Bruce Springsteen releases ‘Streets of Minneapolis’, a tune in protest towards ICE, “Trump’s private army,” and “in memory of Alex Pretti and Renee Good” | Culture | EUROtoday

It is inconceivable for the occasions going down in Minneapolis, with scenes of police brutality and random arrests, which have already left two deaths, to go unnoticed. The protests are making themselves felt, and the world of tradition is elevating its voice to attempt to cease the unreason. The newest has been the all the time dedicated musician Bruce Springsteen, who this Wednesday launched a tune concerning the metropolis, known as Streets of Minneapolis (Streets of Minneapolis). In the tune, marked by his regular rock, he refers back to the political scenario that the town is experiencing and talks about “King Trump’s private army”, how ICE brokers “trample our rights” and the deaths which have occurred within the metropolis: “In our home, they killed and wandered in the winter of ’26. We will defend this land and the foreigner who is among us. We will remember the names of those who died on the streets of Minneapolis.”

The 76-year-old musician has posted the tune, which lasts simply over 4 and a half minutes, on his web site, on Spotify, and likewise on his YouTube channel, the place it has reached 100,000 views in simply three hours. He has executed all of it in 4 days: writing it, recording it and delivering it to the general public. “I wrote this song on Saturday, I recorded it yesterday [martes 27 de enero] and I launch it today in response to the state terror that is being experienced in the city of Minneapolis,” he wrote in an accompanying message. “It is dedicated to the people of Minneapolis, to our innocent immigrant neighbors and in memory of Alex Pretti and Renee Good,” he says, in reference to the two people murdered at the hands of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service: Good, a 37-year-old poet and mother of two children, on January 7, and Pretti, a nurse, also 37 years old, on Saturday the 24th.

The song begins by talking about the cold of winter on Nicollet Avenue, one of the main arteries of the city in the northeast of the country, precisely where Alex Pretti was shot to death, and which is now taken over by “the fight between fire and ice.” In addition to the truth that the town has suffered temperatures of greater than 20 levels under zero as a result of storm Fernwhich has left her in a frozen state, Springsteen makes a play on the acronym ICE, which additionally means ice. “King Trump’s private army of DHS [el departamento de seguridad nacional, por sus siglas en inglés]with weapons strapped to their coats, came to Minneapolis to enforce the law, or so they tell their story.”

In a kind of song, an epic, Springsteen goes on to explain how, “against the smoke and the rubber bullets,” the citizens of Minneapolis “rose in the name of justice, and their voices echoed in the night.” “And there were bloody footprints where there should have been mercy, and two dead bodies abandoned on the snow-covered streets: Alex Pretti and Renee Good.” Here comes the chorus: “Oh, our Minneapolis, I hear your voice singing by the bloody fog. We will defend this land and the stranger amongst us. Here in our dwelling they killed and wandered within the winter of ’26. We will keep in mind the names of those that died within the streets of Minneapolis.”

In the second verse, Springsteen quotes the president’s name again, to tell the story of nurse Pretti: “Trump’s federal thugs hit him within the face and chest. Then we heard the gunshots and Alex Pretti was mendacity within the snow, useless.” And he continues: “They claimed it was self-defense, sir. Don’t belief what your eyes see. It’s our blood and our bones. And these whistles and telephones towards the soiled lies of Miller and Noem,” he sings, in reference to Stephen Miller, advisor to the president and considered the architect of the Administration’s war against immigrants; and Kristi Noem, the Secretary of Homeland Security, whose name is in the pillory after the murders and may be dismissed.

There, Springsteen returns to the chorus, with choruses, guitars and his classic harmonica: “Oh, our Minneapolis, I hear your voice crying by the bloody fog. We will keep in mind the names of those that died within the streets of Minneapolis.” And then, at minute three, comes the bridge: “Now they are saying they’re right here to implement the legislation, however they trample on our rights. If your pores and skin is black or brown, my good friend, you might be questioned or deported on the spot. With chants of ‘ICE, get out,’ the guts and soul of our metropolis persists by damaged glass and bloody tears on the streets of Minneapolis.” And it’s back to the chorus, again, with variations: “Oh, our Minneapolis, I hear your voice singing by the bloody fog. Here in our dwelling they killed and roamed within the winter of ’26. We will defend this land and the stranger amongst us. We will keep in mind the names of those that died within the streets of Minneapolis.”

The always committed Springsteen — who is a good friend of Barack Obama, with whom he recorded a podcast and wrote a book, and who campaigned for Trump’s rival, Democrat Kamala Harris — has raised his voice on countless occasions against the current president and his undemocratic policies. In fact, on his last tour of Europe he was directly explicit when it came to criticizing the president of the United States. When he started his tourin Manchester, UK in May, was clear, even before I started singing. “My home, the America that I love, the America that I have written about and that has been a beacon of hope and freedom for 250 years, is currently in the hands of a corrupt, incompetent and treasonous administration,” he told the audience, continuing: “Tonight we ask all who believe in democracy and in the best of our American experience, to stand up with us, raise your voices against authoritarianism and let freedom ring.”

Trump was quick to respond to the Bossclaiming that he was “overrated” and “dumb as a rock” on his social network, Truth Social. “I by no means favored him, I by no means favored his music or his radical left politics and, most significantly, he isn’t a gifted man. Just an smug and ugly fool who fervently supported the corrupt Joe Biden, a mentally incompetent fool and our WORST president in historical past, who was about to destroy our nation,” he wrote a couple of days after the Manchester concert, to continue in his usual threatening tone: “This rocker dried out as a raisin (he has all his pores and skin) atrophied!) he ought to maintain his mouth shut till he returns to this nation. That’s regular. Then we’ll see the way it goes.”

But Springsteen has not remained silent, nor does he intend to, as this final tune demonstrates. More than 30 years after his well-known tune Streets of Philadelphia (Streets of Philadelphia), a part of the movie’s soundtrack Philadelphia and with which he gained the Oscar for giving voice to the truth of a metropolis hit by AIDS and marginalization, now he performs music and exhibits the world the streets of the town that’s the epicenter of ache within the United States.