The internal dialogue regarding whether or not I should review this EP and tour turned into a mini-version of Hamlet’s soliloquy. “To review or not to review, that is the question. Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to call out the slings and arrows of outrageous fascism or to avoid a sea of troubles by enforcing the three-year limit and sticking to classic music reviews.” The back-and-forth continued for days and only ended when my parents invited Alicia and me to watch the Netflix documentary Bobby Kennedy for President. The scenes that showed Bobby traveling to Kentucky to listen to the plight of poor white people, then heading for the Mississippi Delta to witness the swollen bellies of starving African-American children—and trying to comfort them with his touch—moved me to the core of my being. Those people were not his constituents and could never have voted for him, but he went anyway. Why? Because he was “a good and decent man, who saw wrong and tried to right it, saw suffering and tried to heal it, saw war and tried to stop it.”

Ted Kennedy’s description of his brother also applies to Bruce Springsteen. The Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band 2023–2025 Tour was already one of the biggest-grossing tours in history when The Boss decided it was time to confront the American descent into darkness. This involved changing the name to the Land of Hope and Dreams Tour, which began with three sold-out dates in Manchester in March 2025, where the EP was recorded. He didn’t have to take the tour in that direction or record the EP, and he knew he was going to take a lot of shit from Voldemort and the MAGA crowd, but he did it anyway.

You may wonder why The Boss chose to launch a blistering attack on Voldemort and his antics in Europe instead of waiting for the U.S. dates scheduled after the European tour. Let’s see . . . our old ally threatened to take Greenland (and is still at it), threatened our economies with punitive tariffs, sent emissaries to attack European culture and provide support to right-wing parties, threatened to leave NATO . . . I think three repetitions of the word “threatened” are enough. The crowd’s enthusiastic response to Springsteen’s truth-telling confirmed the wisdom of his decision.

The Land of Hope and Dreams EP was the reason I removed Springsteen from my no-fly list. When I finally got around to listening to it, I cried like a baby all the way through. A part of me will always be American, and I mourn the loss of the beacon of hope. I cried because it was the first time in a long time that I heard an American clearly and passionately speak out against the horrors wrought by the GOP while expressing confidence that his fellow citizens can pull together, end the nightmare, and restore the America they knew and loved. The Democrats spew plenty of anger, but they have no unified vision for a better future, no competent and inspiring leaders, and their fundraising efforts are focused on all the awful things Voldemort has done and is likely to continue doing (my Dad gets their stupid e-mails every day and immediately deletes them). It’s no wonder that their favorability ratings are in the outhouse. My hope that they win the midterms is about their stances on the environment and human rights, and the possibility of reining in Voldemort—not a validation of their abilities.

The six tracks on the EP consist of four songs from the twenty-seven on the setlist (including encores) and two introductions, where Springsteen presents his indictments and messages of hope. The Boss brought a full ensemble with him, consisting of four subgroups: the E Street Band, the E Street Auxiliary, E Street Horns and Percussion, and the E Street Choir. The arrangements are excellent, the musicians are all top-notch, and Springsteen’s vocals are clear, clean, and heartfelt. His voice has mellowed now that he’s turned 76, and though the passion is still there, there’s little of the emotive overkill you hear in his earlier recordings. Few musicians connect with a crowd as effectively as Springsteen, and the response from the Manchester audience was warm and appreciative.

I found videos for all six tracks on YouTube, with the intros attached to two of the songs. You can also listen to the EP on your favorite digital streaming app by visiting the website. You will have no problem understanding the messages in the intros, as Springsteen’s delivery is as clear as a bell, but I will quote them to underscore their importance.

*****

“Land of Hope and Dreams (Introduction)”:

“Good Evening! It’s great to be in Manchester and back in the U.K. Welcome to the Land of Hope and Dreams Tour! The Mighty E Street Band is here tonight to call upon the righteous power of art, of music, of rock and roll in dangerous times. In my home, the America I love, the America I’ve written about that has been a beacon of hope and liberty for two hundred and fifty years, is currently in the hands of a corrupt, incompetent, and treasonous administration (crowd roar). Tonight, we ask all who believe in democracy and the best of our American experience to rise with us, raise your voices against autoritarianism and let freedom ring.”

“Land of Hope and Dreams”: This spirited number from the album Wrecking Ball is both an ode to American optimism and the power of faith to get us through rough times (like right now). Y’all know that I’m an atheist, but I have no issues with the religious tone of the song because Springsteen believes in the real Jesus and not the buffed-up tough guy worshipped by the MAGA crowd. The real Jesus is the guy who cleansed the temple of the merchants who preyed upon the poor, and who practiced what he preached, particularly when it came to “judge that ye not be judged,” a part of the gospel that seems to have been excised from the bible by the fundamentalists. The song makes extensive use of the train metaphor that takes people to the Promised Land (in this case, the true American Dream), and closes with Bruce and the choir singing Curtis Mayfield’s “People Get Ready.”

The storyline involves a couple forced to seek better opportunities elsewhere, probably due to a recession, but they remain optimistic about their chances in the Land of Hope and Dreams:

Grab your ticket and your suitcase, thunder’s rolling down this track
Well, you don’t know where you’re going now, but you know you won’t be back
Well, darling, if you’re weary, lay your head upon my chest
We’ll take what we can carry, yeah, and we’ll leave the rest

Well, big wheels roll through the fields where sunlight streams
Meet me in a land of hope and dreams

I will provide for you and I’ll stand by your side
You’ll need a good companion now for this part of the ride
Yeah, leave behind your sorrows, let this day be the last
Well, tomorrow there’ll be sunshine and all this darkness past

Well, big wheels roll through fields where sunlight streams
Oh, meet me in a land of hope and dreams

Well, this train carries saints and sinners
This train carries losers and winners
This train carries whores and gamblers
This train carries lost souls

I said, this train, dreams will not be thwarted
This train, faith will be rewarded
This train, hear the steel wheels singing
This train, bells of freedom ringing

I was thrilled to find out that a whore like me was welcome on the train. Judge that ye not be judged and a hearty amen!

The arrangement involves the full ensemble, and all nineteen members are locked into the groove. The choir, the horn section, and the E Street Band play to perfection, Nils and Stevie are still delivering the goods, but my award for Best Performance goes to drummer Max Weinberg, who blew me away with his agility and power.

“Long Walk Home“: The Boss has written several protest songs over the years, and this song from the album Magic is one of his more subtle protests. From the New York Times via Wikipedia: “Springsteen had said that it was a song about how he felt in the times of George W. Bush. ‘In that particular song, a guy comes back to his town and recognizes nothing and is recognized by nothing,’ Springsteen told The New York Times’ A. O. Scott. ‘The singer in ‘Long Walk Home,’ that’s his experience. His world has changed. The things that he thought he knew, the people who he thought he knew, whose ideals he had something in common with, are like strangers. The world that he knew feels totally alien. I think that’s what’s happened in this country in the past six years.”

He introduces the song by announcing, “This is a prayer for my country.” The most poignant segment in the song has to do with memories of his father  describing what it felt like to live in America before 9/11:

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
You know that flag flying over the courthouse means certain things are set in stone
Who we are, what we’ll do and what we won’t”

In his long walk home, he experiences the impact of a stuttering economy, the loss of a shared vision, and a disturbing sense of alienation in his hometown.

In town I passed Sal’s grocery, barbershop on South Street
I looked in their faces, they were all rank strangers to me
Hey Veteran’s Hall high upon the hill stood silent and alone
The diner was shuttered and boarded with a sign that just said “gone”

On a personal note, I found the image of the shuttered diner very disturbing.  I firmly believe that there is nothing more American than a New Jersey diner, and if I ever feel that it’s safe enough to return to my country of birth, a New Jersey diner would be first on my list of must-do experiences.

“My City of Ruins (Introduction)”: The intro begins with pianist Roy Bittan playing the opening chords to “My City of Ruins,” but The Boss tells him to tone it down a bit (“Now . . . easy, Roy”) because he has more to say about the situation in his homeland.

“There’s some very weird, strange, and dangerous shit going on out there right now. 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 that they inflict on loyal American workers. They’re rolling back historic civil rights legislation that led to a more just and plural society. They’re abandoning our great allies (cheers) and siding with dictators against those who are struggling for their freedom. They’re defunding American universities that won’t bow down to their ideological demands. They’re 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 (cheers). They have no concern or idea of what it means to be deeply American. The America that I’ve sung to you about for fifty years is real, and regardless of its faults, is a great country with a great people, so we’ll survive this moment. Now, 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.’ Let’s pray.”

“My City of Ruins”: From Jay Lustig via NJArts.net.

In 2000, Bruce Springsteen wrote “My City of Ruins” – a song with a stately gospel-hymn feel that bemoaned the hard times that had hit his adopted hometown of Asbury Park, and that was meant to inspire people to help in the city’s resurrection. “Come on, rise up!,” he sang, repeatedly. He performed it at Christmas benefit shows at Asbury Park’s Convention Hall on Dec. 17 and 18 of that year.

After 9/11, he was asked to perform at the “America: A Tribute to Heroes” telethon on Sept. 21, 2001, and agreed. He had actually started working on some of the new, post-9/11 songs that would be released on The Rising, in 2002. But none was ready to be performed. And so he reached back to “My City of Ruins”, introducing it as “a prayer for our fallen brothers and sisters.”

He actually gave, I believe, one of the greatest performances of his life, with the whole world watching. And the song worked quite well in its new context. The verse about romantic loss, for instance, mentioning “tears on the pillow” and asking “how do I begin again?,” now seemed to be about someone who lost his or her partner on 9/11.

Springsteen only made one significant lyrical change, substituting “The boarded up windows, the empty streets” for “The boarded up windows, the hustlers and thieves.” He left in “young men on the corner like scattered leaves” — originally intended, presumably, as a reference to drug dealers.

And so “My City of Ruins” became forever associated with 9/11. And this was, of course, bolstered by its use, the next year, as the closing track of The Rising, whose title echoes that exhortation to “Rise up!”

This powerful song of hope and resurrection was also employed as an emotional antidote to the devastation of Hurricane Katrina and the 2011 Christchurch earthquake in New Zealand. The Boss doesn’t specifically mention the disaster wrought by the man responsible for creating worldwide havoc today, but in the context of the concert, “My City of Ruins” is a heartfelt plea to people everywhere to refuse to allow Voldemort’s vitriol and inhumanity rob us of hope for a better future.

The most moving passages in the performance are the renditions of the chorus. Like any great preacher, The Boss encourages the flock to join the fight against defeatism by shouting, “Are you ready?” three times, with each rendition of the call and response getting louder and louder. The crowd obviously consists of serious Springsteen fans who know what’s coming, and they nail the chorus without a hitch.

Come on rise up, come on rise up
Come on rise up, come on rise up
Come on rise up, come on rise up
Come on rise up

The chorus that ends the song is even more powerful, with the choir and several of the musicians joining in . . . and once again, the tears start to fall.

“Chimes of Freedom”: The Boss introduces the concert closer over a background of organ playing the main motif of this Bob Dylan classic. “Thank you, Manchester for a beautiful night! Woo! You’re a great audience, thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you! Always still a little nervous on that first night, you know—takes a little getting used to—even after all this time. (laughs) Take this home with you.”

As I plan to review Another Side of Bob Dylan shortly—and because The Boss omits a couple of verses—I’ll skip the detailed lyrical interpretation and quote the lyrics most relevant to today’s dire circumstances.

Tolling for the searching ones, on their speechless, seeking trail
For the lonesome-hearted lovers with too personal a tale
An’ for each unharmful, gentle soul misplaced inside a jail
An’ we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing

Tolling for the aching ones whose wounds cannot be nursed
For the countless confused, accused, misused, strung-out ones an’ worse
An’ for every hung-up person in the whole wide universe
An’ we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing

Buoyed by the crowd, The Boss delivers the song as if it were his own, no doubt raising the spirits of everyone in the arena. The use of the choir reminds the audience to keep the faith, and all I can say in conclusion is goddamn, I wish I had been there.

Back in the U.S.A.

The Boss brought the Land of Hope and Dreams Tour back home to the States on March 31 this year. Unsurprisingly, he is now facing death threats for telling the truth in Voldemort’s America.

Appropriately, this leg of the tour began in Minneapolis, where he shared his new song, “The Streets of Minneapolis.” His introduction was enough to bring me to tears once again.

“This past winter, federal troops brought death to the streets of Minneapolis. Well, they picked the wrong town (cheers). The power and solidarity of the people of Minneapolis, of Minnesota, was an inspiration to the entire country (cheers). Your strength and your commitment told us this is still America (cheers), and this will not stand. Minnesota, you gave us hope. You gave us courage (cheers). And for those who gave their lives, Renee Good, a mother of three brutally murdered, and Alex Pretti, a VA nurse executed by ICE, shot in the back and left to die in the street, without even the decency of our lawless government investigating their deaths. Their bravery, their sacrifice, and their names will not be forgotten.”

And neither will the song:

Through the winter’s ice and cold, down Nicollet Avenue
A city aflame fought fire and ice ‘neath 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 Renee 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

The Land of Hope and Dreams tour ended yesterday in Philadelphia. Fortunately for posterity, Steven Greenhouse of The Guardian managed to catch the three-hour Brooklyn show and wrote a superb op-ed titled, “Bruce Springsteen is a model for how celebrities should resist Trump.” After taking hits from Voldemort and the moron who goes by the name of Kid Rock, The Boss showed no signs of giving up the fight, extending it to Voldemort’s undeclared war on Iran: “So tonight we ask all of you to join with us in choosing hope over fear, democracy over authoritarianism, the rule of law over lawlessness, ethics over unbridled corruption, resistance over complacency, truth over lies, unity over division and peace over war.”

As soon as Springsteen uttered the word war, the E Street Band began blasting Motown’s leading anti-Vietnam war song, ‘War (What Is It Good For)’. Immediately came the roaring answer: “absolutely nothing.” It was Springsteen’s not-so-subtle way of dissing Trump’s disastrous war against Iran. Next, to immense applause, Springsteen belted out his great anti-war anthem, Born in the USA.

If anyone harbored doubts about whether this was a night of resistance, Springsteen said, in a direct slap at Trump: “Honesty, honor, humility, character, truth, compassion, humanity, thoughtfulness, morality, true strength and decency – don’t let anybody tell you that these things don’t matter anymore – they do… So many of our elected leaders have failed us that this American tragedy can only be stopped by the American people – by you. So join us and let’s fight for the America that we love.”

Then he shouted: “Are you with us? Are you with us?” The crowd thundered back with thousands of yeses.

In another jab at Trump, Springsteen said: “Our museums are being told to whitewash American history of any unpleasant or inconvenient facts, like the full history of the brutality of slavery. You want to talk about snowflakes? We have a president who can’t handle the truth.”

His resistance is unflinching. In Brooklyn and at each concert, he gives a variation of this broadside: “So many American families struggle while our president and his family enrich themselves by billions of dollars trading on the people’s office in corruption unmatched in American history … This White House is destroying the American idea and our reputation around the world. We stood as a beacon for hope and liberty as an imperfect, but strong defender of democracy– standing for the global good, and to many now we are just America, the reckless, unpredictable, predatory, untrustworthy, rogue nation that is this administration and this president’s legacy.”

Springsteen does what celebrities should do. He uses his star power to fight the good fight. He talks to people. He doesn’t talk at them or down to them or lecture them. He voices common concerns, he rallies, he inspires. It’s perhaps easier for the Boss to do this than it is for other stars because he has a tremendous, decades-old fan base and is widely embraced as a man of the people. Let’s hope that his hugely successful Land of Hope and Dreams tour inspires other celebrities to do more to speak out and resist . . .

Springsteen is an unarguable leader of the resistance. The nation could use more like him. Long live the Boss.

Sadly, most of the “protests” launched by the American musicians have to do with blocking Voldemort from playing their music at rallies and other events. NOT GOOD ENOUGH! In a PBS News Hour segment titled “How artists and musicians are responding to Trump’s 2nd term,” Ani DiFranco addressed the shortage of protest songs: “Why aren’t there more? Why isn’t protest music at the top of the pops like it was in other eras of American political turmoil, change, and evolution? I think one thing that we are all suffering from is fatigue, crisis fatigue, and doom fatigue.”

While the death threats may encourage American musicians to go into hiding, there is a 50-50 chance that the music community will respond with justifiable outrage to MAGA’s attempts to silence The Boss, join together in solidarity, and keep the flame of hope alive. We’ll see.

Meanwhile, the Boss shows no signs of backing down. Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine had joined the U.S. tour, and sometime during that period, he sold The Boss on an idea that had been percolating in his brain. From NJArts.net:

At his May 27 concert with The E Street Band at Nationals Park in Washington, D.C., Bruce Springsteen made news not just by exhorting “Let ‘em hear you at the fucking White House!” before the chant-along “ICE Out Now!” line of “Streets of Minneapolis,” but by telling the crowd about an upcoming protest concert.

“In the future, we want to keep raising our voices for hope and justice, together,” Springsteen said. “Tom Morello and I will be back again here in D.C. on Oct. 3 for another night of music and resistance. The first-ever Power to the People Festival will be announced to the world, tomorrow. But you’re hearing about it first, here, tonight!”

“Tom will be there, Dave Matthews, The Foo Fighters. My friends The Dropkick Murphys will be there. I’ll be back guesting and playing on a few songs with Tom and his band. We encourage you to come out and make a goddamn ruckus along with us.”

When I read that he was coming back to D.C. to participate in a resistance festival scheduled to take place just before the midterms, I freaked out. The District of Columbia is the only place in the USA where the president has the right to call in the National Guard, and I do not doubt that Voldemort would exercise that power. As it turns out, The Boss really meant “the D.C. metro area,” as the festival will take place in Columbia, MD, where Democratic Governor Wes Moore holds the reins. You can sign up for the presale and check out the full lineup on the Power to the People Fest website. One name that is missing is John Legend, who has repeatedly ripped Voldemort a new one whenever he has had an opportunity. I hope Tom Morello sends him an invitation.

As I am very concerned about his welfare, I hope The Boss will take a well-deserved break after the Music America: The Songs that Shaped Us concerts next week and I strongly recommend that he take that break in Ireland—where there is no constitutional right to own a firearm, where self-defense is not considered a valid reason for owning a gun, where strict background checks are required and licenses are limited to agricultural pest control, hunting, or active membership in an authorized target-shooting club. The Boss would be safe and sound on the Emerald Isle as long as he avoids driving.

Taking his lead to heart, my next three reviews will cover musicians who made a goddamn ruckus protesting war and standing up for human rights. See ya next week, and hell, yes—LONG LIVE THE BOSS.