Bruce Springsteen Revives the Protest Song, Condemns ICE Violence in “Streets of Minneapolis”

If there’s a sil­ver lin­ing to our tumul­tuous times, it’s that musi­cians are reviv­ing the protest song, a tra­di­tion that has with­ered since the end of the Viet­nam War. Cre­dence Clear­wa­ter Revival’s “For­tu­nate Son,” Arlo Guthrie’s “Alice’s Restau­rant,” Jimi Hen­drix’s “Machine Gun”—these songs all took aim at the John­son and Nixon admin­is­tra­tions’ increas­ing­ly mis­guid­ed war effort. But it was Neil Young who wrote the most damn­ing protest song. When the Ohio Nation­al Guard shot and killed four stu­dents at Kent State in 1970, Young dis­ap­peared for a few hours and returned with the haunt­ing lyrics of “Ohio.”

Tin sol­diers and Nixon com­ing,We’re final­ly on our own.This sum­mer I hear the drum­ming,Four dead in Ohio.

Got­ta get down to itSol­diers are cut­ting us downShould have been done long ago.What if you knew herAnd found her dead on the groundHow can you run when you know?

With his new song released this week, Bruce Spring­steen picks up this thread. “Streets Of Min­neapo­lis” doc­u­ments the mur­der of civil­ians in Min­neso­ta’s largest city. On Jan­u­ary 7, ICE agent Jonathan Ross shot Renee Good repeat­ed­ly in the head, leav­ing the moth­er of three dead. On Jan­u­ary 24, two fed­er­al agents fired at least 10 shots at Alex Pret­ti, killing the ICU nurse instant­ly. Days lat­er, the iden­ti­ty of these mur­der­ers remains hidden—something that news orga­ni­za­tions odd­ly don’t seem trou­bled by, almost as if we’re qui­et­ly accept­ing that we’re liv­ing in a police state. When was the last time Amer­i­can agents could wear masks before killing civil­ians, and then hide behind a veil of anonymi­ty after? Yeah, that’s nor­mal.

On social media, Spring­steen wrote: “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.” You can read the lyrics below.

Through the winter’s ice and coldDown Nicol­let AvenueA city aflame fought fire and ice‘Neath an occupier’s bootsKing Trump’s pri­vate army from the DHSGuns belt­ed to their coatsCame to Min­neapo­lis to enforce the lawOr so their sto­ry goesAgainst smoke and rub­ber bul­letsBy the dawn’s ear­ly lightCit­i­zens stood for jus­ticeTheir voic­es ring­ing through the nightAnd there were bloody foot­printsWhere mer­cy should have stoodAnd two dead left to die on snow-filled streetsAlex Pret­ti and Renee Good

Oh our Min­neapo­lis, I hear your voiceSinging through the bloody mistWe’ll take our stand for this landAnd the stranger in our midstHere in our home they killed and roamedIn the win­ter of ’26We’ll remem­ber the names of those who diedOn the streets of Min­neapo­lis

Trump’s fed­er­al thugs beat up onHis face and his chestThen we heard the gun­shotsAnd Alex Pret­ti lay in the snow, deadTheir claim was self defense, sirJust don’t believe your eyesIt’s our blood and bonesAnd these whis­tles and phonesAgainst Miller and Noem’s dirty lies

Oh our Min­neapo­lis, I hear your voiceCry­ing through the bloody mistWe’ll remem­ber the names of those who diedOn the streets of Min­neapo­lis

Now they say they’re here to uphold the lawBut they tram­ple on our rightsIf your skin is black or brown my friendYou can be ques­tioned or deport­ed on sight

In chants of ICE out nowOur city’s heart and soul per­sistsThrough bro­ken glass and bloody tearsOn the streets of Min­neapo­lis

Oh our Min­neapo­lis, I hear your voiceSinging through the bloody mistHere in our home they killed and roamedIn the win­ter of ’26We’ll take our stand for this landAnd the stranger in our midstWe’ll remem­ber the names of those who diedOn the streets of Min­neapo­lisWe’ll remem­ber the names of those who diedOn the streets of Min­neapo­lis

Relat­ed Con­tent 

Leg­endary Protest Songs from Wood­stock: Hen­drix, Jef­fer­son Air­plane, Coun­try Joe & More Per­form Protest Songs Dur­ing the Music Fes­ti­val That Launched 50 Years Ago This Week

David Byrne Curates a Playlist of Great Protest Songs Writ­ten Over the Past 60 Years: Stream Them Online

The Pow­er­ful Mes­sages That Woody Guthrie & Pete Seeger Inscribed on Their Gui­tar & Ban­jo: “This Machine Kills Fas­cists” and “This Machine Sur­rounds Hate and Forces it to Sur­ren­der”

Nina Simone’s Live Per­for­mances of Her Poignant Civ­il Rights Protest Songs