "...we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain – that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom – and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

---Shawn

"Are you ready to join together?," Bruce Springsteen asked his audience repeatedly during his performance with the E Street Band of "My City of Ruins" in Manchester, England's Co-op Live arena on May 14. You can hear it (and/or see it) for yourself via the platform of your choice on the officially released digital EP Land of Hope & Dreams, available now in both audio-only AND concert-video forms.

from the official Land of Hope & Dreams concert-video - Click here or on the image above to watch it.

That's the key question to answer these days, isn't it? Are all of us who are worried about the present and future direction of the U.S. under its current Presidential administration, as well as the future of the rest of the planet affected by it, ready to join together and do some things (i.e. non-violent, organized, collective-resistance-style actions) about it? And if so, what exactly can and should we be doing?

One thing, however, has been rendered unquestionable over this past week-and-a-half: Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band certainly are up for doing their part. Only four shows in, their 2025 European tour already stands as one of the most significant political stances that any popular musician or group has ever taken. Even a Springsteen fan like me - "stuck" here in my native U.S.A. with no current plans to catch any of the 2025 shows in Europe - can see this easily. No other major musical stars - nobody else famous in rock, pop, hip-hop, soul/R&B, and/or country - have yet mounted a tour where at every show the theme of resisting and surviving the Trump administration's agenda is explored so deeply and overtly throughout the evening.

As a result, The "Land of Hope and Dreams" Tour - as well as Trump & Co.'s response to it - is deservedly getting a much higher level of international news-media attention than it might have received otherwise. It also has gotten attention and some supportive commentary from other artists, including Sheryl Crow, Neil Young (here and here,) Robert Plant, and Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder.

Vedder in particular has been one of the few high-profile supporters, if not the only one, to articulate so well the heart of the matter about the Trump camp's responses to date, and he cannily did it without ever even mentioning the President's name (something that Springsteen himself also consistently has avoided doing onstage during his current tour.) "The response to [Springsteen] using the microphone," Vedder told his Pittsburgh audience at Pearl Jam's final 2025 concert on May 18th, "had nothing to do with the issues. They didn't talk about one of those issues. They didn't have a conversation about one of those issues. They didn't debate any one of those issues. All that we heard were personal attacks and threats that nobody else should even try to use their microphone or use their voice in public, or they will be shut down. Now that is not allowed in this country that we call America; am I right or am I wrong?!," Vedder said, and was given loud applause in response. "Part of free speech," he continued, "is open discussion. Part of democracy is healthy public discourse. The name-calling is so beneath us. Bruce has always been as pro-American with his values of freedom and liberty, and his justice has always remained intact. And I'm saying this now just to be sure that this freedom of speech will still exist in another year or two from now, when we come back to this microphone."

Yes, the stakes are indeed that high, and the threats are that real. The current President of the United States actually posted online that Bruce Springsteen "ought to KEEP HIS MOUTH SHUT until he gets back into the Country...Then we'll all see how it goes for him!" Everything that Vedder said in what's quoted above is indisputable. As is everything that Springsteen has been saying onstage in Europe during his nightly introductions to "My City of Ruins:" "In America, they are persecuting people for using their right to free speech and voicing their dissent. This is happening now. In America, the richest men are taking satisfaction in abandoning the world’s poorest children to sickness and death. This is happening now. In my country, they’re taking sadistic pleasure in the pain they inflict on loyal American workers. They’re rolling back historic civil rights legislation that has led to a more just and plural society. They are abandoning our great allies and siding with dictators against those struggling for their freedom. They are defunding American universities that won’t bow down to their ideological demands. They are removing residents off American streets and, without due process of law, are deporting them to foreign detention centers and prisons. This is all happening now. A majority of our elected representatives have failed to protect the American people from the abuses of an unfit president and a rogue government."

So far in Europe, the live-audience responses to Springsteen's onstage statements have been overwhelmingly supportive, a bit of heckling notwithstanding. If you're not a Trump supporter and are fortunate enough to find yourself at any of the "Land of Hope and Dreams" Tour's shows, you probably will experience a surge of much-needed inspiration and empowerment, especially in the midst of thousands of fellow Springsteen fans loudly expressing similar feelings with you. But I strongly suspect that if Bruce and Co. were to perform such a concert/tour here in the U.S. - at this point a purely academic scenario that already has been officially declared an impossibility in 2025, given that one of Springsteen's recent press releases about this year's European dates with the E Street Band described them as "their only shows of 2025" - the initial level of audience unity in the building probably would be much lower, to put it mildly, unless of course most, if not all, of the still-supporting-Trump Springsteen fans happened to stay home.

After all, Springsteen's fanbase in the U.S. still counts a significant number of Trump supporters and other politically conservative fans among its members, and often at least some of them can be far less respectful and understanding of - let alone receptive to and supportive of - many of his onstage/public political stances, especially in comparison to the overwhelming majority of his European fans. (Incidentally, that's also the most likely reason why it's mainly in Europe where you'll still get to hear, for example, the full-scale, hit-single, E Street Band version of "Born in the U.S.A." In fact, you literally could count on one hand the number of times over the last decade when that version of the song has been performed on U.S. soil.) Let's be crystal-clear here; this is the land where even Springsteen/ESB impersonators willing to purge all of his music from their setlist still get punished for the real Springsteen exercising his constitutional rights.

Which brings it all back home, of course, to something else indisputable that Bruce Springsteen has been saying onstage recently: "The last check on power after the checks and balances of government have failed are the people, you and me. It’s in the union of people around a common set of values now that’s all that stands between a democracy and authoritarianism. At the end of the day, all we’ve got is each other." (And, I would add respectfully, whatever sympathetic/supportive state and local government officials remain, along with - seemingly dependent on whichever winds may blow on any given day - the federal courts.)

Therefore it's high time for all of us Springsteen fans who understand the severity and importance of this political moment to begin getting involved and active in resistance activities, if we haven't done so already. The devil often can be in the details, however, in terms of figuring out which specific actions to take, which specific organizations to join/support, what will be most effective, etc. Everybody will need to research, think hard, and follow their own conscience in making such decisions, of course, with the understanding that while differences must be acknowledged, appreciated, and respected, the more unity we can create, the better.

Perhaps that's why to date Bruce hasn't ended any of this tour's shows with what has become his traditional "plug" of support for a local organization fighting hunger, homelessness, etc. or even any particular group engaged in Trump-administration-resistance activities. Maybe in addition to not feeling quite ready to publicly endorse such specific groups or actions, he also doesn't want any local anti-hunger/poverty groups to face any unneeded flak for his current onstage political statements.

In any case, with only a handful of shows under their belts so far, Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band already have made one of their greatest artistic statements of their entire career. With that in mind, I'm holding out hope for a complete, professionally-filmed/edited concert-documentary film derived from one or more of the shows (Thom Zimny, are you reading this?,) and/or perhaps Springsteen's first-ever official, pro-shot live-stream of one or more shows, with proceeds from any/all such projects going to one or more appropriate resistance activities/organizations.

Of course, these days who knows how difficult it would be to pull off any these kinds of things, now that Bruce no longer owns the rights to all of his songs/recordings? While he still seems to have a very good working relationship with Sony after it bought his catalog, we also have been seeing far too many corporations balking at offending Trump and his minions, for fear of swift retaliation. All appears "so far so good" with Springsteen being able to document this tour and share it publicly in any way he sees fit, which certainly is encouraging. Here's hoping that continues to be the case in the not-too-distant future.

And finally, keeping it as real as it unfortunately needs to be kept, here's wishing Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band, as well as their entire touring organization, the utmost in safety, security, happiness, and health while abroad, along with the safest hassle-free journey back home after The "Land of Hope and Dreams" Tour ends in July. May they stay safe once they're back home, too. Bruce and his... our... beloved E Streeters deserve nothing less than a heroes'-and-sheroes' welcome when they return to these shores, for their brave, beautiful, and patriotic stand on behalf of everything that is truly great about this country.

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For further reading, you also might want to check out The Philadelphia Inquirer's May 25, 2025 editorial "Bruce Springsteen struck a nerve with his criticism of Trump. Who else has the courage to speak up?"