Bruce Springsteen opened last night's (January 20th) Celebrating America Presidential gala event, which capped the inaugural celebrations for President Joe Biden. Springsteen, in front of the Lincoln Memorial, performed a solo acoustic reading of “Land Of Hope And Dreams” — a song which he premiered during the E Street Band's 1999 reunion tour, and was eventual released in studio form on 2012's Wrecking Ball collection.
Among the other highlights in the show was a pre-recorded clip of Jon Bon Jovi tackling a full band version of the Beatles' “Here Comes The Sun” and Foo Fighters performing “Times Like These.”
APP.com reported that during Springsteen's latest DJ stint on SiriusXM's From My Home To Yours show, he labeled Donald Trump, “a dime store seditionist and a low-rent traitor to the Constitution, and to the United States of America,” before speaking directly to those in his audience whose politics have leaned toward the divisive over the past four years.
Springsteen said, in part, “I ask my good American brothers and sisters to value yourselves and your allegiances more deeply. Donald J. Trump does not deserve your good soul and your honest and heartfelt commitment. Your country, your real country, awaits and needs you. So I say this with pain and love in my heart: Don’t waste your compassion on those who do not deserve it. You are better and worth much more than that.”
He went on to say, “In this world, God’s world, no infallible truth resides in just one man. There is only one truth, God’s truth, and it is a truth of deep inquiry, humility in the face of facts, and it is grounded in the faith and love and respect you carry for your neighbors and your country. Let us all pray to God we have the strength to see clearly with our mind, heart and eyes, and that we may hold our faith high, humbly, and in the service of our country and the truth.”
During Bruce Springsteen's September 10th address to the incoming freshmen students of his son Evan's alma mater, Boston University, he spoke about what this new class of academics need to leave behind in their wake: “We need your commitment. We need your vigilance and your commitment to a greater America; the America that we carry in our hearts. And the American experiment — as you are today — is an unfulfilled promise. The distance between the American dream and our American reality remains greater than ever. It will soon be in the hands of your generation to do your damnedest to make up and heal that divide. That's a lot to ask; but that's what it means — if you'll excuse me — to be born In the U.S.A.”
