Bruce Springsteen Spits Righteous Anger On Anti-Ice Song "Streets of Minneapolis"

By: Josh Kitchen / January 29, 2025

“Songs don’t come that often,” Bruce Springsteen said in 2024, talking about the last time he’d written new material. “I’ve gone two years without writing anything.” This was during promo for his latest documentary, Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band, a film about the band’s first outing together in seven years—their longest break since Springsteen disbanded them in 1988.

Springsteen’s last album with the E Street Band, 2020’s Letter to You, featured mortality as a central theme. The songs were largely inspired by the death of George Theiss, the last member of Springsteen’s first band, The Castiles, leaving him as the “Last Man Standing,” the title of one song on the album. “I came back from George’s and he filled me with something,” Springsteen recounted. “I think all of Letter to You was written in about two weeks and recorded in four days.”

It comes as no surprise, then, that Springsteen’s latest single—the stirring, in-your-face protest anthem “Streets of Minneapolis”—was written only five days ago, the day Alex Pretti was murdered by ICE agents in Minneapolis. Springsteen says he wrote the song Saturday, recorded it on Tuesday, and released it yesterday. Not only was it written and recorded in record time, but it was produced by longtime manager and producer Jon Landau, with playing and producing by Ron Aniello, as well as contributions from E Street member and Bruce’s wife Patti Scialfa, and E Street Choir members Lisa Lowell, Michelle Moore, and Curtis King.

“Streets of Minneapolis” is Springsteen’s most overtly political song he’s ever recorded. While classics like “Born in the U.S.A.,” “The Ghost of Tom Joad,” and “American Skin (41 Shots)” may carry more epic and emotional weight in how they tackle Springsteen’s political leanings, what sets “Streets of Minneapolis” apart is just how direct it is. Springsteen lists by name the victims and their offenders—Alex Pretti and Renee Good—murdered by what he calls “King Trump’s private army,” while also naming ultra-nationalist White House aide Stephen Miller and Department of Homeland Security head and dog killer Kristi Noem, calling out their “lies.” As he sings “In our chants of ICE out now!,” Springsteen uses real audio from those very chants on the ground in Minneapolis, making the listener feel even more a part of the protest.

Musically, the song recalls Dylan classics like “Desolation Row” or “Chimes of Freedom,” a familiar dirge of verses tumbling out of Bruce’s mouth, cataloging the crimes and atrocities committed by our current fascist regime. On “Streets of Minneapolis,” we hear a Springsteen who is wholly pissed off—his righteous anger meeting the moment, even if the song itself isn’t exactly greatest-hits material. What makes “Streets of Minneapolis” such a powerful statement is the way it was recorded and released. Springsteen put it out as fast as he possibly could—a gift to the Minneapolis community still reeling from, and dealing with, the president’s private army, as he puts it.

One user on the Bruce Springsteen forum Backstreets wrote: “I’m sitting at work a block away from where Alex Pretti was killed. I’m planning to run down to the memorial over my lunch break. Things are hard here, but there have also been so many beautiful things happening from, by, and for our community. Art and creativity are vital in times like this. We can feel the love and support aimed our way, and it is much appreciated. Thanks, Bruce.”

Bruce might not write as much as he used to, but when he’s inspired, he can be as prolific as ever. “You get up around our age and those are the things you’re thinking about,” Springsteen said about being inspired to write again after George Theiss passed away. And on “Streets of Minneapolis,” he shows us just why he is—and always will be—The Boss.