Bruce Springsteen has teamed up with his erstwhile collaborator Joe Gruschecky on a protest anthem called “That’s What Makes Us Great.”
Pittsburgh rocker Grushecky wrote the song around the time President Trump took office in January, the Pittsburg Post-Gazette reports. In Springsteen’s verse on the track, the New Jersey musician challenges: “don’t you brag to me that you never read a book/I never put my faith in a con man and his crooks.”
Springsteen’s songs have often depicted the drudgery and beauty of life in the American Rust Belt, an area that proved pivotal to Trump’s 2016 presidential election victory. In January, Springsteen called Trump’s immigration order “anti-Democratic and fundamentally un-American.”
Grushecky, who had taught in schools for decades, told the Post-Gazette that Trump’s mocking of a reporter with a disability drove him to write the song. “How could a person like that be president of the United States? Regardless of all the other [stuff], that to me is appalling,” he said. “I have special needs people in my family and in my neighborhood. I worked with special needs people my whole life and I was really offended by it.”
“That’s What Makes Us Great” premiered on SiriusXM radio Wednesday. The track can be purchased on Grushecky’s website and on various streaming services.
[PPG]
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