Donald Trump is the President of the United States of America. What songs are appropriate to this state of affairs? I’m sure I’m not the first to nominate Bruce Springsteen’s “Badlands”.
“Badlands” is far from new. It was on Bruce’s 1978 album Darkness on the Edge of Town. Here’s a live performance from that year.
Why is “Badlands” so relevant, almost 40 years later? Here are just a few of the reasons.
- Lyrics such as: “Rich man wanna be king/And a king ain’t satisfied/’Til he rules everything” could have been written about President Trump.
- On the night Ronald Reagan was elected President, Bruce introduced “Badlands” as follows. I don’t know what you guys thought of what happened last night, but I thought it was pretty terrifying.
- Badlands National Park tweeted about climate change, in defiance of a gag order imposed by the Trump administration.
Other reasons that should also be on the list? Other songs appropriate to the moment? That’s what Comments are for!