In January, over the course of three days, Bruce Springsteen wrote, recorded and released the political protest song Streets of Minneapolis.

The song’s release was a matter of urgency and reflects Springsteen’s fury towards the Minneapolis immigration enforcement operation from the United States Department of Homeland Security with around 2,000 Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers and agents.

Last month, Renée Good and Alex Pretti were killed by ICE in separate incidents. In his lyrics, Springsteen names them as a memorial tribute, “citizens [who] stood for justice”. He refers to ICE as “King Trump’s private army”.

Springsteen marches in the footsteps of protest songs from legendary artists such as Woody Guthrie and Bob Dylan who raised their lyrical voices in a direct response against injustice.

On January 30 Tom Morello, the guitarist with social activist rock band Rage Against the Machine, held a benefit concert to support the families of the Minneapolis ICE shooting victims.

Morello described it as “a concert of solidarity and resistance to defend Minnesota” and against “the rising tide of the state of terror”.

Springsteen was a surprise guest artist. In addition to performing Streets of Minneapolis he played his 1995 song, The Ghost of Tom Joad.

Tom Joad is a........

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