Springsteen introduces ‘Long Walk Home’ as ‘a prayer for my country’ at concert in Sweden

Bruce Springsteen performs “Into the Fire” in Solna, Sweden, on July 15.

“This is a prayer for my country” said Bruce Springsteen when introducing “Long Walk Home” at his concert with the E Street Band today at the Strawberry Arena in Solna, which is part of the Greater Stockholm Area. He also played it at his last show, July 13 in Helsinki.

These two performances were the first two times he has played the 2006 song with an E Street Band arrangement since 2014; the prayer remark supports the notion that they constitute a kind of response to recent political events in the United States.

The “long walk home” in the song is a symbol for a hoped-for return to the ideals that Springsteen saw his country representing, when he was young. He sings:

My father said, “Son, we’re lucky in this town,
“It’s a beautiful place to be born.
“It just wraps its arms around you,
“Nobody crowds you and nobody goes it alone

“Your flag flyin’ over the courthouse
“Means certain things are set in stone.
“Who we are, what we’ll do and what we won’t”

Springsteen will perform again in Solna, July 18.

Here is the July 15 setlist (according to setlist.fm) and, below it, a video of “Long Walk Home” (though it begins after the “prayer” comment). I have also included a video of the show-opener, “Into the Fire.”

“Into the Fire”
“Lonesome Day”
“My Love Will Not Let You Down”
“Prove It All Night”
“No Surrender”
“The Promised Land”
“Hungry Heart”
“Reason to Believe”
“Youngstown”
“Long Walk Home”
“Working on the Highway”
“Darlington County”
“The E Street Shuffle”
“Nightshift”
“My Hometown”
“The River”
“Last Man Standing”
“Backstreets”
“Because the Night”
“She’s the One”
“Wrecking Ball”
“The Rising”
“Badlands”
“Thunder Road”

Encore
“Land of Hope and Dreams”
“Born to Run”
“Bobby Jean”
“Dancing in the Dark”
“Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out”
“Twist and Shout”
“I’ll See You in My Dreams”