Bruce Springsteen Releases New Protest Song “Streets of Minneapolis”
Bruce Springsteen, photo by Danny Clinch
Bruce Springsteen has released “Streets of Minneapolis,” a new protest song responding to Trump’s militarized occupation of Minnesota. Springteen has long used his music to address cultural crises, and his latest offering explicitly denounces the hypocrisy and murderous impunity of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Patrol agents’ assault on communities in and around the Twin Cities. The artist was stirred to action after the execution of Alex Pretti on a residential street on Saturday, and the song memorializes both Pretti and Renee Good.
“I wrote this song on Saturday, recorded it yesterday and released it to you today in response to the state terror being visited on the city of Minneapolis,” Springsteen detailed in a post to his social channels. “It’s dedicated to the people of Minneapolis, our innocent immigrant neighbors and in memory of Alex Pretti and Renee Good. Stay free.”
“Streets of Minneapolis” is a hard-hitting rock anthem, calling on the time-honored tradition of rebel ballads to summon resolve and righteous indignation in the face of unrepentant brutality. Springsteen’s raspy roar charges against “King Trump’s private army” before resolute organ, wailing harmonica and a choir, with recorded protest chants rising through the arrangement that manifest his vow to “hear your voice singing through the bloody mist.”
“Their claim was self-defense, sir,” Springsteen sings in a particularly impactful passage. “Just don’t believe your eyes/ It’s our blood and bones/ And these whistles and phones/ Against Miller and Noem’s dirty lies.”
Springsteen has been a vocal critic of the Trump administration since his first term, and after formally endorsing Kamala Harris in the 2024 election, the singer-songwriter voiced his objection to the “corrupt, incompetent, and treasonous administration” on the Land of Hopes & Dreams live EP last May. Alongside the title track, “Long Walk Home,” “My City of Ruins” and Bob Dylan’s classic “Chimes of Freedom,” that release featured five minutes of urgent onstage observations on the state of the union.
Springsteen’s commentary last year earned a social media rant from Trump, in which the President commanded the “‘dumb as a rock’… dried out ‘prune’ of a rocker (his skin is all atrophied!)” to “KEEP HIS MOUTH SHUT until he gets back into the Country… Then we’ll all see how it goes for him!” Many of Springsteen’s fans and peers, including Neil Young, expressed outrage at the attempt to suppress artists’ free speech.
Listen to “Streets of Minneapolis” below.
