At his heart, still a protest singer. More now than ever, really, for Bruce Springsteen. The sparks of rebellion were clear in the earliest years of his work, overwhelmed his all-time great album Born in the U.S.A., and now serve as a response to the horrors of modern-day America. The Boss had already released the Land of Hopes and Dreams EP last year, featuring a selection of speeches from a show in Manchester, England, and a cover of Bob Dylan’s Chimes of Freedom. Springsteen’s stance could not be clearer and the clarity he gives on stage is crucial to hearing mainstream voices call out what should be noted as concerning extremism on the rise in places they shouldn’t be. Streets of Minneapolis is a clear-cut protest song with a necessary venom, a truthful anger, at its core. Springsteen, after all these years, still has that fight in him and transfers it to listeners who need it.
One of the common misconceptions about protest music is that it must be written in a timely manner. It helps to comment on events which will likely be lost when painting a broader picture, as the horrors of ICE shootings are set to become when looking at the four years of this presidency, but Springsteen uses Streets of Minneapolis as a documentation of terror. What modern-day protest songwriters may struggle with is that the characters within are contemporary, and it’s difficult in an always online world to still shock. Springsteen manages it here, just about. Where some writers would struggle to pull anything of real value out of a Trump name drop, The Boss manages to turn the tide. Bloody mist and streets of rage are torn up, the courage to stand against immoral law made clear. Springsteen is a strong lyricist, that much will be no surprise. But he strips back the nuance and pangs of irony which form his best political statements, opting instead for a punchy, simple message; take a stand before they stand on you.
Irrespective of the message, a strong instrumental tone and effective vocal range from Springsteen is what matters. Streets of Minneapolis is a clear and quality protest the modern-day horrors of Kristi Noem and Stephen Miller, department heads who may be remembered as venomously as Henry Kissinger or Dick Cheney, but also a cool and catchy piece of work. Springsteen has effectively threaded the needle of modern protest by using the sentiment as part of the song. Chants of “ICE out” are matched with some subtle but still strong instrumental work. It has that classic quality to it, but never sways into a solo or sentimental showcase; to do so would rip away from the message. For those who have heard Springsteen performing live in the last year or two, the quality found on this, the live style, will be no surprise.
But what remains so shocking to this latest Springsteen track is how out of the blue it is. A sudden release is very much a factor in the worth of Streets of Minneapolis. Once that settles, this is a listenable, returnable piece of protest work. Few avenues of creativity can compartmentalise a mood and feeling better than a reactionary track. This’ll stand the test of time, that much is clear. Whether you can listen to it with the same distance as Tramp Down the Dirt from Elvis Costello, for instance, remains to be seen. But protest is the greatest form of voicing opposition a public has, and Springsteen is very much a member of the public. He has used his platform well in the past and does the same here.
