Bruce Springsteen Opens First Post-Election Concert With ‘A Fighting Prayer for My Country’
by Jem Aswad, Karen Bliss · VarietyBruce Springsteen’s wholehearted support for Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign was as emphatic as he’s ever been for a candidate — he even filmed a three-minute video last month supporting her — and he’s spoken of that support multiple times, even calling now-president-elect Donald Trump a “tyrant” at a Harris rally in Atlanta.
In concert, his endorsements at times have been a bit more subtle: He opened his concert in Toronto on Sunday night with his 1975 song “She’s the One” — apparently the first time he’d ever opened a show with that song.
But for his show in that city on Wednesday night, his reaction to Donald Trump’s victory was similarly subtle, at least early in the show.
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After apologizing to the audience for the show’s late start (due to a flight delay that left them “sitting on our asses” for hours), he changed the subject quickly and said, “This is a fighting prayer for my country,” and launched into “Long Walk Home,” another song he rarely chooses to open a show.
The song, from his 2007 album “Magic,” is about familiar Springsteen themes — hometown, a woman, summer — but the relevance of it on this night came in the third verse:
“My father said, ‘Son, we’re lucky in this town
It’s a beautiful place to be born
It just wraps its arms around you
Nobody crowds you, nobody goes it alone.
You know that flag flying over the courthouse
Means certain things are set in stone
Who we are, what we’ll do and what we won’t.’”
How set in stone those certain things will remain over the next four years is an open question.
The next song? “Land of Hope and Dreams.”
Variety will have more from the show in the coming hours.