Bruce Springsteen

"I've seen strong hearts give way To the burdens of the day, To the weary hands of time Where fortune is not kind."

"I'm working on a dream, Though trouble can feel like it's here to stay. I'm working on a dream; Our love will chase the trouble away."

"Have you ever seen a one trick pony in the field so happy and free/ If you've ever seen a one trick pony then you've seen me. Have you ever seen a one legged dog makin' his way down the street? If you've ever seen a one legged dog then you've seen me."

"I been knocking on the door that holds the throne. I been looking for the map that leads me home. I been stumbling on good hearts turned to stone. The road of good intentions has gone dry as a bone. We take care of our own. We take care of our own. Wherever this flag’s flown, We take care of our own."

"Well, no cannon ball did fly, no rifles cut us down. No bombs fell from the sky, no blood soaked the ground. No powder flash blinded the eye. No deathly thunder sounded. But just as sure as the hand of God, They brought death to my hometown. They brought death to my hometown."

"Tend to your flock or they will stray. We’ll be called for our service come judgment day. Before we cross that river wide, The blood on our hands will come back on us twice."

"This train... Carries saints and sinners. This train... Carries losers and winners. This train... Carries whores and gamblers. This train... Carries lost souls.I said this train... Dreams will not be thwarted. This train... Faith will be rewarded."

"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, No secret my friend. You can get killed just for living In your American skin."

"We all come up a little short and we go down hard. These days I spend my time skipping through the dark. Through the empires of dust, I chant your name. I am the hunter of invisible game."

"I think music changed when Bruce Springsteen came on the scene. I think if it wasn't for Bruce Springsteen, we may have gone in a very scary direction. We may have gotten to the point where disco music ruled and I would have had to quit."

"Here was a dude who carried himself like Brando, Dylan, and Elvis. If John Steinbeck could sing, if Van Morrison could ride a Harley-Davidson. But he was something new, too. He was the first whiff of Scorsese, the first hint of Patti Smith, Elvis Costello, and the Clash. He was the end of long hair, brown rice and bell bottoms. It was the end of the 20-minute drum solo. It was good night, Haight-Ashbury; hello, Asbury Park."

"America was staggering when Springsteen appeared. The president had just resigned in disgrace. The U.S. had lost its first war. There was going to be no more oil in the ground. The days of cruising and big cars were supposed to be over. But Bruce Springsteen's vision was bigger than a Honda, it was bigger than a Subaru. Bruce made you believe that dreams were still out there, but after loss and defeat, they had to be braver, not just bigger."

"We call him the Boss. Well that's a bunch of crap. He's not the boss. He works for us."

"Bruce Springsteen feels familiar to us. But it's not an easy familiarity, is it? Even his band seems to stand taller when he walks in the room. It's complex. He's America's writer, and critic. It's like in Badlands, he's Martin Sheen and Terrence Malick. To be so accessible and so private, there's a rubric. But then again, he is an Irish-Italian, with a Jewish-sounding name. What more do you want? Add one big African sax player, and no one in this room is gonna fuck with you!"

"In 1974, I was 14. Even I knew the '60s were over. It was the era of soft-rock infusion. The Beatles were gone, Elvis was in Vegas. What was goin' on? Nothin' was goin' on. Bruce Springsteen was comin' on, saving music from the phonies, saving lyrics from the folkies, saving black leather jackets from the Fonz."

"The label of liberalism is hardly a sentence to public igominy: otherwise Bruce Springsteen would still be rehabilitating used Cadillacs in Asbury Park and Jane Fonda, for all we know, would be just another overweight housewife."

"I couldn't believe how happy his music made me and how good it was. He's a gift, and I didn't know. I mean, I knew 'Born in the USA' and 'Glory Days,' but I didn't know that he covered so much ground, and there was something in his music that touched what I was going through, the process of falling back in love with my America."

"Bruce Springsteen put it best in 2004 when he said: "America is not always right. That's a fairy tale for children.... But one thing America should always be is true. And it's in seeking her truth, both the good and the bad, that we find a deeper patriotism, that we find a more authentic experience as citizens, that we find the power that is embedded only in truth to change our world for the better.""

"Bruce Springsteen released a fiery protest song Wednesday dedicated to the memory of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, two Minneapolis residents who were fatally shot by federal agents this month. “Streets of Minneapolis,” which Springsteen wrote Saturday and recorded Tuesday, is a “response to the state terror being visited on the city,” he said in a post on Instagram. He added that the song is also for “the people of Minneapolis” and “our innocent immigrant neighbors.” Daily life for residents in the Minnesota city has been upended in the weeks since 3,000 federal agents flooded the streets for an immigration crackdown operation. The song, which is about four and a half minutes long, denounces U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and calls out Trump administration officials by name, including Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller and President Donald Trump himself."

"Springsteen had previously responded to the events unfolding in Minneapolis during a performance at the Light of Day Winterfest concert in Red Bank, New Jersey. Before he played his hit “The Promised Land,” he dedicated the song to Good’s memory, according to cellphone video from the performance shared by NJ-dot-com. In the video, Springsteen characterized federal law enforcement participating in the Trump administration’s crackdown as “heavily armed, masked federal troops invading an American city, using Gestapo tactics against their fellow citizens.” Springsteen also said he wrote the song “as an ode to American possibility” and added that the United States’ set of ideals and values is “being tested as it has never been in modern times.” He told the crowd he hoped his message would reach Trump. “If you believe you don’t deserve to be murdered for exercising your American right to protest, then send a message to this president. And as the mayor of that city has said: ‘ICE should get the f--- out of Minneapolis,” Springsteen told a supportive home-state crowd, echoing the words of Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey."

"Last Thursday, at the Harvard Square theatre, I saw my rock'n'roll past flash before my eyes. And I saw something else: I saw rock and roll future and its name is Bruce Springsteen. And on a night when I needed to feel young, he made me feel like I was hearing music for the very first time."

"Our love is like a Bruce Springsteen concert. It's not that great, it's really long. But wow! What energy."

"The reason I’m running for president is because I can’t be Bruce Springsteen."

"Our slot was immediately before Bruce Springsteen, who was headlining that night. It was his birthday and people were yelling "Bruuuuuce," you know, all night long. And Jackson Browne, at the side of the stage, he says to me "Now listen, if you go on and you think they're booing you, don't, don't get thrown because they're really just saying 'Bruce.'" And I said, "Well, what's the difference?'""

"Too bad the guy's name wasn't Melvin or something."

"Über Musik sprechen geht nicht, das wäre das gleiche als würde man über Sex sprechen. Man kann darüber nicht sprechen, man muss es erleben."