Bruce Springsteen posted a fiery video for his new protest song “Streets of Minneapolis,” an impassioned and outspoken indictment of the Trump Administration’s heavy-handed repression in the Minnesota city that has resulted in the indefensible deaths of two people.
The video is just as angry as the song’s lyrics and delivery, cutting disturbing (but not graphic) footage from ICE’s clashes with demonstrators in the city with Springsteen performing the song in his home studio. The video’s footage amplifies the flagrant dishonesty of the Administration’s statements about the threat Alex Pretti posed to the multiple officers who were physically restraining him before he was killed.
The lyrics describe how “a city aflame fought fire and ice ‘neath an occupier’s boots,” which Springsteen goes on to describe as “King Trump’s private army from the DHS.”
The song echoes not only the title of Springsteen’s Oscar-winning song “The Streets of Philadelphia,” but its phrasing and message echo multiple songs by Woody Guthrie and Bob Dylan that are part of the foundation of the New Jersey legend’s music.
In a statement around the song’s released on Wednesday, Springsteen said: “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. It’s dedicated to the people of Minneapolis, our innocent immigrant neighbors and in memory of Alex Pretti and Renee Good. Stay free, Bruce Springsteen.”
The tribute to fallen citizens comes when Springsteen sings, “There were bloody footprints / Where mercy should have stood / And two dead left to die on snow-filled streets / Alex Pretti and Renee Good.”
The song concludes, “Here in our home they killed and roamed / In the winter of ’26 / We’ll take our stand for this land / And the stranger in our midst / We’ll remember the names of those who died / On the streets of Minneapolis.
