Tag: Bruce Springsteen

OCT 13, 2012 - Bruce Springsteen had said earlier that he will not be playing music at any Obama rallies this year, but the Obama campaign has announced he has changed his mind and will play a Pima, Ohio event with VP Joe Biden. JTMP will post any video when it comes out, for now here is Bruce campaigning for Obama in Ohio back in 2008.

OCT 13, 2012 - Activist musician Bruce Springsteen, known for his support of unions and the working man (or woman!), will be campaigning for President Barack Obama in Ohio where unemployment has plummeted due to President Barack Obama's bailout of the auto industry and stimulus funds helping middle class working folks out. He will surely be singing his working class anthem, "We Take Care of Our Own" which Obama uses at his rallies. Read more on NBC News.com here.

June 22, 2012 - Wonkette has an interesting post out about the relationship between New Jersey's music ambassador Bruce Springsteen and New Jersey's Governor Chris Christie. As many people know, Chris Christie is a big fan of Bruce Springsteen, but his anti-union and anti-working class stances and policies have made Bruce Springsteen unhappy at Governor Christie, and so apparently even though there have been occasions such as at the end of a show the Governor will walk near the dressing room area with his security, Chris Christie is not invited to the after show party, and is snubbed by the Boss. (Photo credit: Craig Oneal/Wiki)

Read more about it on Wonkette.com here.

APR 17, 2012 - Bruce Springsteen, along with Tom Morello aka “The Nightwatchman”, and a 2012 version of the E Street Band considerably larger than before, has come out with a raucous Irish ballad-sounding “fighting anthem” for the working class. (Watch video below!) The song speaks out against towns that have had their factories closed down and their jobs shipped overseas by “robber barons” in the name of profit; which brings death to towns all across America. Families are devastated, homes are lost, and the American dream is kept out of reach. One of the most moving parts of the song is at the break in the middle of the song as Bruce sings out:

“Get yourself a song to sing, sing it till you’re done.
Sing it hard, sing it well. Send the robber barons straight to hell.
The greedy thieves, who came around, ate the flesh of everything they found.
Whose crimes have gone unpunished now, who walk the streets as free men now.
They brought death to my hometown.”

MAR 26, 2012 - Last Friday on March 23, 2012 in Tampa, Florida Bruce Springsteen performed his controversial song "American Skin (41 Bullets)", a song he had only performed twice before. The song was written back in 2000 and was about the horrible shooting death of Amadou Diallo, who was shot by police 41 times when he was taking out his wallet. When Bruce performed the song in Atlanta back in 2000, the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association called for the boycott of Bruce Springsteen when he came to Madison Square Garden in NYC, where he sang the song again. The call for a boycott had no effect, Springsteen did an amazing 10-show run at MSG.

Many people are saying it is obvious the recent shooting death of Trayvon Martin in Florida last month inspired Springsteen to perform the song again. Millions of people and us here at JTMP have been shocked and horrified by the hunting down and murdering of a young man, and that the murderer is free. There is a petition over at Change.org with over 2 million signatures calling for the prosecution of the killer. The lines from the song unfortunately show in America you still can get shot for the color of your skin:

Well, is it a gun, is it a knife 
Is it a wallet, this is your life 
It ain't no secret (it ain't no secret) 
No secret my friend 
You can get killed just for living in your American skin

Listen to audio of the performance of "American Skin (41 Shots)" below.