Live 29 May 2020 version
[Spoken intro:]
[Ken Casey:] Unbelievable! Are you kidding me? God damn it, you're making us all look old. Look at you, what are you fifty years old up there. For Christ's sake, come on man. Damn it. You're the best buddy. Hey, should we do another one?
[Bruce Springsteen:] Hell yeah, man.
[Ken Casey:] Alright. He says hell yeah, we do another one. I was thinking Bruce this time we do one of yours, okay? If uh, if you wouldn't mind. You've been gracious enough to, uh, let us join you onstage on this one. So, here we go buddy, "American Land."
| Ken Casey: | Let's go! |
| Bruce Springsteen: | Whoa! |
| Bruce Springsteen: | What is this land America, so many travel there |
| Ken Casey: | I'm going now while I'm still young, my darling meet me there |
| Bruce Springsteen: | Wish me luck my lovely, I'll send for you when I can |
| Casey and Springsteen: | And we'll make our home in the American land |
| Bruce Springsteen: | Over there the women wear silk and satin to their knees |
| Ken Casey: | And children, dear, the sweets, I hear, are growing on the trees |
| Bruce Springsteen: | Gold comes rushing out the rivers straight into your hands |
| Casey and Springsteen: | When you make your home in the American land |
| Dropkick Murphys and Springsteen: | There's diamonds in the sidewalk, the gutters lined in song |
| Dear, I hear that beer flows through the faucets all night long | |
| There's treasure for the taking, for any hard working man | |
| Who'll make his home in the American land | |
| Ken Casey: | Come on! |
| Bruce Springsteen: | I docked at Ellis Island in the city of light and spire |
| Ken Casey: | I wandered to the valley of red-hot steel and fire |
| Bruce Springsteen: | We made the steel that built the cities with the sweat of our two hands |
| Ken Casey: | We made our home in the American land |
| Dropkick Murphys and Springsteen: | There's diamonds in the sidewalk, the gutters lined in song |
| Dear, I hear that beer flows through the faucets all night long | |
| There's treasure for the taking, for any hard working man | |
| Who'll make his home in the American land | |
| Ken Casey: | ???! |
| Bruce Springsteen: | The McNicholas, the Posalskis, the Smiths, Zerillis too |
| Ken Casey: | The Blacks, the Irish, Italians, the Germans and the Jews |
| Bruce Springsteen: | They come across the water a thousand miles from home |
| Ken Casey: | With nothing in their bellies but the fire down below |
| Bruce Springsteen: | They died building the railroads, they worked to bones and skin |
| Ken Casey: | They died in fields and factories, names scattered in the wind |
| Bruce Springsteen: | They died to get here a hundred years ago, they're still dying now |
| Casey and Springsteen: | Their hands that built the country we're always trying to keep out |
| Dropkick Murphys and Springsteen: | There's diamonds in the sidewalk, the gutters lined in song |
| Dear, I hear that beer flows through the faucets all night long | |
| There's treasure for the taking, for any hard working man | |
| Who'll make his home in the American land | |
| Who'll make his home in the American land | |
| Who'll make his home in the American land | |
| Bruce Springsteen: | Whoa! |
| Ken Casey: | ???! |
| Bruce Springsteen: | Whoa. |
[Spoken outro:]
[Ken Casey:] Whoaaa! Wow, God bless your heart!
[Bruce Springsteen:] Whoa!
[Ken Casey:] Thank you very much Bruce Springsteen!
[Bruce Springsteen:] Thank you boys!
The above lyrics are for the live 29 May 2020 performance of AMERICAN LAND at Fenway Park in Boston, MA, during a remote guest appearance with Dropkick Murphys at their Streaming Outta Fenway concert. Springsteen shared lead vocals with Ken Casey and played electrical guitar.
Streaming Outta Fenway was a benefit concert by the Dropkick Murphys performed on 29 May 2020 from the infield dirt of Fenway Park with now audience in the stands. The event was streamed live on the band's social media accounts and on Sirius XM's E Street Radio channel. Donations were raised during the event to benefit Boston Resiliency Fund, Habitat For Humanity, and Feeding America.
The event was announced on 18 May 2020. "To make sure this is a night to remember, our friend Bruce Springsteen will be joining us remotely for a FENWAY DOUBLE PLAY," Dropkick Murphys wrote in their statement. "We'll play together - one of ours + one of his." Near the end of the show, Bruce Springsteen appeared on the Fenway Jumbotron, joining in remotely from Stone Hill Studio in Colts Neck, NJ. He performed two songs with the Dropkick Murphys: ROSE TATTOO and AMERICAN LAND.
"He was so all-in for that", Ken Casey told Variety about Springsteen's involvement. "It was like, 'Hey, let's ask Bruce.' Normally you wouldn't want to bother a legend like that, who has a busy schedule. But Bruce is a guy who likes to play. His schedule is open, as all of ours is now. He's always down to help."
The Dropkick Murphys, a Celtic punk band from Massachusetts, first met Bruce Springsteen in 2005 or 2006 when he attended a gig of theirs in New York. "He came back afterwards and introduced himself," Ken Casey told Rolling Stone. "We were just blown away, but we really hit it off. He's since invited us to play with him a few times."
During their Working On A Dream Tour, Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band played the TD Banknorth Garden in Boston, MA, on 22 Apr 2009. They were joined onstage by the Dropkick Murphys on GLORY DAYS and AMERICAN LAND. Then the band's guitarist, Tim Brennan, proposed onstage down on bended knee to his girlfriend Diana. Springsteen then dedicated the tour premiere of SO YOUNG AND IN LOVE to the couple, saying that "this was going to be their wedding song."
In his turn, Springsteen made a guest appearance at Dropkick Murphys' 18 Mar 2011 show at House Of Blues in Boston, MA, joining the band onstage for three songs: PEG O' MY HEART, BADLANDS (a Springsteen song that the band had covered on several occasions), and I'M SHIPPING UP TO BOSTON. He also took part of their 29 May 2020 concert at Fenway Park in Boston, MA, joining the band remotely for two songs: ROSE TATTOO and AMERICAN LAND.
Springsteen appears on two Dropkick Murphys studio tracks: PEG O' MY HEART in 2011 and ROSE TATTOO in 2013.
Ken Casey is a lifelong Springsteen fan, and his favorite Springsteen album is Darkness On The Edge Of Town. The Dropkick Murphys have covered BADLANDS live and Casey has said that the band wouldn't say no to recording an entire album as Bruce Springsteen's backing band. "Bruce, we're ready when you are," Casey told Rolling Stone in 2011.
List of available versions of AMERICAN LAND on this website:
AMERICAN LAND [Album version]