Vote for Change Tour: Bruce Springsteen + John Fogerty + R.E.M. + Coner Oberst

Theorists understand that all music is political. As the French economist Jacques Attali has noted, the arrangement of sound helps fashion societies and gives birth to both authority and subversion. Music is more than entertainment: it is a tool for the creation of a community that links its subjects together at the center. Within music can be read the codes of behavior in terms of how we relate to one another. So the idea of having a political concert is already a redundant concept. All concerts are inherently political in the larger sense of establishing conformity. The Bruce Springsteen led Vote for Change Tour is notable for its overt use of music as a way to support a particular partisan cause. The musicians stayed on target with the agreed on message: Bush must be defeated/Kerry should be elected. The $75-plus fees ticket price, whose money went to the America Coming Together political action committee, largely guaranteed a receptive audience, for who else would pay so much money for a ticket. Indeed, it would be the odd music fan that liked the line up but did not agree with the message as these artists had made their thoughts and values clear in their music for decades. And while this was no Nuremberg Rally, there were plenty of knee-jerk supporters throwing their fists in the air at any mention of an appropriate political message when delivered to a hard rock beat, which suggests only a thin line exists between fascism and community.

That said, the concert kicked butt. From the opening chords of Bright Eyes front man Coner Oberst flailing away at his guitar and singing about the current problems of the world until the grand finale in which every musician appeared on-stage to sing Patti Smith’s hopeful anthem “People Have the Power,:, the artists and the audience joined together in celebration for a better world order. Almost of the song selections seemed to be chosen for their politically appropriateness as well as their popularity among fans. At times this was a stretch. For example, R.E.M. performed “What’s the Frequency, Kenneth” whose currency at the show derived from the title line. It was the first thing television broadcaster Dan Rather said after being mugged several years ago, and now Dan Rather was currently in the news for his less than honest reporting tactics during the presidential campaign. R.E.M. also performed “Begin the Begin”, “Losing my Religion”, “Bad Day”, and “Man on the Moon”. On the latter two songs Springsteen joined in, even doing a parody of Elvis Presley during the lines about Andy Kaufman “goofing on Elvis.” R.E.M.’s lead singer Michael Stipe, dressed completely in white with a shaved head and an unshaven face, lankily pranced around the stage like a marionette with one string cut. His voice may have gone flat at times, but his energy never flagged. Neil Young came on and played guitar with R.E.M. during a few cuts, but his presence wasn’t dramatically announced until later, during Springsteen’s set. Springsteen led off with a jagged acoustic but amplified version of “The Star Spangled Banner”. The song evoked Jimi Hendrix at Woodstock but more importantly, it reminded everyone in the audience of why we were there — not just to hear tunes but to create a political regime change. Springsteen and the other musicians continually reminded the crowd verbally of the reason for the show, but the non-verbal message was much more inspirational. Springsteen, then joined by the E Street Band, continued with a run down of his original songs somehow connected to the current presidential race, including “Born in the U.S.A.”, “Badlands”, “No Surrender”, (used as a theme by John Kerry during the Democratic convention), “Lonesome Day”, and “The River”. Then Springsteen asked the crowd in a thunderous voice, “Are there any Canadians for Kerry in the audience?” As Neil Young bounded the stage, the arena erupted into wild applause. With both men dressed in matching black, the two did a rousing version of Springsteen’s melancholic “Souls of the Departed” and then a blistering cover of Bob Dylan’s “All Along the Watchtower”. Springsteen and his band performed a rockabilly style version of “Johnny 99,” a song about a man driven to desperate measures by the bad economy. Springsteen then introduced ex-Creedence Clearwater Revival front man John Fogerty as “Our generation’s Hank Williams.” That’s a bit of an overstatement to be sure — our generation’s Merle Travis, maybe or Hank Snow, but nevermind, the compliment was well received. Fogerty immediately endeared himself to the hometown crowd by announcing the Minnesota Twins had just between the New York Yankees in the first game of the American League playoffs and then launched into a bouncing rendition of “Centerfield,” played on a baseball bat-shaped electric guitar. Springsteen and the E Street Back backed up Fogerty on this and other tunes including Fogerty’s latest single, an anti-Bush song called “Déjà vu (All Over Again)” and Fogerty’s anti-Vietnam classic “Fortunate Son”.

Earlier in the day, newspaper reports indicated that Fogerty changed the words to “Fortunate Son” during the concert the night before in Philadelphia from “senator’s son” to “president’s son,” which would make Bush more clearly the target. I listened carefully at the St. Paul show, but did not detect the change — he still seemed to be singing “senator’s son,” although he did mess up the lyrics. “I’ve been singing this song for more than 25 years,” Fogerty joked from the stage, “you’d think I’d know the words already.” I was surprised to read in the local paper the next day (The St. Paul Pioneer Press) that Fogerty had changed the words to “president’s son” and wondered if I should have trusted my ears or if the reporter merely repeated the information from the previous review. Fogerty, Springsteen, Stipe and Young joined together in various combinations to sing everything from the old CCR hit “Proud Mary” to Springsteen’s “The Rising”. The performances peaked with a Gospel-style version of Springsteen’s “Mary’s Place” which literally had The Boss preaching to the crowd about electing Kerry in the next election. Springsteen, always the showman, went from sliding across the stage on his knees to dancing around frantically to charge up the audience. From that point on all the musicians, as well as Young’s wife Peggy, played together, beginning with a guitar-heavy version of Young’s mocking of compassionate conservative “Rockin’ in the Free World”. A stolid but sincere version of Nick Lowe’s new wave classic “What’s So Funny (About Peace, Love and Understanding)” followed and then the show ended with the aforementioned Smith tune “People Have the Power”. Before the last three songs was the requisite pretend ending of the show and calls for encores, but by the end–after three hours of music, the audience did get a full show on a Tuesday night.