Bruce Springsteen was undaunted by President Trump’s threatening social media tirade to “keep his mouth shut” as, during his second concert in Manchester, England, the rocker once again delivered a three-minute speech critical of “an unfit president and a rogue government.”
“Things are happening right now that are altering the very nature of our country’s democracy, and they’re too important to ignore,” Springsteen said Saturday, echoing much of his message from the previous concert.
“In America, my home, they’re persecuting people for their right to free speech and voicing their dissent. That’s happening now,” Springsteen said. “In America, the richest men are taking satisfaction in abandoning the world’s poorest children to sickness and death. That’s happening now. In my country, they’re taking sadistic pleasure in the pain they inflict on loyal American workers. They’re rolling back historic civil rights legislation that led to a more just society. They’re abandoning our great allies and siding with dictators against those who are struggling for their freedom. That’s happening now. They are defunding American universities that won’t bow down to their ideological demands. And they are removing residents off American streets without due process of law and deploying them to foreign detention centers and prisons. That’s happening now.”
Following Springsteen’s first speech in Manchester earlier in the week, Trump turned to Truth Social to call the rocker “Highly Overrated” and “not a talented guy — Just a pushy, obnoxious JERK,” as well as seemingly threaten Springsteen’s ability to reenter America upon the European tour’s conclusion.
“A majority of our elected representatives have utterly 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,” Springsteen once again said.
“The America I’ve sung to you about for 50 years is real, and regardless of its many faults, it’s a great country with a great people, and we will survive this moment. Well, 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.’”
Like the previous Manchester show, Springsteen closed out the Land of Hope and Dreams Tour concert with a rendition of Bob Dylan’s “Chimes of Freedom,” which he last played back in 1988. Springsteen and the E Street Band return to Manchester’s Co-Op Live for a third show on May 20.
Love Music?
Get your daily dose of everything happening in Australian/New Zealand music and globally.
From Rolling Stone US
