Extract from Eureka Street
- Home
- Vol 36 No 2
- When Bruce Springsteen writes a protest song, America listens
- Warwick McFadyen
- 04 February 2026
It’s had over five million views, and 36,000 comments on YouTube. It’s the song being heard across America, and it is circling the globe. Bruce Springsteen has taken his anger and his guitar into the studio and wrought, from chords, harmony and melody, a protest song for the times that his beloved America is living through. Streets of Minneapolis was released to the world last Thursday.
The song tells the story of the shooting deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pettri by ICE agents in Minneapolis. It also rages against the man who, through his policies, enabled this to happen: Donald Trump — King Donald to Springsteen. He doesn’t mean this in a benevolent way. Springsteen flew into Minneapolis and sang it on Friday, as if to say: here I am. Arrest me. Take a shot.
This is Springsteen’s defence against the Trump-fuelled storm that has descended on the land and the weapon that each person can carry and wield against the enemy, without the risk, one would hope, of suffering the same fate as Good and Pettri. Donald Trump may not be shuddering in his castle, but he’d have to be “dumb as a rock” — to reverse a label he once gave the Boss — not to hear the sound of marching feet and the voices of the people.
Streets of Minneapolis is written in the style of folk protest songs. In its feel, it harks back to the young Bob Dylan songs of the sixties, such as The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll or Only a Pawn in Their Game, which told the story of the murder of civil rights activist Medgar Evers. Minneapolis’s force lies in its message, and in it being conducive to being sung along to. There’s no amplification, no turning the amp to 11. The electricity runs through the lyrics, which is given greater impetus in the video through footage from the killing of Good and Pettri.
Springsteen sings:
“King Trump’s private army from the DHS
Guns belted to their coats
Came to Minneapolis to enforce the law
Or so their story goes.
Against smoke and rubber bullets
In the dawn’s early light
Citizens stood for justice
Their voices ringin’ through the night
And there were bloody footprints
Where mercy should have stood
And two dead, left to die on snow-filled streets
Alex Pettri and Renee Good.”
This is power without the glory. It is reminiscent in its fury of Springsteen’s American Skin (41 Shots) from 25 years ago. In February 1999, an unarmed student, Amadou Diallo, was shot 41 times by four plainclothes police officers who were part of the city’s Street Crime Unit in New York City. It was reported at the time that Diallo was wrongly suspected of being a wanted rapist. He had been reaching into his pocket for his wallet to show the officers identification when they opened fire. All four were acquitted of offences arising from the shooting.
Of that incident, Springsteen wrote:
“Is it a gun? Is it a knife? Is it a wallet? This is your life
It ain’t no secret (it ain’t no secret)
It ain’t no secret (it ain’t no secret)
No secret, my friend
You can get killed just for living in your American skin.”
The song created a storm of controversy at the time. Springsteen was asked not to perform it in New York. He took no notice, and performed it at Madison Square Garden.
It is tragically ironic that now, in Minneapolis, you can get shot and killed regardless of the colour of your skin. Springsteen’s latest salvo at the Trump administration brought this response from the White House: “The Trump administration is focused on encouraging state and local Democrats to work with federal law enforcement officers on removing dangerous criminal illegal aliens from their communities — not random songs with irrelevant opinions and inaccurate information.”
Other artists have also been moved to sing out, such as Billy Bragg, who has released City of Heroes. Bragg said: “That these crimes can be committed in broad daylight, on camera, and yet no one is held accountable only adds to the injustice. I wrote this song as a tribute to the bravery of the people of Minneapolis.”
Random songs? Hundreds of thousands of people who have heard Springsteen’s and Bragg’s songs would beg to differ. One voice can quickly become a chorus of millions singing in protest. Once heard, they will not retreat into silence.
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