By Graham Hiley.
Bruce Springsteen delivered a scathing attack on US president Donald Trump branding him a traitor as he kicked off his Land of Hope and Dreams tour in Manchester.
Before the Boss had even sung a note, he launched into a carefully-scripted and deeply felt monologue highlighting the injustices in his home country under the new regime.
He said: “The mighty E Street Band are here tonight to call upon the righteous power of art, of music and rock and roll in dangerous times.
“In my home, the America I love, the America I have 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 spirit to rise with us and raise your voices against this authoritarianism and let freedom reign.”
To huge cheers, he launched into the title track of the tour, a song for freedom which took on a deeper meaning than ever.
At 75, Springsteen has lost none of his fire both in his performance and his politics, playing almost three hours at the Co-Op Live Arena.
The songs were as powerful and polished as ever, but there was new intensity in his words to the crowd of around 20,000.
It was clear how angry and hurt he feels at the way his country has begun deporting people without trial while cosying up to dictators and regimes with appalling human rights records.
Midway through the show, he returned to his heartfelt plea saying: “In America they are persecuting people for using their right to freedom of speech and voicing their dissent. This is happening now!
“In America, the richest men are gaining satisfaction in abandoning the world’s poorest children to sickness and death. This is happening now!
“In my country, they are taking sadistic pleasure in the pain they inflict on loyal American workers. They are rolling back historic civil rights legislation that led to a more just and moral 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 centres and prisons. This is all happening now.
“The majority of our elected representatives have failed to protect the American people from the abuses of an unfit president and a rogue government.
“They have no concern or idea of what it means to be deeply American. The America that I have sung to you about for 50 years is real and regardless of its faults is a great country with great people so we’ll survive this moment.
“I have hope because I believe in the truth of what the great American writer James Baldwin said. He said in this world there isn’t as much humanity as one would like… But there’s enough!”
The set-list reflected his anger and torment with a world premiere of Rainmaker, a song written specifically about Donald Trump and dedicated to “our dear leader”.
There was a rare and haunting acoustic version of House of a Thousand Guitars including the lines:
The criminal clown has stolen the throne
He steals what he can never own
My City of Ruins was written post 9/11 but now has taken on a whole new and equally apt meaning – along with Death to My Hometown.
And he offered up a prayer for his country with Long Walk Home, a song about how far they have drifted from the American ideal and how long it will take to get back.
Your flag flyin’ over the courthouse
Means certain things are set in stone.
Who we are, what we’ll do and what we won’t.
But it wasn’t just a political rally set to music – it was also one hell of a concert, with all the big numbers rolled out for a high-octane finale – Badlands, Thunder Road, Born in the USA, Born to Run, Bobby Jean, Dancing in the Dark and Tenth Avenue Freeze-out.
And to close, the Boss fittingly chose to cover Bob Dylan’s Chimes of Freedom.
It would be easy to say that it is the USA that needs to hear this message rather than England but such is Springsteen’s stature that his damning verdict will have already hit home across the pond.
And while it is too late for America to undo the damage done in the last election – at least for a few years – there is a strong argument to say his words need to echo round Europe to prevent a similar slide into corrupt authoritarianism.
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