HOPE AND DREAMS
REMEMBER JOY, COMMUNITY AND THAT YOU ARE NOT ALONE
Last weekend, my wife and I attended the Austin concert of Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band’s Hope and Dreams Tour. While I have known about Bruce and listened to his hits off and on, I have been recently surprised at his level of activism and the sheer volume of his written works. I had also never seen him in concert, although my wife has. I hope that I have half of his stamina and presence at 76. The man NEVER stopped.
There were a number of songs in the playlists that really resonated but I will pick a few the hit me the hardest:
War (The Temptations cover)
Born in the U.S.A. (with Tom Morello)
No Surrender
Streets of Minneapolis [Obviously]
The Promised Land
American Skin (41 Shots) (with Tom Morello)
Long Walk Home (with Tom Morello)
House of a Thousand Guitars
My City of Ruins
The Rising
The Ghost of Tom Joad (with Tom Morello)*
I chose to post this to remind folks that we need to be in places with others who also see the problems and draw energy from that. The Nazis and White Supremacists are LOUD, but there are more of us. A LOT more.
*(I will try to learn The Ghost of Tom Joad for ukulele. I think I can manage that.)
Keep the Faith. Keep Fighting. Keep Standing and Watching. And, by whatever you hold Holy, SING!
NO MERCY FOR FASCISTS!
15 ROUNDS
I DIDN’T HEAR NO BELL!
TRANS LIVES MATTER!
DEFEND THE TRUTH!
NEVER AGAIN IS NOW!
DO NOT SURRENDER!
KEEP THE WATCH!
EMBRACE HOPE!
WATCH OUT FOR THOSE AROUND YOU!
What an amazing man — and in 50 years, he’s never let fame go to his head! I had the great good fortune to see him and his band and the great Clarence Clemons, right at the start of his breakthrough. In 1975, right after the release of “Born To Run,” he had just been made the cover story of both Time and Newsweek, only a month before. Not yet a big stadium act, he was on a tour of colleges and high schools, and mine was one of them! (which meant I didn’t have to beg my parents to let me go!) Would you believe, the price of admission was only $6 bucks?! Watta show — for his encore of “Rosalita,” he changed the lyric of “The record company, Rosie, just gave me a big advance” to “Tell your daddy I ain’t no freak, ‘cuz I just made the cover of Time and Newsweek.”