I joined DKos in 2006 after lurking for a couple of years and this is my first diary. I’m a little nervous. I’m also a little drunk, but whatever. I’ve been thinking a lot about Bruce Springsteen calling Donald Trump a moron. He’s 1,000% right, of course.
I’ve been a fan for over 40 years (of Bruce, not of Trump, god forbid). Since then, I’ve seen the Boss in concert many times, especially over the past 10 years. I’ve been lucky to attend three shows this year alone. It’s always 3 ½ hours well spent.
Over the years, not many shows went by without Bruce playing the the wonderful and raucous “American Land.” Unfortunately, he hasn’t played it much on his latest tour and I really miss it. Not only is it a kick-ass feast for the ears and great to dance to, it’s a heartfelt tribute to the immigrants who built this country, who died for it, and who have been vilified by its citizens.
Most of us are descended from immigrants. I come from English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh, German, Dutch and Native American stock. My Dutch forebears settled in New Amsterdam (in the same area that Springsteen’s ancestors are from) before moving to the Appalachians of Virginia, Tennessee and Kentucky after the Revolutionary War. My German ancestors were mercenaries who also fought in the Revolutionary War, went back to Prussia, and then came back. My Irish great-grandfather was a riverboat captain on the Missouri. My grandfather’s family came from Sheffield, England for a better life. My Native American great-grandmother married a Scotsman.
Bruce is the product of Irish, Dutch, and Italian immigrants and he gets something that Donald Trump doesn’t even though he is also the son of immigrants. Immigrants are vital to this country and they’ve made untold contributions and continue to do so. They’ve worked and lived and loved and died for this country. We’re richer in so many ways for their being here.
Donald Trump has no clue.
Read the lyrics to “American Land”
What is this land America, so many travel there
I'm going now while I'm still young, my darling meet me there
Wish me luck my lovely lass, I'll send for you when I can
And we'll make our home in the American land
Over there the women wear silk and satin to their knees
And children, dear, the sweets, I hear, are growing on the trees
Gold comes rushing out the rivers straight into your hands
When you make your home in the American land
There's diamonds in the sidewalk, the gutters lined in song
Dear, I hear the beer flows through the faucets all night long
There's treasure for the taking, for any hard working man
Who'll make his home in the American land
I docked at Ellis Island in the city of light and spire
I wandered to the valley of red-hot steel and fire
We made the steel that built the cities with the sweat of our two hands
We made our home in the American land
There's diamonds in the sidewalk, the gutters lined in song
Dear, I hear the beer flows through the faucets all night long
There's treasure for the taking, for any hard working man
Who'll make his home in the American land
The McNicholas, the Posalskis, the Smiths, Zerillis too
The Blacks, the Irish, Italians, the Germans and the Jews
They come across the water a thousand miles from home
With nothing in their bellies but the fire down below
They died building the railroads, they worked to bones and skin
They died in the fields and factories, names scattered in the wind
They died to get here a hundred years ago, they're still dying now
Their hands that built the country, we're always trying to keep out
There's diamonds in the sidewalk, the gutters lined in song
Dear, I hear that beer flows through the faucets all night long
There's treasure for the taking, for any hard working man
Who'll make his home in the American land
Who'll make his home in the American land
Who'll make his home in the American land
Now watch the video shot live in Dublin in 2012. I’m not sure what’s going on in the beginning, but I believe it as to do with the incident in London a few days earlier in which Bruce and Paul McCartney were cut off for violating a curfew.
How very dare they!
Enjoy!
