American Skin: MP3s, Springsteen, and Cops
by Micah Holmquist
June 16, 2000

Till a couple of days ago, I had long been intending to write an essay on how MP3s and sites like Napster were overrated. Some of my criticisms can be found in my earlier rant Capitalist Pundits and MP3s, but I wanted to further rave about how the "MP3 Revolution" —to use a dubious phrase that is gaining in currency- has pretty much become synonymous with people collecting music that they already own or which they sorta like but not enough so as to shell out the cash for the CD.

In and of itself, this isn’t a bad thing and it could pose a significant challenge to the music industry but I doubt a fatal one. It doesn’t bring me comfort to think that those in the music business for the business element —as opposed to those who are in it for the love of music which is a category that does not include many musicians but does include many non-musicians- love their money and power more than most fans love music but I do believe it is true. Greed has long been a bigger motivator for many people than altruism and this is almost certainly true for those who bring us the likes Britney Spears and Garth Brooks. (I’ll save my judgement for people like Brooks and Spears because I do believe that some of them do —probably not those two but who knows? - have artistic integrity.) My opinion on this fundamental issue has not changed but recent events have pointed the way to a possible alternate future.

On June 4, Bruce Springsteen and the E-Street Band played the last of several shows in Atlanta, Georgia. Mixed into the set list of favorites was a new song that Springsteen announced as "American Skin.(41 Shots)." (Click here for an MP3 of the performance.) The song addresses the death of Amadou Diallo, an immigrant from Guinea, at the hands of four New York City cops who, in February of last year, fired 41 shots at him.

Those four cops were acquitted late this past February at a trial in Albany, New York —a long way from the Bronx borough where the shooting occurred in more ways than one- although the defense of the officer’s basically was that Diallo’s death was tragic and that they were just doing their job as the superiors instructed them to do. According to their testimony, they feared that when Diallo pulled out his wallet from his pants to get his ID, that he was in fact pulling out a gun or some other weapon. (Let’s assume that the officers are correct and they are instructed to shoot an individual from whom they have requested an ID when they fear that the person might be pulling out a weapon from the area where more than a few men, and some women as well, keep their wallet and identification cards. Could there be a much more damning indictment of police practices than this?)

The premiere of "American Skin" in Atlanta was no doubt a test run. Eight days later, Springsteen and the band were scheduled to start a series of 10 shows at Madison Square Garden, which is, of course, in the Big Apple. Since Springsteen has yet not spoken about the song publicly, nobody really knows for how long he had been planning to make this statement in NYC.

It is also unclear if Springsteen wanted controversy but he got it. New York City Patrolmen's Benevolent Association head Patrick J. Lynch condemned the song in a June 8 statement and accused Springsteen of exploiting a tragedy to "fatten his wallet."

The controversy surrounding "American Skin" became a heated topic in the NYC media and even garnered some national coverage. The lyrics to the song spread far and wide but the media mostly played no more than small samples of the actual song. A lot of this was due to the song not having been officially released but let’s face it, if CNN and VH1 can play an excerpt of the chorus they can play the whole thing. But they didn’t.

Enter MP3s and the Internet. Collectors and bootleggers have long recorded Springsteen show after Springsteen show and the concert in Atlanta was no different. But trading tapes or producing a bootleg necessitates a time lag of at least a few weeks. Not so with Internet. If you hunted around long enough on the net or just went to Napster or Macster, you could find the song as an MP3 file. You could then listen to it in its entirety and get a feel for it. You could essentially understand the song while the establishment media simply talked about it. The song that people wanted to hear but which most couldn’t through traditional means had become available to those with the right equipment. The Internet as a distribution channel did that and it began to show just how powerful this medium could be.

Whether or not the Internet lives up to its promise will not be determined ultimately by how well it distributes unreleased tracks by established artists —no matter how great those performers are and how relevant and urgent these songs might be- but ultimately by whether or not it facilitates and supports the creation of music that would not exist under the non-Internet framework but this event shows that this possibility is at least a bit more than a pipe dream.

As I began to formulate these thoughts in my head about the potential that the Internet might have for music, I began to think about how odd it was that the only thing I was thinking about was how I obtained a copy of "American Skin." When I purchased, to use one example, Radiance by the Susie Ibarra Trio from a music store, I was in love with the music but didn’t give a second thought to how I had gotten ahold of it. Granted record stores are a far more familiar concept than the Internet but the principle remains the same — it is the music itself not how it is distributed that matters most and which primarily deserves comment.

"American Skin" is a vocal based ballad that recalls Springsteen’s enjoyable but flawed hit "My Hometown." (1) The track opens with the moody synthesizer playing of Roy Bittan and Max Weinberg playing his hi-hat. The performance in NYC differed but in Atlanta, Springsteen begin to repeat the phrase "41 shots." He started by singing just above a whisper but growing louder each time. And then he sings:

41 shots and we'll take that ride
Across this bloody river to the other side
41 shots they cut through the night
You're kneeling over his body in the vestibule
Praying for his life

Is it a gun?
Is it a knife?
Is it a wallet?
This is your life
It ain't no secret
It ain't no secret
Ain't no secret my friend
You can get killed just for living in your American skin

41 shots
41 shots
41 shots
41 shots

Elena gets her son ready for school
She says now on these streets Charles
You got to understand the rules
Promise me if an officer stops you'
ll always be polite
Never ever run away and promise momma you'll keep your hands in sight

Cause is it a gun?
Is it a knife?
Is it a wallet?
This is your life
It ain't no secret
It ain't no secret
The secret my friend
You can get killed just for living in your American skin

41 shots
41 shots
41 shots

Is it a gun?
Is it a knife?
Is it a wallet?
This is your life
It ain't no secret
It ain't no secret
It ain't no secret

41 shots and we'll take that ride
Across this bloody river to the other side
41 shots my boots caked in mud
We're baptized in these waters and in each other's blood
Well is it a gun?
Is it a knife?
Is it a wallet?
This is your life
It ain't no secret
It ain't no secret
The secret my friend
You can get killed just for living in
You can get killed just for living in
You can get killed just for living in your American skin

41 shots
41 shots
41 shots
41 shots
41 shots
41 shots
41 shots
41 shots

The song begins as a soft ballad before converting itself into more a rocker and then goes back to the ballad form with Springsteen and the band once again repeating "41 shots. It is a beautiful and moving work by any standard. Most impressive is that Springsteen takes on the voices of other people -witness the mother’s plea to her son- while fully conveying in his own terms the search for dignity, meaning, and community that is the essence of his discography.

By all accounts audiences have been responding favorably to this song. Yes there were some boos reported when as it was played at the first NYC show but, as also happened in Atlanta, the crowd was by the end mostly singing "41 shots" with Springsteen and the band. This is nothing new as Springsteen shows have long been secular religious services (2) which create a sense of a community between and amongst the audience and the performers on stage (3) but it is odd when you consider that audiences at these concerts are virtually all white. (4) And given ticket prices, most concertgoers are probably relatively prosperous. To be blunt, these crowds are not the most likely to be gunned down by 5-0.

Stories about youthful energy and rebellion, working class frustration, and changes in one’s life —i.e. the "typical" Springsteen fare- are far more a part of the day to day lives and histories of audience members than is heat from the police. The song appears to take this into account, however. It is no stretch to think that when Springsteen sings "Ain't no secret my friend/You can get killed just for living in your American skin" what he means is that everybody knows this including my audience. Springsteen also appears to be saying that it is not enough for his audience to only concern themselves with their own problems. The term "American skin" is problematic because "America" includes a couple of continents and more than a handful of countries, but there can be no doubt that it does express a belief that the fates of a white suburbanite with a professional job and the Black or Latina/o inner city dweller struggling to make ends meet are tied. Choosing to ignore this connection won’t change a thing because, as Springsteen sings, "We're baptized in these waters and in each other's blood."

This is not the first time that he has expressed such sentiments. From people on death row to individuals suffering from AIDs to undocumented immigrants, Springsteen has long sung about people on the margins of society and who many members of his audience are not likely to identify with. As Springsteen said in the mid 1980s, "it ain’t a party unless everyone’s invited." (5)

The desire to build a beloved and inclusive community is just one of the many wonderful qualities of Springsteen’s music. There isn’t enough room here to cover the rest of them but I will talk about one more; Springsteen’s willingness to challenge his audience. After the grandeur and majestic heights like Born to Run and Born in the USA, Springsteen has released albums that looked at much more mundane topics. Sometimes his fans responded positively and sometimes they didn’t but he stayed the course. Which is what makes the most recent tour so odd. Touring with the E-Street Band for first time in over a decade, Springsteen has played shows to packed houses for over a year now but not in support of an album of new material. "American Skin" was actually only the second new song to be heard on this tour, although Springsteen has since played two more unheard songs. Rather than new material, the reason for these concerts has been implicitly so that Springsteen can sing all the old songs that his fans want to here. The concerts have received rave reviews from both fans and critics but there has also been the sense that his day has passed and that Springsteen —a great songwriter if ever there was one- had become an oldies act. Those charges, however, lose all weight in light of "American Skin." Springsteen has once again made himself relevant.

As great of a song as "American Skin" is, it is important to point out what the song does not do.

For starters, it won’t bring more than temporary solace —if even that- to those who have personally suffered police brutality or families that have seen loved ones die at the hands of the boys in blue. Sadly, there is probably nothing up to that task.

And "American Skin" is unlikely to do much to stem the tide of beatings and shootings. Since February of last year, there have been more high profile cases that I can recall off the top of my head. There are probably dozens, if not hundreds, of additional incidents that go unreported.

It also doesn’t point the way forward. "American Skin" makes no mention of the massive protests that occurred in the wake of Diallo’s death. Nor does it mention the surge in groups fighting police brutality throughout the United States. Springsteen has historically let groups such as the Kensington Welfare Rights Union table his shows so it would be a good step if he would let anti-police brutality groups do the same. Whether or not he does this, it is in these groups that the struggle against killer and brutal cops will we waged in at least the near future.

The police may be upset by music that questions police brutality but they don’t fear it. What they fear is people rising up and saying "no more."

The real question is not how long can we wait to do this and whether or not we should wait is a no brainer. The question is, how long will we wait?

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