Springsteen: 'Our Purpose Was To Reclaim The Flag' — SkimNews
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- Bruce Springsteen launched the 'Land of Hope and Dreams' tour March 31 in Minneapolis and played 20 politically charged shows over two months, wrapping May 30 at Philadelphia's Xfinity Mobile Arena.
- The tour was catalyzed by the ICE killing of Renée Good and the CBP shooting of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis in early January; Springsteen responded with 'Streets of Minneapolis,' which names both victims and blames 'King Trump.'
- Springsteen delivered the same verbatim speech at each show calling the administration 'corrupt, incompetent, racist, reckless, and treasonous,' then bookended the set with covers of Edwin Starr's 'War' and Bob Dylan's 'Chimes of Freedom.'
- The concert film 'Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band: Land of Hope and Dreams American Tour (Philadelphia Freedom Cut)' — the first seven songs — is being released on YouTube in serialized increments, directed by Chris Hilson and Thom Zimny.
- Springsteen said the show's purpose was to 'reclaim the flag,' and that he had avoided playing 'Born in the U.S.A.' in America for years because he felt Americans still didn't get it; pairing it with 'War' let him re-contextualize the song.
- Springsteen compared 'Streets of Minneapolis' to Neil Young's 'Ohio' and credited Tom Morello's advice — 'Subtlety is wonderful, but sometimes you have to kick them in the teeth' — for greenlighting the song's directness.
Why it matters: Springsteen's decision to serialize the film on YouTube in increments — rather than wait for a finished cut — mirrors the tour's stated ethos of immediacy: he saw the raw footage and said 'This comes out now.' By explicitly framing the project as 'reclaiming the flag,' he's staking out patriotic language for a midterm election cycle, betting his audience will use the 40-minute clips as political fuel.
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